IMHO, The best portable file manager - Total Commander.

[smaragdus]

Total Commander at version 9.00, there are a lot of changes:

newsletter
change log at Softpedia

I have not tested Total Commander version 9.00 for portability but I suppose that it is still portable.

[joby_toss]

Yes, same as before. Love version 9!

[CornHolio the Gringo]

When I use Total Commander in Portable mode, it does not write to register (Totcmd v8.51a)
All registry writings are made by OS, aka where You executed totcmd from.
Ive been using Total Commander since 1995 (v3.0) . Those days there was no option to make it Portable.
Total Commander is a fully operational filemanager as a shareware, the only nagg is when Ya start it,
then it tells to select button 1 through 3 to start it.
Its ALWAYS a fully operational software, so far.
I myself desided to get a lisence, so My portable version is always on My usb.
The shareware version works at any times when ported to a portable install, ony string is to choose button 1 through 3.
I speak of versions uptil 8.51a.

[NunoSilva]

* Total Commander
https://www.ghisler.com/
IMHO is the best File Manager EVER.
Have it and use it since version 6.58 (at least) and nowadays I can make it jump thru hoops.
Besides the open architecture with plugins, start menu, horizontal and vertical launch bars ... I love its portable associations that allows me to double-click a file and open it in its proper viewer or editor.
It was the best software investment I ever did!

[lintalist]

TC version 11 - download https://www.ghisler.com/download.htm

The update to 11.00 adds many new functions, see below. It also corrects many errors. Complete list of changes: https://www.ghisler.com/history1100.txt
General:

• Show searchable list of all open tabs with Ctrl+Shift+A (as in the Chrome browser) or right clicking on the rightmost edge of the tab headers
• Ignore list now supports entries for file system plugins and FTP servers (separate syntax)
• Search with "Everything": Support search in indexed subfolders
• Show full path with all parents in nested virtual folders, e.g. when accessing a phone
• Show free and total space of Android devices in the base folder
• Follow link files (*.lnk) pointing to directories relative to the current location, e.g. %WinDir%\explorer.exe ..\..\content
• Inform other Total Commander instances on the same PC when the user changes the "Start" menu or button bars
• In place rename, command line: Stop on Ctrl+Left/Right at extra non-alphanumeric characters
• Standalone Lister, search, compare and synchronize dirs can be started maximized and minimized
• New pseudo environment variable %$DATE% inserts current date and time in 24 hour format, supports template like %$DATE:YMD%
• Multi-rename tool: New placeholder [ I ] or [I1] to ignore dots in folder names: Entire name in [N], [E] is empty.

File operations:

• High speed packing and unpacking of ZIP and GZ files with modified libdeflate library
• Change compression rate for ZIP, GZ and TGZ directly in the pack dialog
• F5 copy: New overwrite mode "Rename older target files, skip newer"
• F5 copy, ftp/plugin transfers: Show transfer speed of the entire copy operation in the second progress bar when available
• File system plugins and FTP: Show new option "Finish copying the current file" when aborting copying
• Unpack ZIP files with ZSTD (by Facebook) compression
• Unpack .zst (ZSTD) and .br (BROTLI) files
• 7z.exe or 7zg.exe can now also be used as an external zip packer

Directory history:

• New style directory history list which is no longer based on a Windows menu
• Quick search and quick filter support
• Quick search in whole path by starting search strings with an asterisk
• Right click context menu support with many options like opening the directory in the other panel or a new tab
• Context menu, option to copy path to clipboard
• Context menu, option to remove entries from history
• Context menu, option to show all items when history thinning is enabled
• Keep track of most frequently used directories and show them in the directory history in addition to the history entries
• Keep list of frequently used directories synchronized between multiple Total Commander instances on the same PC
• New page "History" in the main settings dialog

Lister:

• Hex mode: highlighting in both text and hex representation of file content
• Copy the selection to the clipboard as hexadecimal characters, with Ctrl+Shift+C or via the right-click menu

Internal commands:

• cm_Copy, cm_RenMov, cm_CreateShortcut, cm_PackFiles, cm_UnpackFiles and cm_Edit support parameters to set dialog box options
• New tab commands: cm_RenameTab, cm_SetTabOption*, cm_SetAllTabsOption*, cm_OpenNewTabOther, cm_OpenNewTabBgOther
• New quick search commands: cm_QuickSearch, cm_QuickFilter, cm_QuickFilter 1 (restore last quick filter)
• New drive commands: cm_DriveContextMenu, cm_OpenDriveByIndex
• New command line commands: cm_ShowCmdLineHistory, cm_AddFileNameToCmdline, cm_AddPathAndFileNameToCmdline
• New internal command OPENBARMENU opens the passed .bar file as a dropdown menu
• Hotkeys defined via Configuration - Options - Misc now support commands with parameters
• Use internal commands in internal associations, .e.g. ***CM_LIST %1

Command line parameters in button bar/start menu:

• New parameter %y (lowercase) keeps other parameters and skips only list file parameters if the list is empty
• New parameter %a (lowercase) includes all selected files from both panels in list parameters like %L
• New parameter %|envvar| inserts environment variable envvar, e.g. %|windir| or %|$DESKTOP|

