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Comparison of file managers

Topic: Software

 From HandWiki - Reading time: 20 min
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The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of notable file managers.

General information

Name Developer Initial release Platform Latest release License Cost
Version Date Version Date
Altap Salamander Altap 1997-08-15 Windows Proprietary No cost
Commander One Eltima Software 2015-08-04 macOS Proprietary US$29.95[lower-alpha 1]
Directory Opus Jonathan Potter
GPSoftware 		1 1990-01-03 AmigaOS 4.16[1] 2001-07-04 GPL-2.0 No cost
AmigaOS 5.91[2] 2015-08-30 APL
AROS
MorphOS
6 2001-06-18 Windows 12.27[3] 2022-03-21 Proprietary A$49 Lite
A$89 Pro
Dired Integral part of Emacs.
Part of the GNU project. 		~1976[4] GPL-3.0-or-later No cost
Dolphin KDE 0.5 2006-06-07 BSD GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
Linux
macOS
Unix
Windows
DOS Navigator Ritlabs 0.90 1991 DOS BSD-3-Clause No cost
OS/2
Windows
DOS Shell Microsoft / IBM 1988 DOS 1998 Proprietary Bundled[lower-alpha 2]
Double Commander Alexander Koblov[lower-alpha 3] 2007 BSD GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
Linux
macOS
Unix
Windows
emelFM2 tooar 2003-09-06 BSD GPL-3.0-or-later No cost
Linux
Unix
Explorer++ David Ercig 2008-01-08 Windows GPL-3.0-only No cost
Far Manager Eugene Roshal
Far Group 		1996 Windows (Linux, Mac, BSD via far2l) BSD-3-Clause No cost
File Commander Brian Havard 1993 Linux Proprietary A$35.00
OS/2
Windows
File Explorer[lower-alpha 4] Microsoft 1995-08-24 Windows 2015-07-29 Proprietary Bundled[lower-alpha 5]
File Manager Microsoft
Ian Ellison-Taylor 		1990 Windows MIT[5] Bundled[lower-alpha 5]
Files (Apple) Apple Inc. 2017-09-19 macOS Proprietary Bundled[lower-alpha 6]
Files by Google Google LLC 2017-12-05 Android 1.2263.598736326.1[6] 2024-01-21 Proprietary No cost
GeoManager Berkeley Softworks[lower-alpha 7]
Breadbox Ensemble[lower-alpha 8] 		1990 GEOS 2009 Proprietary Bundled[lower-alpha 9]
Finder Apple Inc. 1984-01 macOS 10.10.5 2015-08-13 Proprietary Bundled[lower-alpha 10]
ForkLift BinaryNights 2007-06-01 macOS Proprietary US$29.95[lower-alpha 1]
gentoo Emil Brink ? GPL-2.0-only No cost
GNOME Commander GNOME Commander 2001-09 GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
GNOME Files[lower-alpha 11] Eazel 2001-04-11 GPL-3.0-or-later No cost
Konqueror KDE 2000-10 GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
Krusader Krusader Krew 2000-07-11 GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
Midnight Commander[lower-alpha 12] Miguel de Icaza
GNU 		1994-05[lower-alpha 13] GPL-3.0-or-later No cost
muCommander Maxence Bernard 2002-02-17 GPL-3.0-or-later No cost
Nemo Linux Mint 1.0.0 2012-07 GPL-2.0-or-later No cost[lower-alpha 14]
nnn Arun Prakash Jana 2017-04-13 BSD-2-Clause No cost
Nomad.NET Eugene Sichkar 2.2.0.537 beta 2008-08-14 3.2.0.2890 2016-06-13 Proprietary No cost
Norton Commander Peter Norton Computing
Symantec corporation 		1986 DOS 5.51 1998-07-01 Proprietary ?
Windows 2.01 1999-02-01
Path Finder[lower-alpha 15] Cocoatech 2001-04 macOS 9.1 2020-03-24 Proprietary US$36.00
PathMinder Albert Nurick
Brittain Fraley 		1984 DOS 4.11 1988 Proprietary US$39.95
