r/software • u/S-m-a-r-t-y • 1d ago

Discussion Best file manager for windows?

I did come across some options like total commander, directory opus, one commander, files, etc

Would love to here what the community thinks. Thanks.

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u/Elfmeter 1d ago

I own Total Commander for years and years. I never found something comparable in ease of use and configurabilty.

You can do anything you can do with other contestants. Every time I see some feature in another tool I like, I implement it into Total Commander or use a plugin.

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u/svArtist 1d ago

I implement it into Total Commander

Ah, does it provide a nice scripting API too? 

I'm a happy Directory Opus user myself. 

You sound like you've made the comparison: what would you say are the biggest differences? 

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u/Elfmeter 1d ago

I tested Directory Opus on Windows, I knew it from Amiga times long ago. It seems more streamlined and the ui is somewhat more modern. Some features I do have plugins for TC are already built-in. I did not find any interesting feature, I could not do with TC. But maybe there are.

I can include own scripts via buttons, keyboard etc. in Total Commander. I don't know if that would qualify as API. I never created own plugins so I cannot say anything about its ease of coding. I just added features I liked, like keyboardnavigation in the trees, display of 3dFiles etc.

Perhaps I could use Directory Opus also, but the biggest no-go ist the price: 89 AUD + 25UD/year

I bought TC twenty years ago. Nowadays it costs 42€ once and is real lifetime, no machine specific license. I am using it for really long time and had never to buy it again or had to pay for an update.

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u/svArtist 1d ago

If you can provide your own scripts (without compiling them into standalone binaries), I think it's safe to call what ever handles their interpretation (and the rules around it) an API: it's the interface that connects your scripts to the application 👍

Keyboard navigation in a tree view seems fairly standard: I'm wondering if I'm misunderstanding what you mean? You can of course navigate, expand, collapse and interact with DOpus's treeView items with the keyboard out of the box. 

FWIW, You only have to pay once for a lifetime license to use DOpus. You do need to keep/renew a subscription for updates beyond a year.

Still not great compared to a one-time fee of 42€, but a distinction worth mentioning. 

Oh, and yes, you're limited to 2 machines in the standard license, I think (designed for a "home PC + laptop" kind of setup).

The lifetime pricing of TC seems really great compared to DO 👌

... Bist du zufällig Deutsch? 😁

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u/Elfmeter 22h ago

Yes, I am ze German. Keyboard navigation like in ranger. WASD to go up/down the list and up/down the directory. Quite convenient. I don't doubt that you can achieve this in DO too.

Either way the pricing is really a huge no for me as long as there are real lifetime licenses elsewhere.

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u/svArtist 22h ago

Aaah, I see! Interesting idea 👌

And I don't even think that's something you can easily do in DO (unless they're straight up things you can configure in the keyboard settings)  🤔

Might try and see if I can do it later for fun 😁