XYplorerFree - file manager

[Midas]

XYplorer updated to v13.80.000... (http://xyplorer.com/whatsnew.php).

@webfork: please move to Submissions.

[joby_toss]

The Free version is still v13.70.0100.

[Checker]

The Free version is still v13.70.0100.

Now, it's 13.80.0100 ... and updated

[webfork]

@webfork: please move to Submissions

All set

[freakazoid]

Man, this app is so good, but the documentation isn't so great.

Did you know you can create junctions from within XYPlorer? Took me awhile to figure out and it wasn't available in their gigantic PDF doc.

To summarize, this is how you create a junction to a folder:
1. Right-click and select "Copy" on the folder you want to junction
2. Navigate to the folder where you want to create the junction
3. Right-click and select "Paste Special > Paste As Junction". This will popup a prompt allowing you to name the folder for the junction. And that's it!

[Napiophelios]

freakazoid I was hooked the first time I right-clicked an image thumbnail
and got the floating magnified preview of the image.

Really makes sifting thru an immense folder full of pictures alot quicker.
(I also love the gigantic thumbnail size option too).

[BigLeo]

I'm lost as to why you guys like this product. I find it the worst file manager I have ever used. The documentation seems like it was written by an accountant.... if you like reading strings of numbers you will probably love it. Where are all the screen shots to help you get started? For managing pictures it is terrible... any graphics program is better. So, it brings up a screen shot if you right-click a thumbnail, wow!!! It does it slowly and badly. Buy Lightroom and it is like a totally different world.

Please tell me what is so good about? I find the interface terrible. There are loads of options but none of the basic things seem to be easy to do. If you go in to set options (or which there are so many you loose the will to live!) there is no "Apply" button so if you want to just set one option to see what it does you have OK it, which exists the screen. It is like something written 20 years ago.

Even the most basic of programs have wizards for complex tasks. That happened at least 10 years ago. With this program you get nothing except masses of menu items and options. None of these seem to be in logical places and nothing helps you go through them. Try searching help and you end up with scripting syntax for the most simple of things.

I don't doubt for one minute that it is a powerful program but in every area other programs do it better and easier. I would never use this program to manage photos/images. I wouldn't use it to manage any multimedia files. I wouldn't use it to manage documents. I have so far found it offers no help in managing removable drives - it even still gives an option to show floppy drives... anyone use those in 2014? I have probably 50 flash drives and it would be nice if it remembered the drives I used. Other programs do this but if XYplorer does I have failed to find it.

Does it have an FTP client built-in, an FTP server? If it does I sure can't find anything about it. Try typing FTP into the help search and see if it helps you anymore than it helped me.

In 2014 I want a file manager that integrates with today's world. I expect to be able to run Powershell scripts with an interface that knows what Powershell is. I want to be able to run remote SSH commands direct from the interface. I want it to know what other machines I have on my network, remember how I access them and what I have on them. I want to set security profiles and have it run through my file system telling me where I have files that don't match my criteria. I want a file manager that gives me a great view on where my space is being used. I want great sync and backup functions built-in to my file manager so that I can do a restore directly from my file manager. I want a file manager that reports on failures in my drives and warns me when they are about to fail. CrystalDiskInfo does this and it is totally free.

I'm not saying XYplorer can't do any of these things but I have searched the help and the only search answers I get are about it's scripting capability. My response to that is "you cannot be serious". With any number of freely available "Open Standard" scripting languages around (Powershell, Perl, Python to name just a few) why on earth would anyone be so stupid and learn a new scripting language for a program that may not even exist in a years time. And, all of those scripting languages are way more powerful. Learn them and you have learned a valuable skill. Learn XYplorer scripting and you may be lucky if it achieves anything remotely useful by comparison and it won't be a fun experience. They all have powerful (free) development environments where as XYplorer gives a prompt saying Enter Script and click okay. No language sensitive editor with color highlighting and built-in debuggers.

Even the basics just don't seem to be there. A simple list of drives, a folders list and a preview pain. How basic can that be? I can get a preview pane at the bottom of the screen but I have not found a way of getting it to display where I want it - on the right-hand side. Most image management programs do this by default, without the need to right-click an image. It just works! Even WIndows Explorer does it!

So, please guys tell me what is so good about this program?

[Napiophelios]

Really? You had to single me out cuz I spoke up about the one feature it has that I like?

SheezeLouise follow me thru the woods around the big tree to the left just past the little mole-hill
then look to the north west at six o'clock and you'll see that neon sign just up ahead that says
go fuck yourself and write your own code you long winded jerk

I'm lost as to why you guys like this product. I find it the worst file manager I have ever used. The documentation seems like it was written by an accountant.... if you like reading strings of numbers you will probably love it. Where are all the screen shots to help you get started? For managing pictures it is terrible... any graphics program is better. So, it brings up a screen shot if you right-click a thumbnail, wow!!! It does it slowly and badly. Buy Lightroom and it is like a totally different world.

Please tell me what is so good about? I find the interface terrible. There are loads of options but none of the basic things seem to be easy to do. If you go in to set options (or which there are so many you loose the will to live!) there is no "Apply" button so if you want to just set one option to see what it does you have OK it, which exists the screen. It is like something written 20 years ago.

Even the most basic of programs have wizards for complex tasks. That happened at least 10 years ago. With this program you get nothing except masses of menu items and options. None of these seem to be in logical places and nothing helps you go through them. Try searching help and you end up with scripting syntax for the most simple of things.