PCManFM Hong Jen Yee 2006-01-09 1.3.2 2021-02-05 GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
PC Shell Central Point Software 1986 Proprietary ?[lower-alpha 16]
ranger Roman Zimbelmann 2010-06-09 BSD GPL-3.0-or-later No cost
Linux
macOS
ROX-Filer Thomas Leonard et al. 2000-03-10 GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
SpaceFM IgnorantGuru 0.5.0 2012-01-13 GPL-3.0-or-later No cost
STDU Explorer STDUtility 2009-03-23 Windows 1.0.465 2012-05-24 Proprietary No cost
Tabbles Yellow blue soft UAB 2009-08-01 Windows 3.1.29 2016-08-12 Proprietary US$29.95[lower-alpha 1]
Thunar Xfce 2006-01-22 GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
Total Commander[lower-alpha 17] Christian Ghisler 1.0 2012-05-18 Android Proprietary No cost
1.00d 1993-09-25 Windows CHF40, €37, US$42[lower-alpha 1]
ViewMAX Digital Research / Novell 1.0 1990 DR-DOS 3.0 1993 GPL-2.0-only[lower-alpha 18] Bundled[lower-alpha 19]
Volkov Commander Vsevolod Volkov 1992 DOS Proprietary Depends[lower-alpha 20]
WinSCP WinSCP 2000-09-30 Windows GPL-3.0-only No cost
worker Ralf Hoffmann 1.0.0 1999-03-06 Unix 4.12.1 2023-03-05 GPL-2.0-only No cost
Xandros File Manager Xandros Corporation ? 4.2 2007-07-26 Proprietary Bundled[lower-alpha 21]
Xfe Roland Baudin 2002 GPL No cost
Xfile Rixstep 2003-03-02 macOS 2.1.0.10 2010-02-14 Proprietary US$79.00[lower-alpha 22]
Xfm Simon Marlow
Albert Gräf
Till Straumann
Robert Vogelgesang
Juan D. Martin 		1992 GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
xplorer² Nikos Bozinis 2004-06-10 Windows 5.0.0.0 2021-02-28 Proprietary US$29.95 - 49.95[lower-alpha 23]
XTree Jeffery C. Johnson 1985-04-01 DOS 1992 Proprietary US$39.95
1992 Windows 1992
XYplorer Donald Lessau 1997 Windows 20.80.0100 2020-02-13 Proprietary US$39.95 - 79.95[lower-alpha 24]
ZTreeWin Kim Henkel 1996 Windows 2.2.19 2011-05-27 Proprietary US$29.95 (1-4)
Name Developer Initial release Platform Latest release License Cost
Version Date Version Date
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Demo, trial or lite version available at no cost.
  2. ↑ Part of MS-DOS/PC DOS.
  3. ↑ Alexander Koblov also known as alexx2000.
  4. ↑ File Explorer previously known as Windows Explorer.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Part of Microsoft Windows.
  6. ↑ Part of iOS.
  7. ↑ Berkeley Softworks later renamed to GeoWorks Corporation.
  8. ↑ Breadbox Ensemble founded as Breadbox Computer Company.
  9. ↑ Part of PC/GEOS
  10. ↑ Part of macOS
  11. ↑ GNOME Files formerly known as Nautilus.
  12. ↑ Midnight Commander also known as mc.
  13. ↑ The exact history is unknown. This date comes from changelog entries in the src/TODO file in the Git repository (SHA1: eb6b3842a). But it is probably earlier than that. Dec 1997 was release v4.1 already.
  14. ↑ Nemo is part of the Cinnamon (Desktop Environment).
  15. ↑ Path Finder originally known as SNAX.
  16. ↑ Part of PC Tools for DOS.
  17. ↑ Total Commander originally known as Windows Commander.
  18. ↑ ViewMAX was originally proprietary.
  19. ↑ Part of DR-DOS
  20. ↑ Shareware / Freeware
  21. ↑ Part of Xandros Desktop
  22. ↑ With 80+ other applications.
  23. ↑ US$29.95 Pro, US$49.95 Ultimate.[lower-alpha 1]
  24. ↑ US$39.95 Standard License Pro, US$79.95 Lifetime License Pro.[lower-alpha 1][7]

