Productivity Hacks: xplorer2 IN , Windows Explorer OUT

One of the applications that I can't live without is xplorer2. It is a replacement for Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer itself is coming of age and not improved for some time therefore provided an opportunity for third-party replacements. In this brief review I'll look into the main features of xplorer2 which saves me a lot of time.

What is xplorer2?

"xplorer² is a file and information manager that adheres to the philosophy "efficiency through simplicity". Without reinventing the wheel, it integrates the best features of Windows' shell architecture in a small, resource efficient package that's instantly familiar to work with. But look a little closer and you'll discover a whole new world under the surface that offers power, precision and flexibility, and will boost your everyday productivity no end! "
Pasted from <http://zabkat.com/>

In addition to the shareware version, there is also a lite version which is available for free.

Lets see how I use this application to enhance my productivity.

Here is the main window of the application. You can see that it consists of three panes as opposed to two in the windows explorer. With having two dedicated panes for browsing it is much more easier to compare directories and searching files.

On the left, you can see the traditional tree view for the drives. I personally keep it hidden because you can do most of the stuff in the list views.
TIP: Use Ctrl+T shortcut to quickly view/hide the tree view.

In addition to the two panes for listing directories, you can open additional directories within each panes as seen in the above image. This alone saves me from opening many explorer windows and keeping my taskbar clean.

a) Saving Layout:
The xplorer2 application remembers your last configuration automatically. Therefore you don't need to worry about keeping a list of directories you want to work every morning you come into work. See, it can easily save you some time and effort.

Apart from the default layout that it remembers, you can create and save different layouts for different tasks. I have different layouts for working on dev machine, working on deployment or other similar tasks. The key is to keep the number of windows in a pane to minimal and then save different layouts for specialized tasks. This way, whenever I have to do the deployment I don’t need to remember the different directories or folders. It is just a couple of mouse clicks and here I have my customized layout.

b) Multiple Renaming:
You simply can't do multiple renaming in windows explorer. It's not possible so either you have to go to the command console and use the rename command or use some explorer extension for this task. (Sorry for this misinformation, you can do multiple renaming in Windows Explorer. Although there is more to just renaming in xplorer2). See Stefan Dobrev comment.

With xplorer2, it is as simple as selecting the files and then use File->Mass rename.

c) Quick Edit/Preview:
With the traditional windows explorer, it is always cumbersome to open a file for editing or even previewing it. You can use the following registry trick to add NotePad2 in the context menu but even then it takes a couple of clicks every time you need to open a file.

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PowerUserWindowsRegistryTweaks.aspx

And this trick simply don’t work with files of any other format ( as image files). The other reason is that us geeks prefer keyboard to a mouse :). With xplorer2, it is as simple as
- F4 if you need to edit file
- F3 if you want to open it in read-only mode.
- Ctrl+Q for preview as shown below

Although xplorer2 comes with a default viewer but I changed mine to Notepad2 as it supports syntax highlighting.

d) Group Selection / Visual Filter:
This is also one of those feature which you can't do with traditional windows explorer. Just imagine a scenario where you have more than 100 files of different file types in a directory and you are only interested in a particular file type. What would you do in that case?
- Go to Command console and use the move command to filter all these files.
- Manually select each file and copy/process that file.
- Or simple use xplorer2 and then either Mark->Select group to select these files or View->Visual Filter->Wild Card to hide all the other files. Isn't it great?

Group selection

Visual Filter when applied on the same directory as above

e) Folder Synchronization:
Now here is one feature for which you would easily buy a separate application. To synchronize between directories so that you know what files/directories are different by modification dates/file contents etc.

Believe me or not, this is the coolest thing that I found in xplorer2.

f) Other useful features:

1. Free drive space: This may go unnoticed but it saves me a lot of time.

2. Sub Folder size:

3. Split/Merge file: A time-saver if you work with huge files. It saves me some time when I had to email a big file (30 MB) to gmail.

4. Copy names/Directory Listings: I use it all the time. Alt+C is the shortcut and once you get used to it you won't get back to typing the whole directory name.

5. File text in file: Mark->Containing text or Ctrl+G (Shorcut)

g) Remembering the shortcuts:
To me, this is the key. The more you remember shortcuts in an application, more you save time.

- F8: New Folder
- F7: New File
- F5: Copy to
- F6: Move to
- F10: Run DOS Command
- F3: Open file in read-only mode
- F4: Edit file

Final thoughts:
Excellent application. No objections especially when there is a lite version. I only touched the features that I mostly used but there is a lot more to explore for your likings. For me, I feel frustrated when I sit with someone struggling with Windows Explorer.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the company behind xplorer2.