I don't doubt for one minute that it is a powerful program but in every area other programs do it better and easier. I would never use this program to manage photos/images. I wouldn't use it to manage any multimedia files. I wouldn't use it to manage documents. I have so far found it offers no help in managing removable drives - it even still gives an option to show floppy drives... anyone use those in 2014? I have probably 50 flash drives and it would be nice if it remembered the drives I used. Other programs do this but if XYplorer does I have failed to find it.

Does it have an FTP client built-in, an FTP server? If it does I sure can't find anything about it. Try typing FTP into the help search and see if it helps you anymore than it helped me.

In 2014 I want a file manager that integrates with today's world. I expect to be able to run Powershell scripts with an interface that knows what Powershell is. I want to be able to run remote SSH commands direct from the interface. I want it to know what other machines I have on my network, remember how I access them and what I have on them. I want to set security profiles and have it run through my file system telling me where I have files that don't match my criteria. I want a file manager that gives me a great view on where my space is being used. I want great sync and backup functions built-in to my file manager so that I can do a restore directly from my file manager. I want a file manager that reports on failures in my drives and warns me when they are about to fail. CrystalDiskInfo does this and it is totally free.

I'm not saying XYplorer can't do any of these things but I have searched the help and the only search answers I get are about it's scripting capability. My response to that is "you cannot be serious". With any number of freely available "Open Standard" scripting languages around (Powershell, Perl, Python to name just a few) why on earth would anyone be so stupid and learn a new scripting language for a program that may not even exist in a years time. And, all of those scripting languages are way more powerful. Learn them and you have learned a valuable skill. Learn XYplorer scripting and you may be lucky if it achieves anything remotely useful by comparison and it won't be a fun experience. They all have powerful (free) development environments where as XYplorer gives a prompt saying Enter Script and click okay. No language sensitive editor with color highlighting and built-in debuggers.

Even the basics just don't seem to be there. A simple list of drives, a folders list and a preview pain. How basic can that be? I can get a preview pane at the bottom of the screen but I have not found a way of getting it to display where I want it - on the right-hand side. Most image management programs do this by default, without the need to right-click an image. It just works! Even WIndows Explorer does it!

So, please guys tell me what is so good about this program?

[freakazoid]

Granted, it's not the most user-friendly and well-documented app, but it's quite powerful under the hood. At the end of the day, you're complaining about something that's free and coded for free. bigleo, you want to help make it better? Help the guy who writes the app with support and documentation.

If you want to use something more user-friendly, use CubicExplorer.

[Enternal]

I don't think I would take BigLeo very seriously. Although the comment on the documentation is partially true (it can definitely be improved but it's not as bad as it's made out to be), the rest seems... odd. If I take Directory Opus, xplorer2, and XYplorer, none of them would have all the features that BigLeo stated that he/she would want in a so called "modern file manager". Furthermore the comment on "Even the basics just don't seem to be there. A simple list of drives, a folders list and a preview pain." is ridiculous since XYplorerFree has all that. "I want a file manager that reports on failures in my drives and warns me when they are about to fail. CrystalDiskInfo does this and it is totally free" is also stupid since he/she said that they're using CrystalDiskInfo to do that so... which file managers right now offer that feature?

Plus that this is leo's first post and it's to drag XYplorerFree down this much. There's also the name "BigLeo" which is very similar to "leo", a moderator, from Directory Opus's forum. However that's just a conjecture so I don't know.

[Midas]

@Enternal: thanks for sharing your insight, it does shine a light on that puzzling first post...

[webfork]

This response took way too long but ...

I don't think I would take BigLeo very seriously.

The only way I could see that post as legitimate would be if everyone was saying wonderful things about the program and BigLeo were setting the record straight about a program that really belongs in the beta stage. However, I went back through the thread and looked at everyone's comments and no one is exactly singing it's praises. It's all cautious optimism about something that's clearly in progress.

I have seen a few people who just can't handle a program that doesn't match their own weirdly high expectations, even though it's free. However, for the length and overt distaste I'd throw this into the troll category. So many of his criteria would make even my favorite file manager CubicExplorer look bad.

you'll see that neon sign just up ahead that says go fuck yourself and write your own code you long winded jerk

lol

[loin2kolpotoru]

How to close/remove the my computer tree?

[freakazoid]

So, I got XYplorer Pro via the Giveaway of The Day thread (thanks to Onesimus Prime for posting about this!) and I was trying for figure out how Portable File Associations work.

This is another example of where XYplorer's UI/documentation is lacking or not clear.

You would expect that going to Tools - Customize File Associations would allow you to set up file associations so when you double-click an item, it will open in that program. Well, that does work, but you have to toggle another setting in another UI afterwards.

Once you've set up your Portable File Associations, you have to find the Open With toolbar button and right-click the button.
After right-clicking the Open With toolbar button, you have to select Open Items by First 'Open with...' Match. This will, then, enable double-clicking to work with Portable File Associations.

Took me literally hours to figure this out! This option should be located under the Tools - Customize File Associations window.

Even though this is a Pro feature, I thought I'd post about this here.

[freakazoid]

freakazoid I was hooked the first time I right-clicked an image thumbnail
and got the floating magnified preview of the image.

Really makes sifting thru an immense folder full of pictures alot quicker.
(I also love the gigantic thumbnail size option too).

I didn't know what you were referring to until now!

So this goodie is available in the Free version. It's called Mouse Down Blow Up.

If you're not already using this feature, I would recommend going to Tools - Configuration - Preview - Mouse Down Blow Up.

Next, under On Thumbnails and Icons, check everything and hit OK.

Now, navigate to a folder with an image and right-click on the image icon. The image should pop up! This is most useful when previewing animated GIFs as the default Windows Photo Viewer does not work with animated GIFs.

Nice! Now I can eliminate Irfanview from my portable apps!