Operating system support

Cross-platform file managers

This table shows the operating systems that the file managers can run on, without emulation.

File manager DOS OS/2 & eCS Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix AmigaOS OpenVMS
Directory Opus No No Yes No No No No Yes[8] No
Dired Yes[9] Yes[10] Yes[11] Yes[12] Yes Yes Yes Yes[13] Yes[14]
Dolphin No No Needs KDE[15] Yes[16] Yes Yes Yes No No
Double Commander No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
DOS Navigator Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
emelFM2 No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No
File Commander No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No
GNOME Commander No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Konqueror No No Needs KDE[15] Yes[16] Yes Yes Yes No No
Krusader No No No Needs X Yes Yes Yes No No
Midnight Commander Yes No Yes[17] Yes[18] Yes Yes Yes Yes No
muCommander No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
nnn No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
GNOME Files (Nautilus) No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No
Nemo No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No
PathMinder Yes No Yes No No No No No No
PCManFM No Needs POSIX-compliant platform Needs POSIX-compliant platform Needs POSIX-compliant platform Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Ranger No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
ROX-Filer No No Yes Yes Yes No No
Thunar No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No
Total Commander No No Yes No No No No No No
Volkov Commander Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
worker No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No
Xandros File Manager No No No No Yes ? ? No No
Xfe No Needs X Needs X Needs X Yes Yes Yes Needs X[19] Yes
Xfm No Needs X Needs X Needs X Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Far Manager Needs HX DOS Extender No Yes Yes (far2l) Yes (far2l) Yes (far2l) ? No No
ZTreeWin No Yes Yes No No No No No No
File manager DOS OS/2 & eCS Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix AmigaOS OpenVMS

Mac-only file managers

*nix-only file managers

Windows-only file managers

iOS-only file managers

Android-only file managers

Manager views

Icon views represent files and folders as large icons.
Details + thumbnails views and favs-panel (bottom left)

Information about what common file manager views are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons).

Note that the "Column View" does not refer to the Miller Columns browsing / visualization technique that can be applied to tree structures / folders.

File manager Family UI Icon view List view Column view Thumbnails Details + Thumbs Grouping Content dependent[m 1] Twin panel Favorites / Bookmark Panel tabs
Altap Salamander Orthodox GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Partial No
Commander One Orthodox GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? No ? Yes Yes
Demos Commander Orthodox Text ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
Directory Opus Orthodox GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Dired Directory editor Text Yes, on GUI[22] Yes ? Yes, on GUI[22] Yes, on GUI[22] Yes Yes Yes, one or more Partial (bookmarks) Yes (optional tab bar) [23]
Dolphin Navigational GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Double Commander Orthodox GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
DOS Navigator Orthodox Text ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
emelFM2 Orthodox GUI No Yes No Yes[m 2] ? No No Yes ? No
FAR Manager Orthodox Text[m 3] Partial[m 4] Yes Yes Yes[24] Partial[m 4] Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial [m 5]
File Commander Orthodox Text No Yes Yes No Partial Yes No Yes No No
File Manager (Windows) Orthodox GUI Yes Yes No ? ? ? ? Yes No No
Files (Apple) GUI Yes Yes Yes
Files by Google GUI
Finder Spatial / Miller Columns GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes, with Cover Flow Yes No No Yes Yes
ForkLift Orthodox GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes No Yes Yes Yes
gentoo Orthodox GUI ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
GNOME Commander Orthodox GUI No Yes No No ? No No Yes ? Yes
Konqueror Navigational / Orthodox GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Krusader Orthodox GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Midnight Commander Orthodox Text No Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes ?
GNOME Files (Nautilus) Navigational / Spatial GUI Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
Nemo Navigational / Spatial GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes,press[F3] Yes Yes
Nomad.NET Orthodox GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Partial, Manual Yes Yes Yes, Shared
Path Finder Navigational GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
PCManFM Navigational GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes
ROX-Filer Spatial GUI Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes No
STDU Explorer Navigational GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
Total Commander Orthodox GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes In viewing Yes Yes Yes
Thunar Navigational GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? No Yes Yes
Volkov Commander Orthodox Text ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
Windows Explorer Navigational / Spatial GUI Yes Yes Yes [m 6] Yes Partial [m 7] Yes Yes No Yes No
worker Orthodox GUI No Yes No No No No No Yes Yes Yes
Xandros File Manager Navigational GUI Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Xfe Hybrid Navigational GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No
Xfm Spatial GUI Yes No No No No ? ? No ? No
xplorer² Hybrid Navigational / Orthodox GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[m 8] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XYplorer Hybrid Navigational / Orthodox GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
ZTreeWin Orthodox Text No Yes Yes No Partial Yes No Yes Yes No
File manager Family UI Icon view List view Column view Thumbnails Details + Thumbs Grouping Content dependent Twin panel Favorites / Bookmark Panel tabs
  1. ↑ Content Dependent (System) refers to a system which attempts to detect the dominant type of files in that folder and then select the most appropriate view mode for you automatically.
  2. ↑ Optional image thumbnailer plugin since v0.3.4 (24/5/2007)
  3. ↑ The text interface, which can be partially graphical with some plugins, such as embedded image/video viewers, for example. But the text interface is only emulated with the ConEmu mod - it is graphical and TrueColor in reality.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 With the ConEmu mod or plugins.
  5. ↑ Via multi-panel plugins or the ConEmu mod.
  6. ↑ Column view is called Details view in Windows Explorer
  7. ↑ Windows 7 introduces a Content view which shows details as well as thumbnails
  8. ↑ Via "Mirrored Browsing" feature.

