>>>>OK
>>>>I mean FILE prperty (attribute) that you see in windows explorer.
>>>
>>>I don't. I mean, I don't use WE, and haven't for years. Then, when I did, I didn't use the default view. Even with today's large monitors, that thing is a waste of space and time.
>>>
>>SNIP
>>
>>What don't you like about Windows Explorer, and what do you use instead?
>
>1) all the defaults are set wrong. Every time I reinstall, in all Windowses since 95, there's between 10 and 20 checkboxes I have to flip (don't hide file extensions, show hidden, show protected, don't take extra space to show info about the file, show full folder directory etc etc).
>1a) every new version of Windowses just made this list longer, never shorter.
>2) there's no file viewer. If I want to know what's inside a file, I need extra software to see it. If it's an unknown file type, it can't be opened - or I can select Open With and then hopefully know what software on the current machine is capable of viewing the file. And that's also having only one view - I'm a programmer, I want to switch to hex whenever I want
>3) it goes into the useless icon view on any directory I haven't specifically set to show as details, need to set it up to show as details. Icon view may be nice for pictures, but other than that, it becomes useless when you have more than a screenful in a single folder directory.
>4) when I switch to details view, it's always by name
>5) when I switch to sort by date, it's always ascending.
>6) when I have to do something with two directories, I have to move at least one of them to avoid overlapping
>7) it took 20 years and they still haven't got file copying right - and, oh, why isn't there a keyboard shortcut to send files to the other directory? Because there could be 20 of them open at the same time? Ummm... why didn't they ever come up with something with two directories open in the same window? Like a moverbox or better?
>8) desktop is a directory but also keeps positions of the icons - sort of. If sough wind blows in a certain way, your icons will be lined up alphabetically. It will take 2-3 minutes of boot time to recheck all the files in all directories mentioned in any of the icons on the desktop, quick access folder directory (which is, imagine, in an "Internet something" folder directory even on a machine which has never heard of the web) or the start menu, in case they go stale. I checked this with Filemon, still can't believe my eyes - and can't understand why. It still doesn't say a thing about any orphaned icon until I try it, and physically reads the icon file, link file, target file whenever I click on any one of them, so why is it thrashing my disk while booting then?
>9) In W2k and XP it would suddenly freeze the machine for anywhere between 20 and 120 seconds, after which time it would refresh all the windows and continue operation as if nothing happened. No message, nothing, just more of wild disk thrashing and zero feedback (i.e. no message, and not letting me do anything either). The phenomenon vanished after I stopped using WE.
>10) Search is pretty much useless, until Vista (which is useless for other reasons).
>11) Folders directories are always sorted alphabetically. Can't see which one was the most recent.
>12) when I doubleclick on a folder directory to get in, then click the Up icon to get back, I'm not back on that folder directory. I'm on top of nowhere - there's no selected item; if I press up, left or right arrow, it selects the first item, if down, it's 2nd, so I figure no matter where you enter a subdirectory, you return through a secret door between 1st and 2nd. Same goes when you return via backspace.
>
>Therefore, as a file manager, I use Total Commander (http://ghisler.com/). It has everything: when I first launch it, there's only two checkboxes where I don't like the default (use two sets for disk drive icons, show hidden files). It has file viewer which can switch between plain text, rtf, unicode, utf-8, hex and a couple more views (and can play music and sometimes even video as well) and you can switch between these views by hotkey. It always shows two directories, and you can copy, move, use clipboard, show treeview if you want, have an immediate DOS command line into the current window. Any window can host a FTP directory - same copy, move etc applies. It has file compare and directory compare (and synchronize). Windows are tabbed, so you can keep a number of directories open at the same time; you work on the two selected ones. You can synchronize motion in a pair of directories (so if you're drilling down two versions of your project, you move into .\data on one, the other
>follows). It has a very good search which usually finds what Windows won't (but doesn't find anything in unicode files - maybe you need to search for a binary unicode representation of your search string). It sorts your columns the way you like them, and keeps the widths positions etc - and the default sort for date column is descending, also for size. Newly added or renamed file doesn't sit on the bottom of the view, or where it was until you refresh - it jumps right away to where it should go (which may be annoying at times ;). It has zipping included too, so creating a zip is as simple as selecting a bunch of files and or folders directories and clicking an icon (or pressing a pair of keys), and the zip is created in the other window. And it also addresses my concerns #11 and #12.
>
>As for #8 and #9, http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean or http://bb4win.org, or check thread #1159362 - bbLean, Launchy, and then your choice of Opus, TCommander or other file manager. Just to mention that #9 didn't happen again.


Thanks for the tip on Total Commander. I will check it out.

I can definitely relate to #1 on your not-to-like list. Have done the same myself many times.

It's moot for you but re #3, there is a "make all folders like this one" check box in the folder options dialog. If you have that folder set to details view (my usual as well), all of them will be set that way. (Including some like Desktop where I would rather see icons).

Possibly not contradicting what you mean in #5, if you click the date column (or any other) a second time, the order becomes descending.

Of course, Windows is still just a Mac wannabe that's never caught up <g>.