Free Commander

[joby_toss]

FreeCommander XE 2014 (release 650) is out!

http://www.freecommander.com/fc_downl_en.htm

Thank you, Mr. Marek Jasinski and Happy New Year!

P.S. x64 version is available for donors.

[tproli]

I'm using Total Commander but always looking for a free alternative. Not for just me but to my relatives and others, so multilanguage support is important.

The best alternatives so far were
- Just Manager (missing portable file associations and archive support)
- Double Commander (almost fine, only minor glitches)
- XYplorerFree (newcomer, missing portable file associations - tried the trial version of the full version, I felt a little overcomplicated but looks powerful)

FreeCommanderXE seems the best alternative so far though I find directory listing a little sluggish sometimes but perhaps that can be tweaked. What made me a little upset is that there is an official portable version without telling that you have to create an fcStart.ini file to make it portable.

[joby_toss]

What made me a little upset is that there is an official portable version without telling that you have to create an fcStart.ini file to make it portable.

I'll post a request about that on FC's forum.

[tproli]

Thanks. I played a bit with it yesterday and
- I still find it slow. On an i5 laptop with 6 MB memory it shouldn't be sluggish when scrolling a (not too long) directory. The other file managers I mentioned can do this much smoother.
- file names with dots: with putting the Extension in a separate column, FC thinks that the second last section is also an extension and puts it on the right side of the Name column. That's quite interesting from a software that is a file manager.
- custom item colors: I tried to customize them a bit and selecting a color with a mouse was not saved. Applying a color with Enter worked in most cases but not always. Very frustrating, I was unable to set up my custom colors.

I'm afraid the first issue is not a minor bug but something more deeper.

[joby_toss]

There are some variables that FC supports that might be useful for relative paths support.

%FcSrcPath% - FC's folder, where the main .exe is located
%FcSrcDrive% - the drive where FC starts from
%FcAppDataPath% - the folder where settings are saved
%FcTempPath% - saves the current FreeCommander TEMP path.

Any idea how to incorporate them in the database entry?

[joby_toss]

Marek just updated the portable package. He included the file fcStart.ini and a new file named what_is_fcStart_ini.txt with some quick instructions. He also made available a PortableApps .paf package. Download link has been changed. I'll update the entry now.

[Midas]

@tproli: thanks for your file managers write down, it provides some needed extra guidance for anyone looking into that category...

[tproli]

There is MultiCommander which is also a good free candidate.

[Enternal]

Yeah I also find Free Commander still slow for some reason. Other than a couple issues though, I think the rewrite might actually be worth it. It seems a lot modern now too and there are certain functions that just work well.

On the other hand, in terms of free file manager, there's something about Q-Dir that I just absolutely love. It does not have all the bells and whistles of many other file managers but the thing that it does, it does it well.

MultiCommander is also a good free candidate but I think it needs more time to mature. It does not feel fun to use for some reason.

*Removed. Redundent.

[joby_toss]

Please read just couple of centimeters above: http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 999#p67999

[Enternal]

Hmm that's odd. He just did not clearly showed it on his page http://www.freecommander.com/fc_beta_en.htm so I thought they were the same files from a couple days ago. I did notice the .paf package but that was on portableapps.com and not on his own web page.

EDIT: OH! I see what was going on. I have been looking at his beta page http://www.freecommander.com/fc_beta_en.htm and not the main download page at http://www.freecommander.com/fc_downl2_en.htm

[tproli]

I tried the newest beta of Multi Commander (3.9.9 build 1600) and it is very impressive. I could customize almost everything I wanted though its configuration is little tricky. I dare to say this is the best free alternative if you need advanced features.

[Enternal]

I tried the newest beta of Multi Commander (3.9.9 build 1600) and it is very impressive. I could customize almost everything I wanted though its configuration is little tricky. I dare to say this is the best free alternative if you need advanced features.

I do have to admit that the "Take Ownership" feature is really really handy! Rather than going back to Windows Explorer and take ownership of files (which is not even possible on Home editions of Windows), you can do it all within MultiCommander.

[webfork]

Very impressed with the built-in hashing program. Does support relative, whole directory (recursive) hashing with MD5, as well as filtering by file type so you don't have to hash everything. Excellent and well-designed functionality.

Has anyone had problems with the synchronize tool? Is that a pro-only thing?

[smaragdus]

For a donation of 3 EUR you receive a download link to the 64-bit donor version (no restrictions). The link is only for one download of the version “FreeCommander XE 2015 Build 685 64-bit donor”. You have 5 days to complete your download. This donation is possible via DigitalGoodsStore only and only through the following button:
The download link will be sent to you when payment is complete.

http://freecommander.com/en/donation/

Free Commander seems to be not so free. Anyway, I never liked it very much, and more- the '2009' version works better than the 'XE', which is buggy.

I do not like developers like the one of Free Commander and years ago perhaps I would have bought the x64 version just to upload and share it but it isn't worth wasting my time. There are better alternatives which doesn't contain the word 'free' in their names but are really free, offering also a free x64 version.