Twin-panel file managers have obligatory connected panels where action in one panel results in reaction in the second. Konqueror supports multiple panels divided horizontally, vertically or both, but these panels do not act as twin panels by default (the user has to mark the panels he wants to act as twin-panels).

Network protocols

Information on what networking protocols the file managers support. Note that many of these protocols might be supported, in part or in whole, by software layers below the file manager, rather than by the file manager itself; for example, the macOS Finder doesn't implement those protocols, and the Windows Explorer doesn't implement most of them, they just make ordinary file system calls to access remote files, and Konqueror either uses ordinary file system calls or KIO slave calls to access remote files. Some functions, such as browsing for servers or shares, might be implemented in the file manager even if most functions are implemented below the file manager.

File manager SMB/CIFS WebDAV NFS AFP FTP FISH/SSH
Altap Salamander Yes No Yes No Yes Yes
Commander One Yes[n 1] Yes Yes[n 1] Yes[n 1] Yes Yes
Directory Opus Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes (SFTP & SSL[n 2])
Dired Yes[n 1] Yes[n 1] Yes[n 1] No Yes Yes[n 1]
Dolphin Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
Double Commander Yes ? ? ? Yes ?
emelFM2 ? ? ? ? No ?
Far Manager Yes Partial[n 3] Partial[n 4] No Yes Yes[n 5]
File Commander Yes Partial[n 3] Partial[n 4] No Partial[n 6] Partial[n 7]
File Manager ? ? ? ? ? ?
Files (Apple)
Files by Google
Finder Yes[n 1] Yes[n 1] Yes[n 1] Yes[n 1] Partial[n 1] No
ForkLift Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
GNOME Commander Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Konqueror Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Krusader Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
muCommander Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes
Midnight Commander Yes[n 8] No Yes No Yes Yes
GNOME Files (Nautilus) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Nemo Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Nomad.NET Yes No No No Yes No
Path Finder Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Read Access) No
PCManFM Yes[n 9] ? ? ? ? ?
ROX-Filer Yes[n 1] Yes[n 1] Yes[n 1] Yes[n 1] Yes[n 1] Yes[n 1]
Total Commander Yes Yes[n 5] Partial[n 4] No Yes Yes
Thunar Yes[n 9] Yes[n 9] Yes[n 9] No Yes[n 9] Yes[n 9]
worker ? ? ? ? Yes[n 10] ?
Windows Explorer Yes Yes Yes[n 11] No Yes No
Xandros File Manager ? ? ? ? ? ?
Xfe ? ? ? ? ? ?
Xfm ? ? ? ? ? ?
xplorer² Yes Yes[n 12] Partial[n 4] No Yes No
XYplorer Yes Yes Yes[n 11] No Yes No
ZTreeWin Yes Partial[n 6] Partial[n 4] No Partial[n 6] Partial[n 7]
File manager SMB/CIFS WebDAV NFS AFP FTP FISH/SSH
  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 Support is provided by the underlying operating system.
  2. ↑ Requires an additional licence (purchased separately)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 WebDAV support in these file managers requires the installation of NetDrive or WebDrive.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 NFS support in these file managers requires the installation of Services for UNIX.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Support is provided via a free third-party plugin.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 FTP support in these file managers requires the installation of NetDrive or WebDrive.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 SSH support in these file managers requires the installation of SftpDrive or WebDrive.
  8. ↑ From version 4.8.28 support for Samba will be removed. "Coming soon: 4.8.28; what's new.". https://midnight-commander.org/wiki/NEWS-4.8.28. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Support is provided by GVfs
  10. ↑ Support is provided by AVfs
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 NFS support requires either the freely downloadable Windows Services for UNIX or is built-in starting with Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate editions as Subsystem for Unix-based applications (SUA).
  12. ↑ WebDAV is supported via Microsoft Windows' built-in Network Places/Mapped Drive functionality.

