Best free file managers
Free utility compares two Microsoft Word documents
Users often have a need to identify the differences between two Microsoft Word documents. This can be easily done within Word itself, provided that the documents are just different versions and have been written with the Word "Track changes" feature enabled. If this is not the case, then you need a third party program to do the job.
There are many free programs that can compare different files and flag changes, but almost all of these work only with plain text files and can't handle the complex structure of .doc files. You need a special program that's specifically designed to compare Word document files.
There are plenty of commercial programs that will do the job, some of which cost hundreds of dollars, but I've never seen a decent free program. Until now, that is.
Subscriber Scott Youngman recently wrote in to tell me about a free Word comparison program called CSDiff. I was initially skeptical, but after fully testing the product I've changed my mind. This is a most impressive free product that does the job as well as many commercial utilities.
Usage is simple: just nominate the two Word files to be compared and hit the OK button. CSDiff then starts up Word and displays a third document with all additions, deletions and format changes clearly shown using the usual Word "Track changes" notation. For example, additions are shown in red type while deletions are shown in blue overwritten by strike-out characters. You can then edit this document and save the changes to a new file.
Options include the ability to do the comparison by letter, by word or by line, as well as various ways of handling whitespace. You can have line numbers if you wish and you also have the option of showing only changed lines.
As a bonus, CSDiff can also compare two folders rather than two documents.
All up, there is everything here you need to compare Word documents. And it's free.
Freeware, All Windows Versions but needs Microsoft Word, 1.34MB
http://www.componentsoftware.com/Products/CSDiff/index.htm
Free add-ons teach Windows Explorer new tricks
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By
Scott Dunn
You can choose from dozens of file managers to replace Windows Explorer — some of them are even free — but only the original is so closely integrated into the OS. Before you give Explorer the boot, check out some first-rate add-ons that turn Windows' tired file browser into the information manager of the future. |
It's time to go beyond files and folders
You can find plenty of good replacements for Windows Explorer online. For example, in his Sept. 20, 2007, column, Woody Leonhard recently recommended Xplorer2. But few match the convenience of having a file manager that is built into the operating system.
Rather than trying to find your ideal file manager at the downloads store, I suggest you mend it, not end it. You can give Windows Explorer most of the tools and abilities found in the video preview simply by installing a handful of free or low-cost Explorer extensions.
Give Explorer more file-management muscle
Here are some of my favorite tools for souping up the Explorer you already have.
Give your dialog boxes more reach. The one freeware utility I recommend over all others is FileBox eXtender. Not only does the program enhance Explorer, it also improves common Open and Save As dialog boxes and other interface elements.
FileBox eXtender's pop-up menu lists the last several folder locations you opened. You can also view a list of your favorite files or folders and resize dialog boxes so they always open at your preferred dimensions.
In addition to file management chores, FileBox eXtender adds a stay-on-top button to every window's title bar, as well as a button to "roll up" the window — just like a real window shade — until only its title bar is visible.
Add breadcrumbs to XP's folder paths. If you're using Windows XP, you may need a few add-ons to update that OS's version of Explorer to match Vista's file manager.
An example is Vista's "breadcrumb" style of displaying folder paths. Click any folder name in the path to navigate back to that folder instantly. Click one of the arrows separating folder names to see a pop-up menu of subfolders to navigate the other direction.
Explorer Breadcrumbs from Minimalist lets you add an Explorer toolbar with this same feature to Windows XP, 2003, or 2000.
In Vista, breadcrumbs replace the previous path notation in the address bar (click to the right of the path to see and select the old style). But since Explorer Breadcrumbs simply adds a new toolbar, you can keep both path styles visible in your Explorer windows at once, if you wish.
The program won't nag you, but the developers ask that you register the product for U.S. $8 if you decide to hold onto it.
Keep tabs on your open windows. If your screen is cluttered with Explorer windows, consider replacing them with tabs similar to those in Internet Explorer 7. Giving your windows tabs would let you switch from one folder location to another with a single click or by pressing Ctrl, Tab.
