File managers

Do you use a file manager, and if so what do you use?

Ever since Directory Opus 4 on the Amiga I have been a big fan of Opus and still use it, but now on the PC. Directory Opus 8 is a huge improvement over the standard Explorer built into Windows and is far better than any standard OS file management I've ever used.

The biggest thing I like about Opus is its speed. In the standard Windows Explorer you sometimes have to wait quite a long time for the system to look through the files in a directory before it decided what to show them as, but in Opus everything is smooth and fast. And handling files for previewing is much more seamless, with direct zip handling like directories, and much better built in thumbnail and preview options, including very quick video, image, audio and pdf viewings, plus very close integration with Office and Open Office applications. I've also found that PDFs now work much more smoothly with DOpus with Acrobat 8 Pro. Adobe finally seem to have made Acrobat stable which is good. Plus a bonus for any developers is previews of html, php and other text based script files.

The other option to fully switch the standard explorer with DOpus is also really worthwhile doing as you gain so much over that standard file management of Windows and lose nothing I can think of.

So do any of you also use a file manager? I know that Teho is also a DOpus fan.

I use the normal windows explorer, but could try another file manager out. Is Opus free? So maybe I should test it.

No, DOpus is not free. Sorry Demon, can't have everything for free. ;) It actually costs a bit if I recall correctly, around 50 euros. But you can try it for a full 60 days for free, and that's the full version you're trying then. Nothing is removed from the demo.

And after those 60 days, I guarantee you you'll find that it's well worth the money. :)

Get it at www.gpsoft.com.au

I will definitely try it out. I don't need many features, that's why I always used the normal windows explorer. I'm gonna install it tomorrow on my PC at work, so I will have the time to test it, if I can run it for 60 days without any restriction is fine. (I also found a copy at the notorious bay ;)).

I guarantee you will like it. The combined integration of file management all in one place really does make things much easier.

Plus you also have all of the customisation in exactly the same way as the Amiga original. You can create your own buttons for anything you like, so could link them to specific utilities or command line commands if required.

I'm quite happy with Workbench.

Still using 5.5 on the Miggy.
Would be interested in looking at v8 on the pc

Have you customised Workbench at all Steve? with some third party utilities such as docking or context sensitive menus? When I used to use Workbench as my main OS I used to customise it will all the best things I could find.

I forget the name of it, but there was one that replaced the Workbench menu system with a rightclick context menu so all of the menu options appears next to the mouse where ever you were on screen. Very useful.

Another thing that used to annoy me was how windows could not be moved beyond the edge of the screen. A little utility fixed that problem.

Also loads of custom icon packs for MUI made Workbench look much nicer.

Not a big user of file managers. What do you guys use them for?

Umm... Managing files surprisingly enough ;)

File Managers are much better than Windows standard file explorer for copying files, moving them around, batch renaming, filing away in neat orders etc... Also great for quickly browsing through files, viewing them inside of the file manager.

Ok...I just thought there is some major benefit that I didnt know about :unsure: I just make my file structure first so I dont spend a lot of time moving stuff, etc...

Well, there is more to them than just managing where they are on the HD. When you have a very large collection of files they can really speed up looking through them, quickly looking at their content, especially for images, txt files, pdfs, audio etc... as you can get an instant preview instead of needing to wait for a preview program to open.

Also you can customise buttons for the file manager. Add an automated rar or zip button for example, or a txt to nfo button. Those are simple examples. You could assign some command line instructions to a button to preform an action for example or to launch a file into an application or emulator.

There is also batch processing. If you downloaded a lot of files such as an emulator set or a music collection and needed to rename them all quickly you could batch rename them.

Another big addition I find very useful in DOpus over standard Windows is it's directory and file handling. It will automatically calculate the size of any directory for you whilst you are viewing it from above, it colour codes folders, system files and any other file you wish to the colours of your choosing. Lots of powerful features that make file management much nicer and an easier experience.

You should give DOpus a try as it is free to use for the the first 30 days.

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When you have a very large collection of files they can really speed up looking through them

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That is quite annoying in the windows explorer, it's very slow when clicking on a folder that contains lots of files. And we have some HUGE folders, don't we Harrison?

I had no time to test it at work, but will install it next week to give it a try. Always nice when there's a solution other than Microsoft.

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Originally Posted by Harrison

Have you customised Workbench at all Steve? with some third party utilities such as docking or context sensitive menus? When I used to use Workbench as my main OS I used to customise it will all the best things I could find.

I forget the name of it, but there was one that replaced the Workbench menu system with a rightclick context menu so all of the menu options appears next to the mouse where ever you were on screen. Very useful.

Another thing that used to annoy me was how windows could not be moved beyond the edge of the screen. A little utility fixed that problem.

Also loads of custom icon packs for MUI made Workbench look much nicer.

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No. I like it as it is. Especially 3.9.

What makes DOpus great is simply all the cool little features that makes life simpler file-management wise, that on their own don't make much of a difference, but combined makes it a whole lot better. Little things such as how when you want to rename a file, it marks only the filename and not the extention. An obvious thing that Explorer still does not do. And I love how the various buttons have different uses depending on which mouse-button you click it with. Such as the select all button that can select all, invert selection or select by wildcard-pattern. That is another gem by the way, it's so easy to select only the files you want from a huge list. Want to select all the files except three different ones in there? In Explorer, you'd be clicking, ctrl-clicking and shift-clicking for eternity to do it. In DOpus, you middle-click the three files and use invert selection. Job done. (middle-clicking files being the same as ctrl-clicking them).

Small things like that. Simply put, DOpus is a huge improvement over Explorer the same way that Firefox and Opera are huge improvements over Internet Explorer. Just full of neat little solutions and features you didn't know you were missing, but you don't want to live without once you have them.

Ok sweet that actually sounds quite cool. I actually will give that a try now! :thumbs:

MagicWB I think was the right click menu thingy.
Tried it but wasn't a fan of it.

I liked the right-click menu system at the time because I was a fan of the Acorn Archimedes and that used the same system for RiscOS 3.

I just installed DOpus at work, and there are a whole lot of preferences, customization and options (too much). I think I have to install it at home, and use it as default manager, I can't do this at work.

It does have nice features indeed, but am I really using them? I should see that if I work with it for a longer time, it's too early to make a conclusion.

Nice feature is that you can split the manager with only one click, and that horizontal or vertical.

One nice thing I also saw is when pushing F2 to rename a file, its extension (f.ex. .rar) remains untouched, so that you only change the real name, and don't have to reenter the extension's name again :thumbs:

When you look at it in more detail take time to look at the additional toolbars as there are some very useful features. And also at the Settings/Customise window as you can add a lot of very useful icons for quickly working on files. I especially find the split and join compression icons useful for working with downloaded archives.

Another cool inclusion within DOpus is the image handling. It is a simple built in image management tool where you can rotate an image, convert it between different formats, change it's compression ratio, and resize it. Very fast and very useful for quick image changes.

Just installed it at home (with registration :nogood:), and replaced it with the normal windows explorer. The FTP function also comes quite in handy, no need to use another client anymore.

But I think that DOpus is very expensive if you buy it, and if you want to use it on more than one PC, you have to purchase licenses, which are also a bit too expensive.

@Harrison
I just put DOpus to the webspace you gave me, it's under /root/private/, if you want, you can grab that version which works fine with the serial.

Great, thanks for that :thumbs: