Editor's Review:
by FrostApps team on 2010-04-23 15:59:04
Version reviewed: XYplorer 9.00.0200
Version reviewed: XYplorer 9.00.0200
Windows explorer or not it's your choice when it comes to organizing and maintaining files across your hard drive. If not, luckily there are lots of programs out there with the simplicity of Windows explorer and top-level, enhanced built-in functions ready to help you enhance your browsing experience. Again, it's up to you whether you'll take advantage of additional features or decide to stick with commonly used windows explorer.
XYplorer comes as a versatile, feature-rich file manager primarily designed to meet the needs of everyone, to be suitable for both novices and more experienced users. Even more, it is totally independent, portable file manager which makes it an ideal solution for USB drive. With plenty of options for viewing and working with files available, which are very easy to adapt to and highly customizable panes, XYplorer has almost all you expected to see in an advanced file explorer.
For easy navigation from one folder to another on the left side of main screen tree-view is displayed containing all locations on your HDD, which represents the way of browsing that Windows explorer stands for. On the other hand, for all of you who think Copy/paste option is "too much effort to make", XYplorer supports dual panel view which will allow you to work in two different areas of your HDD, easily moving/copying files between folders. When it comes to dual panel view developer made sure that this option is suitable for a wide variety of people, allowing horizontal and vertical view. In addition, for both panes, of course if needed, you can add as many tabs as you want with a simple double click on the active one or CTRL-t. This can drastically speed up your work, allowing you to work with several locations at same time. As any other part of the application these tabs are fully customizable too, you can rename them, hide them, lock them and much more.
Something new in XYplorer is Catalog option, which is specially designed to be alternative to the classic treeview. It is something really refreshing, in the sense it gives you untied hands to create your own folder tree by adding the elements yourself. Each element represent one location on HDD that you can access even quicker and with less effort. You can organize folders as you want, simply by moving them up and down with the mouse pointer. Also adding a new one could be a "piece of cake", you can simply drag and drop folder directly to desired category if you are annoyed with the fact that path for each folder must be typed individually.
Even more under the Catalog option it brings you the opportunity to create view filters for specific file types. Meaning, if you want to view only a certain image format among all existing stored on the HDD, all you have to do is to add a new item in a category and create action script (for example |*.jpg;*.bmp) into the location field. The file filter is applied only until you move to a different location either through the tree-view or the Catalog.
In addition, you can get even more speed by configuring hotkeys to carry out all copying and moving operations that you need. More experienced users are not forgotten here, for them or any other enthusiasts XYplorer features automate tasks using the program's scripting feature. Basically here you can write you own custom set/s of commands, and trigger them anytime by hotkeys. Also you can search files, color-code file names and add comments, compare files, enable the showing of hidden drives, files and folders, create lists of favorite files and folders, and much more. The final list of options is huge, however all of the options are easy to understand and XYplorer really does not lack functionality whatsoever.
Just to cover all we need to mention by no means less important Info Panel(Window/Show Info Panel) that brings except all the information you'll ever need about a selected file, certainly inevitable search function. However, this is not an ordinary search function, single-handedly and by all means this is the most comprehensive search we have ever seen in such tools. There are three types of search available including Standard, Boolean and Regular Expressions that also support Match case, Whole words, Fuzzy(a certain degree of difference is tolerated), Invert(everything that does not match the search term) and path(full path name) filtering. You can Include subfolders(default), Follow folder links, Select locations, use wildcards, configure filters (name, size, attributes, contents and excluded folders) and even search items by tags and comments. Definitely XYplorer can peek into the deepest parts of your HDD and bring you whatever you are looking for with no effort whatsoever. The only problem here is while search is on you cannot do a thing since if you move from the search position you'll immediately stop the operation.
For users who find any of the above specified functions, for some reason, confusing XYplorer has detailed built in help file implemented, fully equipped with all the information that you need. Just pick contents and Index from help menu from the top and you are ready to go step by step.
As for the looks, nothing has changed since our first review (ver.8.60.0100) everything except small icons on the top of the application looks average, definitely like some default windows skin, there are no shiny buttons or fancy hovers, just tabs and nothing more. Yes, we are aware of the fact this is file explorer, doesn't have to be tuned like some graphic viewer for example, however we would like to see some nice graphic which corresponds the functionality with the quality.
The bottom line is, XYplorer is extremely easy to use, highly customizable tool with tons of options, it works at high speed, we cannot neglect its efficiency and we did not see any big drawback on its functionality. Consequently and because of its simplicity and intelligibility XYplorer is truly suitable replacement for Windows Explorer. We recommend this tool to all users seeking a new way to manage files across HDD.