That's the idea behind QTTabBar. It took me a while to figure out how to use the program to create a new tab. (One way is to right-click a tab and choose "Clone this.") Once you get the hang of the tab-creation process, however, the program becomes very handy.
In addition to the tab toolbar, you can show or hide a toolbar for managing the tabs themselves. Since all of that toolbar's features are also found on the context menu for the tabs, you can save space by turning that option off and right-clicking the tabs instead.
QTTabBar also pops up a menu of objects in a folder when you click the tab's icon. The program's Options dialog includes plenty of customization choices.
You can download QTTabBar for free at the moment, but the program's status as freeware is not well documented.
Make new folders faster. Creating a new folder for organizing your data is one of the most common file management chores — so common that Windows has a button for it in common file dialog boxes like Open and Save As. But Explorer makes you dig into a submenu on the context menu or File menu for this common task.
For a quick and easy solution, download and install bxNewFolder. This simple utility adds a New Folder button to Explorer's existing Standard Buttons toolbar, so there's no new toolbar to take up space. Just click it (or press F12) and type a name to create a new folder in the current location.
The Create New Folder dialog box also includes a history of recently used folder names. Press Enter to finish up, or Shift+Enter to finish and open the new folder with one fell swoop.
Maximize your viewing and connectivity options
Add a third folder window to Explorer. I haven't yet found a tool that gives Windows Explorer side-by-side or stacked folder views in a single window. But FolderBox from BAxBEx Software comes close.
FolderBox lets you open a pane in an Explorer or folder window by clicking View, Explorer Bar, FolderBox. This pane, or FolderBox, works like an added folder window within Explorer.
Your new folder window comes with some handy navigation controls as well as buttons for bookmarking up to five of your favorite folder locations. Of course, you can drag and drop files between FolderBox and other parts of the Explorer window for convenient copying and moving. Best of all, the program is free!
Convert your FTP servers into folders. Explorer has My Computer (or Computer in Vista) for accessing your local drives directly and My Network Places (which Vista calls Network) for opening network locations. Wouldn't it be nice to access FTP locations in Explorer just as easily?
That's the idea behind My FTP Places. The program adds an eponymous icon to My Computer, after which any FTP locations you set up appear nested underneath this icon. This lets you copy files to, remove files from, and otherwise manage your FTP sites as if they were folders on your computer.
Unfortunately, integrating FTP with Explorer comes at a price. My FTP Places is free for your first 50 connections, but after that you need to pay a $40 registration fee.
If you don't mind doing your FTP chores from a separate program, there are plenty of free alternatives. One of the most favorably reviewed is the open-source FileZilla.
Size up your folders in a jiffy. The best free Explorer plugin for viewing folder sizes is, appropriately enough, Folder Size. This freebie adds columns to Explorer's Details view that total up the size of each folder in the list.
Folder Size also shows columns that display the number of files and the number of objects (files plus folders) in the selected folder. Although the scans the program performs to collect the size information can take time, the utility's overall performance on my sort-of-new XP machine was good. (Folder Size does not run on Vista systems.)
If you need a more detailed and graphical way of tracking down your disk hogs and don't care about integrating the information into Explorer, TreeSize Free is a no-cost, standalone tool that ferrets out the space hogs on your system.
Of course, there's plenty you can do to tweak your file and folder settings in Explorer itself. In a future column, I'll describe how to add features and customizations to Windows Explorer without having to download or install any add-ons at all.
Scott Dunn is associate editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He has been a contributing editor of PC World since 1992 and currently writes for the Here's How section of that magazine.
