Virtual file and folder organization (local device bookmarks)

[webfork]

Background

It may sound odd but one of the things keeping me on Windows is a drag-and-drop friendly file, folder, and link manager that works like a smart local bookmarking system. Essentially what's contained in CubicExplorer's (now about 8 years old) favorites menu. I find it absolutely indispensable, and CubicExplorer is my portable launcher of choice, in addition to being a file manager. The customizability and the transparency this program delivers is hard to replace:

This is my view of my desktop

I've looked into some options to possibly restart development but that doesn't seem to be happening. Worse, it's possible that some future Windows update is going to kill the drag-and-drop functionality like what happened with ExcelPass. So I've decided to spend some time on some tools that come close.


Alternatives

• Freeplane - Mindmap program supports drag-and-drop (local file management)
• FreeCommanderXE - actively developed and comes close to what I'm looking for in many areas, but is missing some flexibility.
• Asuite launcher - Launcher programs like this one are definitely an option, but sometimes linking to non-executable files or direct links to folders can be confusing for these programs. Asuite in particular seems to have an issue where it dumps file icons, which as put me off it's use.
• Dashy - discussed here
• StorURL - it's for webpages only, but it's also solid local bookmark manager that works independent of browsers.

I'll try to keep this up to date as I continue digging around this topic, but it's notable that only one of these programs are cross-platform (Freeplane). If anyone knows of a program along these lines, please post.


New development

It's been on my todolist for a long time to find someone that's willing to take over the CubicExplorer project. Discussions with one dev seemed to dissolve because some of the key libraries would need to get moved to FreePascal, which is a task all it's own. Anyway, it doesn't have to be specifically a fork or restart of CubicExplorer. I've listed some basic requirements so if anyone knows someone looking for a project, I'd be glad to help out.


Requirements

• Minimum
  
  • Drag and drop add, rearrange/modify, and add to other items as a sub-group
  • Allows both virtual and actual folder branches (meaning you can create a root folder that's either just a box to put stuff in or links to an actual folder)
  • Similar to the above requirement, any item can be the root of a tree object, whether a web link, folder, virtual folder, etc.
  Ideal
  
  • Cross-platform with an open license
  • Low resource usage - really just addressing the tendency towards 400 meg monsters for a calculator program.
  • Portable with optional relative file linking (so ..\programname.exe and not c:\temp\programname.exe

[lintalist]

Have a look at XYplorer Free

Paper Folders: Paper Folders are a ground-breaking new implementation of virtual folders. Fast, light-weight, easy-to-use, portable. You can have as many as you want, and you will want many.

Paper Folders can be used just like normal folders in virtually all contexts in XYplorer: You can bookmark them, search them, filter them, branch view them, tag their items, generate reports on them, copy their stuff, paste stuff into them, drag stuff into them, color their contents, customize their icons, cache their thumbnails, show custom columns for them, save their folder view settings, etc.

The crucial difference to normal folders is: They can contain items from all over your system, a hand-picked selection of file and folders. And they take up almost no space and not a single byte is copied to "fill" them since internally they are just lists of pointers to items.

Technically, Paper Folders are simple text files that contain the full paths to items, one per line. The files are formatted as UTF-16LE and located by default under the application data folder in the subfolder "Paper". You can open and edit them in every editor. It's just a plain list of items.

Functionally, Paper Folders are comparable to so-called Drop Stacks.

...

The easiest way to populate an existing Paper Folder is by dragging or pasting files into it. Paper Folders are automatically saved behind the scenes, you don't have to care about this.

Note that you can have as many Paper Folders as you like. The Breadcrumb Bar offers fast access to them.

Screenshot

[lintalist]

As the paper folders mentions "Drop Stacks" above, some "stack" options (different to what you're looking for) - untested, just found them, no doubt many more available

• https://github.com/pawelt/stacky
• https://github.com/joedf/stahky (inspired by above prg but in AutoHotkey)
• https://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Sys ... acks.shtml
• https://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-E ... tack.shtml

[lintalist]

Untested but you may try it:
Double Commander - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4648 - supports Total Commander plugins, it may support Virtual Panels - https://totalcmd.net/plugring/virtualpanel.html

VirtualPanel is a temporary panel plugin for Total Commander. It is is a sort of virtual folder that allows keeping links to frequently used files and accessing them as if they were real files and not just links. It doesn't store any files, it only keeps links to them in special list files.
You can use VP as a temporary place for files that should be copied to some other place. Also you can use it for organizing media libraries and for other needs. You can even set up some folder for collecting files from multiple folders on your PC.

From what I understand the Paper Folders of XYplorer are more flexible, but it all depends on your preferred file manager/solution of course.
(I use TC myself but I'm not using VirtualPanel)

[webfork]

Paper Folders of XYplorer are more flexible, but it all depends on your preferred file manager/solution of course. (I use TC myself but I'm not using VirtualPanel)

I'm really overwhelmed -- thanks very much for all your suggestions, lintalist. I haven't come back to test them yet, but I did manage to find another one to add to the list: Pinner. It has already been mentioned in these forums, but I understood to be just a launcher program. I happened to come across an old link that mentioned support for organizing files, links, and folders.