File features

Information on what basic file features the file managers support.

File Manager Undo/redo file operation File compression File encryption Rename busy files File preview File coloring filter [25] File selection filter Paste clipboard as file File and folder reports ACL (Access control list) Mass rename [26] Run executable files
Altap Salamander ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes, multiple [27] ? Yes Yes [28] Yes Yes
Commander One ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No ? ? ?
Directory Opus Yes Yes Partial Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ?
Dired Partial [29] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes
Dolphin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes ? Yes Yes Yes
Double Commander No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ?
emelFM2 ? Yes Yes Yes No ? Yes No ? Yes ? ?
FAR Manager ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial [30] Yes Plugin Plugin ?
File Commander ? Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes ?
File Manager ? Yes ? ? No Yes Yes No ? Yes Yes Yes
Files (Apple) Yes Yes
Files by Google
Finder Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No ? Yes Yes Yes
ForkLift Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes ?
GNOME Commander ? Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? No Yes ?
Konqueror Partial [31] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[32] Yes
Krusader ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes ? Yes Yes[32] Yes
Midnight Commander ? Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes Partial[33] ? ? Yes Yes
GNOME Files (Nautilus) Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Partial [34] No Yes No No [35]
Nemo Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? No Yes
Nomad.NET ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial ?
Path Finder ? Yes No [36] No Yes No Yes No Yes No No ?
PCManFM No Yes ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes
ROX-Filer ? With helper applications Yes Yes No Yes No No No Yes ?
STDU Explorer ? No No No Yes No No No No No No ?
Thunar No No No ? Yes No Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Total Commander ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Log file Yes Yes
Windows Explorer Yes Yes Partial[37] No Yes No No Partial [38] No Yes [39] Partial Yes
worker ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes No ? Yes ? Yes
Xandros File Manager ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Xfe Yes Yes No Yes No ? Yes No ? Yes No ?
Xfm ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
xplorer² No Yes Partial [37] Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes [40] Yes Yes
XYplorer Yes Yes Partial [37] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
ZTreeWin ? Yes Partial [41] Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes ?
File Manager Undo/redo file operation File compression File encryption Rename busy files File preview File coloring filter File selection filter Paste clipboard as file File and folder reports ACL (Access control list) Mass rename Run executable files

Browsing features

File manager Symbolic links Windows long path support Browse compressed folders Slideshows Shows combined size of selected directories Branch sizes Directory compare Synchronizer Find as you type (Type-ahead find) Embedded/integrated terminal For directories, size column shows:
Altap Salamander ? ? Yes No Yes ? Yes Partial (for remote folders) Yes Yes DIR
Commander One Yes ? Yes No Yes ? No No Yes Yes, in the PRO Pack[42] DIR and total size including subdirectories
Directory Opus Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes DIR and total size including subdirectories
Dired Yes ? Yes Yes [43] No ? Yes Yes Yes Yes[44] Literal [browse 1]
DOS Navigator No ? Yes No Yes ? Yes ? Yes[45] Yes Total size including subdirectories
Dolphin Yes ? Yes No Yes No No No Yes Yes Number of entries
Double Commander Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes DIR
emelFM2 ? ? ? No Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes Literal [browse 1]
FAR Manager Yes ? Yes Partial [n 1] Yes Yes Yes Partial [46] Yes Yes ?
File Commander ? ? Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Files (Apple) ?
Files by Google ?
Finder ? ? No Yes Yes ? No No Yes No Yes
ForkLift Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes DIR and total size including subdirectories
GNOME Commander ? ? No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Konqueror Yes ? Yes Yes Yes (with konq-plugin) Yes Yes (with kdiff3 plugin) Yes (with kdiff3 plugin) Yes Yes Folder only size (default) selectable to file count/total size
Krusader ? ? Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Midnight Commander Yes ? Yes[47] ? Yes ? Yes Yes[48] Yes Yes ?
muCommander No[49] ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Partial, command execution only ?
GNOME Files (Nautilus) ? ? No No Yes No No No Yes Yes, With Plugin[50][51] Number of entries
Nemo ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes, with nemo-terminal extension
Nomad.NET Yes ? Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes, via Plugin DIR and total size including subdirectories
Path Finder ? ? No Yes Partial ? No No Yes Yes[52] Yes
PCManFM ? ? Yes No Yes Yes No ? Yes No, but there is a fork attempt[53] Nothing
ROX-Filer ? ? No No Yes ? No ? Yes, and browsing with tab completion No Nothing
Thunar ? ? No ? Yes ? No No Yes No Literal*
Total Commander Yes[54] ? Yes Yes In plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes DIR and total size including subdirectories
Windows Explorer Partial[55] Partial Yes Yes Yes (in folder tooltips) Partial No Yes Yes No ?
worker Yes ? Yes No Yes ? Yes ? ? No
Xandros File Manager ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No ?
Xfe Yes ? No No Yes ? Yes ? No No ?
Xfile ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No[56] ?
Xfm ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No ?
xplorer² Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[57] ?
XYplorer Yes Yes Yes Yes[58] Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes[59] Contents including subs
ZTreeWin ? ? Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? Selectable: number of entries or size (optional: including subs)
File manager Symbolic links Windows long path support Browse compressed folders Slideshows Shows combined size of selected directories Branch sizes Directory compare Synchronizer Find as you type (Type-ahead find) Embedded/integrated terminal For directories, size column shows:
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Literal - meaning the size of the directory file itself, not the number or sizes of the files it points to (commonly called its "contents"). Typically a few kilobytes.
  1. ↑ Support is provided via a free third-party plugin.

