Explorer++ YES

[Jester]

Perhaps it's just me, but MS Windows explorer (Win7) had become unusable from my perspective because I use the detail view and I would have to resize the columns every time I opened a new folder. There is a setting for this but it just plain does not work on my PC. This used to work fine, they broke it a few months back.

So I tried a few alternatives, several of the "free" ones are only free for 30 days. Then I tried Explorer++; this one is actually free, much better than MS version and it actually works. They even have an option to instantly convert all your old shortcut icons to use the ++ version. I also like the bookmark capability.

I'm in no way involved with this open source project I just wanted to share.

[pix3l]

Total commander is also great!

[Jester]

Total commander is also great!

That was one of the ones I tried, perhaps I did not experiment enough, but out of the box, it would not allow right click on a file to do a virus scan, this is something I do regularly.

[rdl]

I wonder if it saves a history in the Registry with the name and path and other details of every file you open using it, including files on external drives and encrypted drives, just like Windows Explorer does. If not, it might be worth a look.

[IanMacdonald]

Altap Salamander is my preferred choice.

[baoshi]

Total commander is also great!

That was one of the ones I tried, perhaps I did not experiment enough, but out of the box, it would not allow right click on a file to do a virus scan, this is something I do regularly.

Right click and hold for 1 second. That will bring up normal windows context menu

[amspire]

I started using Total Commander with Windows 3.11 (though it was called Windows Commander then) and have been using ever since. So basically, I only use Windows Explorer when working on other people's PC's.

It is a rare program that has been there throughout the history of Windows. It does a great job so I have never had to look for anything else. A license lasts forever, but it is not crippled in any way if you have no license. The first program I load on a Windows PC.

[BravoV]

Starting from Norton DOS Commander .... and still happy until today with Ghisler's Total Commander. 

Slim & low overhead, fast loading and loaded with powerful add-ons , thats all I need to manage files/directories/drives, probably till I die.

[rdl]

I've had a chance to use Explorer++ for a bit now and it's working fairly well. Turns out it can run completely in portable mode which earns it a big thumbs up from me. 

The standard Windows Explorer keeps track of every file you open with it, forever I think. This bugs me because it's a privacy breech. I have found no evidence of Explorer++ using the Registry for anything when it runs in portable mode.

If I can just figure out how to make it remember column widths, I may switch to it permanently.