[lintalist]

v11.50 is out and v11.51 release candidates are currently being released with newly report bug fixes.
General:

• File lists: Option to show seconds in the date/time field
• File lists: Shorten date/time with "..." when the value is too long for the available space
• Folder tabs: Always scroll current tab into view when resizing main window
• Always load icons from .ico files directly instead of associated program
• Drive list (cm_OpenDrives): Show volume labels/descriptions behind drive letters
• Recycle bin (cm_OpenRecycled): Show original location of deleted files in comment view
• Thumbnails view: Show thumbnails of link (.lnk file) targets instead of link files themselves, e.g. links to photos
• Menu: Use icon defined in em_command, but only from wcmicons.dll or .ico files or from the main program, for speed reasons (virus scanners)
• Configure button bar/single button or configure internal command: New button "->.ico" to extract single icon from .exe/.dll/.icl
• Everything: Support network drives when getting folder sizes with option "Automatic, only with 'Everything'"
• Change directory via "cd" command: Append \: to go to the parent and place cursor on directory or archive
• OPENBARMENU now also works when there is no main button bar
• FTP connect dialog (Ctrl+F): File system plugins can now also be entered in the form \\\Pluginname\Path, or any directories (with drive letter or UNC path).
• New pseudo environment variables %$CLIPBOARD%, %$CLIPNAME% and %$CLIPNAME_NE% to access clipboard content, e.g. in button commands

File operations:

• Internal 7zip compression via 7zip dll (included)
• Wildcards to rename files when copying files with F5: Options to put text in front of name, or append text after name
• Packer about box (Alt+Enter on file in archive): Show which plugin opened the archive in the "Packer" field
• Open the Photos app with new command to enable previous/next buttons
• Files - Associate With: New button "Delete" sets association to "(none)"
• Synchronize dirs: Time stamps can now be copied also to file system plugins and FTP servers
• Delete files by Drag&Drop to button 'F8 Delete': Confirmation can now be turned off separately from copy confirmation

Verify checksums:

• New checkbox "Only errors" to only show lines with errors and the summary
• When verifying a checksum from the file name or clipboard, let the user choose a different checksum method if there are multiple with the same checksum size
• Ctrl+A now selects the entire list when the focus is in the list
• Verify checksums from clipboard: Support also SHA224 and SHA384

Search:

• Search for *.ext \test1\test2\ will find files in current directory plus subdirectory \test1\test2\ although test1 isn't searched
• Search for *.ext test1\test2\ will find files in current directory plus in subdirectories containing directories test1\test2\ anywhere in the path
• Standalone search started via /S=F: Extra parameter S* tells search to get the sort order from a currently running Total Commander
• Plugins tab: Entries can now be sorted manually with Ctrl cursor up/down or via sort buttons

List of open tabs (Ctrl+Shift+A):

• Option to show last visited tabs first, hotkey Ctrl+L
• Shift+Enter on recently closed tab now restores the tab, but doesn't focus it
• Configuration - Options - Folder tabs: New options "Ctrl+Tab opens as list" and "Last visited first"
• Configuration - Options - Folder tabs: New option to jump to last opened tab with Ctrl+Tab.

Lister:

• Ctrl+Mouse wheel and Ctrl+'+'/'-' now also zooms in all text modes (control via [Lister] ZoomFont=1/0)
• Ask user whether he wants to manually set a font to ASCII/DOS which does not contain the encoding
• Right click on URL starting with http://, https://, www. or alphanumeric text with at least one dot before the end selects it and shows context menu item 'Open in default browser'

Internal commands:

• OPENBAR, OPENBAR1, OPENBAR2, OPENBARMENU: New parameter * opens default bar defined for the main bar/vertical bar
• All commands starting with cm_SelectAll or cm_ClearAll now support a numeric parameter n: if not 0, select every nth file from the current position, e.g. cm_SelectAllFolders 2 -> every second folder from the cursor position
• Add 4 to parameter of the following commands to not save the change to wincmd.ini: cm_SwitchLongNames, cm_SwitchHidSys, cm_SwitchHid, cm_SwitchSys, cm_Switch83Names, cm_SwitchDirSort, cm_SwitchOverlayIcons, cm_SwitchIgnoreList, cm_SwitchX64Redirection, cm_SwitchFileTipWindows, cm_SwitchColorsByFileType, cm_ToggleAutoViewModeSwitch, cm_Vis*

Button bar/Start menu parameters:

• Parameters %S, %R, %P%S and %T%R in double quotes now support prefix/suffix text for each file

Multi-rename tool:

• Field [T4] followed by any date/time fields like [YMD] now gets EXIF date also from HEIC image files, and recording date from MP4 videos
• Placeholder [T4] now also works when creating directories (F7) or text files (Shift+F4)
• Load names from file now supports Unix line breaks

New wincmd.ini options:

• [Configuration] OldStyleHistory=1 gets back old style history as a dropdown menu without frequently used directories
• [Configuration] CopyStayOnFile=1 keeps cursor on currently active file after copying a file with Shift+F5
• [Configuration] BriefViewWidthLimitMin=0 sets minimum column width for brief view