I’ve written before about programs that replace Windows Explorer, the File Manager of old: There’s ExplorerPlus ($40, in my software hall of fame) and its relative PowerDesk Pro ($50), but there’s also Directory Opus ($65), now into version 8.
Directory Opus is an Australian creation, and offers some impressive features that I intend to explore more fully:
* Powerful File Manager & Explorer Replacement
* User-definable File Display Views
* User-definable Toolbars, Menus, File Types
* Advanced built-in Image and File Viewers
* Built-in ZIP and Advanced FTP
* Visually Synchronize Files & Find Duplicates
* Advanced Search and Rename Functions
* More Configurable than any other program
* Easy Slideshows…and much more..
Definitely worth checking out. And if you haven’t tried one of these three, I would do so. Definitely makes file handling, viewing, backing up and moving stuff around a lot easier.
I am constantly on the hunt for good shell replacements/extensions – as it amazes me how much Explorer sucks given the resources as MSFT’s disposal. One complaint I have with tools like these (Powerdesk, Directory Opus) is that they are very file-focused – they offer a lot of functionality for extending Explorer but very little in the way of the full interface customization (changing menus, extending the desktop, etc.) … NextStart was close to a full solution, but way too cumbersome. I’m going to try Opus out…