Search features

Information on what file searching features the file managers support. RegExp include the possibilities of nested Boolean searches, thus implicitly all file managers supporting RegExp search support also Boolean searches.

File manager File name [D 1] File contents [D 2] Basic metadata search [D 3] All metadata search [D 4] RegExp for contents Boolean (nesting levels) Fuzzy logic[D 5] Save searches [D 6] Refined searches [D 7]
Altap Salamander Yes ? Yes ? Yes[s 1] Yes ? Yes Yes
Commander One Yes Yes Yes[s 2] Yes[s 2] Yes Yes ? No No
Directory Opus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Dired Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes [60] Yes
Dolphin Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes
Double Commander Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
emelFM2 Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Partial ?
FAR Manager Yes ? Yes Yes Yes[s 3] Yes[s 3] Yes[s 3] Yes Yes
File Commander Yes No Yes No No Yes No Yes No
Files (Apple)
Files by Google
Finder Yes ? Yes Yes No ? ? Yes ?
ForkLift Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No No
Konqueror Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Krusader Yes ? Yes Yes Yes[61] No No Yes Yes
GNOME Files (Nautilus) Yes ? Partial [s 4] Partial [s 4] ? ? ? Yes ?
Nemo Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Nomad.NET Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Path Finder Yes ? Yes Yes No No ? No No
PCManFM Yes ? Yes No Yes No No No No
ROX-Filer Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No ?
Total Commander Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Partial [s 5]
Windows Explorer Yes No Yes No No ? ? Yes Yes
worker Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ?
Xandros File Manager ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Xfe Yes Yes[s 6] Yes No No No No No No
Xfile Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Xfm ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
xplorer² Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XYplorer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[s 7]
ZTreeWin Yes Yes Yes Partial Partial [s 8] Yes Yes Yes Yes
File manager File name [D 1] File contents [D 2] Basic metadata search [D 3] All metadata search [D 4] RegExp for contents Boolean (nesting levels) Fuzzy logic [D 5] Save searches [D 6] Refined searches [D 7]

Column Definitions (D)

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 using wildcards, subfolders
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 using wildcards, case match, whole word match
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 size, date, time, attributes (read only, hidden, archivable, etc.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 [clarification needed] what/where is additional metadata?
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 [clarification needed] what is fuzzy logic and how is it useful?
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ability to save templates containing all search settings (file filter, metadata requirements etc.). Results of saves searches are always live, so not the results but the search conditions are saved.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Also known as iterative searches. For example the ability to finish one search and then perform a new search a) only within these results (intersect the two result sets / the requirements of both searches have to be met), 2) adding to these results (combine both result sets to a bigger set) or 3) subtract from those results (original result set reduced by intersection of result sets).