XYplorer comes as a versatile, feature-rich file manager primarily designed to meet the needs of everyone, to be suitable for both novices and more experienced users. Even more, it is totally independent, portable file manager which makes it an ideal solution for USB drive. With plenty of options for viewing and working with files available, which are very easy to adapt to and highly customizable panes, XYplorer has almost all you expected to see in an advanced file explorer.
For easy navigation from one folder to another on the left side of main screen tree-view is displayed containing all locations on your HDD, which represents the way of browsing that Windows explorer stands for. On the other hand, for all of you who think Copy/paste option is "too much effort to make", XYplorer supports dual panel view which will allow you to work in two different areas of your HDD, easily moving/copying files between folders. When it comes to dual panel view developer made sure that this option is suitable for a wide variety of people, allowing horizontal and vertical view. In addition, for both panes, of course if needed, you can add as many tabs as you want with a simple double click on the active one or CTRL-t. This can drastically speed up your work, allowing you to work with several locations at same time. As any other part of the application these tabs are fully customizable too, you can rename them, hide them, lock them and much more.
Something new in XYplorer is Catalog option, which is specially designed to be alternative to the classic treeview. It is something really refreshing, in the sense it gives you untied hands to create your own folder tree by adding the elements yourself. Each element represent one location on HDD that you can access even quicker and with less effort. You can organize folders as you want, simply by moving them up and down with the mouse pointer. Also adding a new one could be a "piece of cake", you can simply drag and drop folder directly to desired category if you are annoyed with the fact that path for each folder must be typed individually.
Even more under the Catalog option it brings you the opportunity to create view filters for specific file types. Meaning, if you want to view only a certain image format among all existing stored on the HDD, all you have to do is to add a new item in a category and create action script (for example |*.jpg;*.bmp) into the location field. The file filter is applied only until you move to a different location either through the tree-view or the Catalog.
In addition, you can get even more speed by configuring hotkeys to carry out all copying and moving operations that you need. More experienced users are not forgotten here, for them or any other enthusiasts XYplorer features automate tasks using the program's scripting feature. Basically here you can write you own custom set/s of commands, and trigger them anytime by hotkeys. Also you can search files, color-code file names and add comments, compare files, enable the showing of hidden drives, files and folders, create lists of favorite files and folders, and much more. The final list of options is huge, however all of the options are easy to understand and XYplorer really does not lack functionality whatsoever.
Just to cover all we need to mention by no means less important Info Panel(Window/Show Info Panel) that brings except all the information you'll ever need about a selected file, certainly inevitable search function. However, this is not an ordinary search function, single-handedly and by all means this is the most comprehensive search we have ever seen in such tools. There are three types of search available including Standard, Boolean and Regular Expressions that also support Match case, Whole words, Fuzzy(a certain degree of difference is tolerated), Invert(everything that does not match the search term) and path(full path name) filtering. You can Include subfolders(default), Follow folder links, Select locations, use wildcards, configure filters (name, size, attributes, contents and excluded folders) and even search items by tags and comments. Definitely XYplorer can peek into the deepest parts of your HDD and bring you whatever you are looking for with no effort whatsoever. The only problem here is while search is on you cannot do a thing since if you move from the search position you'll immediately stop the operation.
For users who find any of the above specified functions, for some reason, confusing XYplorer has detailed built in help file implemented, fully equipped with all the information that you need. Just pick contents and Index from help menu from the top and you are ready to go step by step.
As for the looks, nothing has changed since our first review (ver.8.60.0100) everything except small icons on the top of the application looks average, definitely like some default windows skin, there are no shiny buttons or fancy hovers, just tabs and nothing more. Yes, we are aware of the fact this is file explorer, doesn't have to be tuned like some graphic viewer for example, however we would like to see some nice graphic which corresponds the functionality with the quality.
The bottom line is, XYplorer is extremely easy to use, highly customizable tool with tons of options, it works at high speed, we cannot neglect its efficiency and we did not see any big drawback on its functionality. Consequently and because of its simplicity and intelligibility XYplorer is truly suitable replacement for Windows Explorer. We recommend this tool to all users seeking a new way to manage files across HDD.
Editor's Ratings
| User Interface: |
Features: | Ease of use: | Cost: | Overall: |
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Screenshots:
| Downloads: | 318 |
| Editor's Review: | reading! |
| Publisher: | Donald Lessau |
| Publisher All: | More programs |
| Publisher Home: | http://www.xyplorer.com |
| OS Suport: | Windows XP/Vista/7 |
| Licence: | Shareware |
| Date Added: | 2013-05-10 |
| Size: | 1.67 MB |
| Cost: | 24.95 USD |
| Editors Rating: |
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