Another excellent free file manager
When I recently asked subscriber Jim Campbell to prepare a comparative review of Windows Explorer replacements, he was stopped in his tracks by Free Commander. He was so impressed that he abandoned the comparative review and wrote a review [2] on Free Commander instead. I agree with Jim that it's a nice product, but I find the Norton Commander style interface old fashioned. I also miss having inbuilt file viewers. That said, I'm aware that a whole group of users swear by Free Commander. It's free so why not read Jim's review [2] and check it out yourself? Freeware, Windows 2000-Vista, 2.16MB
[1] http://www.freecommander.com/
[2] http://www.techsupportalert.com/review-free-commander.htm
Web site identifies mystery files
Usually you can identify the program you need to open a file by the file type, but what if it hasn't got one? This free service allows you to upload the file and have it identified. I tied it with a PDF file with the .pdf extension removed and it worked just fine. Thanks to subscriber Christian Dorfmair for the suggestion.
http://mark0.net/onlinetrid.aspx
Best free file manager
My long time recommendation has been xplorer² [1] however I've been using another product called XYPlorer [2] for the last few weeks and have concluded that it may be even better.
It's not a two pane manager like xplorer² but rather uses a tabbed view which is both more flexible and more powerful. It's packed with features such as batch rename, address bar search, a filter that takes wildcards, colored visual filters, multiple views and a highly configurable and extremely useful "new items" menu. Its killer feature though is the file search which just has to be one of the most powerful in the business and it's really fast, too.
When you start using the product you'll discover lots of additional hidden gems like the ability to copy a directory tree structure without the files or the ability to print a directory. Indeed, after a month of use I'm still discovering new features and usage tricks.
XYPlorer is clearly aimed to meet the needs of advanced users and succeeds brilliantly. Xplorer² however is still a better choice for average users who will be overwhelmed by XYPlorer's power.
XYPlorer was free but on the 21 March 2006 it morphed to shareware. However, the last free version is still available from the vendor's site [3] and various freeware sites [4].
[1] http://zabkat.com/x2lite.htm All Windows versions, Free for private use, 867KB
[2] http://www.xyplorer.com
[3] http://www.xyplorer.com/download/xyplorer_full_lfv.zip All Windows versions, Free for private use, 633KB
[4] http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/2006/PL2006FILEUTILITIES.php#FileManager
The best free duplicate file detector
I must confess that I'm not a great fan of the practice of routinely deleting duplicate files from PCs. Sure it can free up some disk space but it can also get inexperienced users into a great deal of trouble. There are quite a few duplicate file detection utilities around but CloneSpy is the one that impresses me the most. It's certainly not the fastest program in its class but it's definitely the smartest. First, you can specifically select what is to be scanned and this can include multiple drives, multiple folders or just individual folders. Second, it has the ability to detect duplicates by CRC, by file name, by CRC and file name and by file name and size. Third, it will also detect zero length files. Fourth, the program does not need to be installed but can be run from the executable so it's a good candidate for your USB Flash drive toolkit. Finally, it throws up duplicates to the user in a way that at least makes you think about what you are deleting. Click-happy users may find this latter feature an annoyance; to me it's a safety feature. Safety feature or not, please read the help file and use with care. In particular do NOT include your Windows folder in your scan unless you are a knowledgeable technical user. Freeware, Windows 98 and later, 608KB.
http://www.clonespy.com/cms/index.php
A new way to delete un-deletable files
Every Windows user has encountered the annoying situation where they try to delete a file and Windows says it can't be deleted because it's "in use by another program or person," or something similar.
There are lots of ways around this but many folks, me included, have chosen to use a free utility called MoveOnBoot that deletes the file or folder on the next reboot.
But I've just discovered a better utility called Unlocker that will try to free up the locked file (or folder) without rebooting.
I say "try" because Unlocker can't always release the file in which case a reboot may still be required. However, it works most of the time and this is a huge convenience.
Unlocker works as an explorer shell extension. To release a locked file you just right click on the file and select Unlocker from the context menu. Unlocker will then guide you through the rest of the process.
You can optionally install an assistant that will automatically popup the Unlocker dialog when you try to delete or rename a locked file. I advise against this; who really wants another program running on your PC when all it saves you is a single right click?
Unlocker does a great job; in two weeks of use it performed flawlessly. It takes about 5-10 seconds to work but this sure beats rebooting your PC.
Free for private and commercial use though donations are encouraged, Windows 2000 and later, 182KB.
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/