Entry Notes (s)

  1. ↑ Altap Salamander Search offers RegExp for defining the file content.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Support is provided by the underlying operating system.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Support is provided via a free third-party plugin.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Can integrate with Beagle to provide more searching functionality.
  5. ↑ Search intersection
  6. ↑ One can search for file contents using the Text Contains field in the search window.
  7. ↑ After searching results, user can apply advanced visual filters to narrow down results.
  8. ↑ ZTreeWin provides several context specific search syntaxes that are not pure regex

Extensibility

Information on which parts of the application can be extended by plugins.

File manager Filesystem support Attribute columns File previews Metadata indexing Unicode support Visual themes
Altap Salamander Yes Yes Yes ? Partial No
Commander One Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
Directory Opus Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes
Dired Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Dolphin Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Double Commander Yes Yes Yes No Yes[e 1] Partial[e 2]
emelFM2 ? ? ? ? ?
Far Manager Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes[e 3] No
Files (Apple) Yes Yes
Files by Google
Finder Yes No Yes Yes Yes[e 4] Partial[e 5]
ForkLift Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Konqueror Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Krusader Yes No Yes Partial Yes
Midnight Commander Yes No No No Yes No
GNOME Files (Nautilus) Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes
Nemo Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes
Nomad.NET Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
Path Finder ? ? ? ? ?
PCManFM Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
ROX-Filer No Yes No ?
Total Commander Yes Yes Yes Yes In search tool Yes[e 1] Yes[e 6]
Windows Explorer Yes Yes Yes Yes[62] Yes Partial[e 5]
worker Yes No Yes No Yes ?
Xandros File Manager ? ? ? ? ? ?
Xfe No Partial No No Partial Partial[e 7]
Xfile ? ? ? ? ? ?
Xfm ? ? ? ? ? ?
xplorer² Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
XYplorer Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
ZTreeWin Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No
File manager Filesystem support Attribute columns File previews Metadata indexing Unicode support Visual themes
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Main change in Total Commander 7.50
  2. ↑ User can change toolbar icons
  3. ↑ In Far 2.0 & Far 3.0+
  4. ↑ Unicode support depends on Mac OS version. Mac OS X's Finder includes full Unicode support, while Mac OS 8 and earlier does not. May be supported in >=8.1 and <=9.2 if using Unicode filesystems.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 File and folder icons customizable on OS level and via folder properties
  6. ↑ User can manually change icon themes including toolbar, file and folder icons. User can also change the color scheme to a pre-defined one or manually pick a color for each element in preferences.
  7. ↑ User can change icon themes in preferences, which change the toolbar, file and folder icons. User can also change the color scheme to a pre-defined one or manually pick a color for each element (in preferences).

Notes

  1. ↑ "Directory Opus 4 Research Project". http://dopus.free.fr/download.php. 
  2. ↑ "Dopus5". https://sourceforge.net/projects/dopus5allamigas/files/. 
  3. ↑ "Release History". https://www.gpsoft.com.au/help/opus12/index.html#!Documents/Release_History.htm. 
  4. ↑ Thomas E. Dickey. "Dating Dired". Adoption by emacs. https://invisible-island.net/ded/dating-dired.html. 
  5. ↑ Original Windows File Manager (winfile) with enhancements: Microsoft/winfile, Microsoft, 2019-02-21, https://github.com/Microsoft/winfile, retrieved 2019-02-21 
  6. ↑ "Files by Google - Apps on Google Play" (in en). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.nbu.files. Retrieved January 25, 2024. 
  7. ↑ "XYplorer Purchase". https://www.xyplorer.com/purchase.php. }}
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Directory Opus 5.82 Magellan II is the last commercial version available for Amiga. Full and registered version has been released for free with the AmiKit distribution. Directory Opus 4 is maintained separately under an open source license.
  9. ↑ "Info Node: (emacs)Dired". cmu.edu. https://www.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/info2www?(emacs)Dired. 
  10. ↑ "Emacs 20.6 under OS/2". Home.snafu.de. http://home.snafu.de/ohei/emacs/emacs206-os2.html. 
  11. ↑ "Emacs FAQ for MS Windows". Free Software Foundation. 2013-08-27. https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html. 
  12. ↑ "Carbon Emacs Package". http://homepage.mac.com/zenitani/emacs-e.html. 
  13. ↑ "Archived copy". http://de5.aminet.net/util/gnu/em1934src.readme. 
  14. ↑ AaronHawley (2010-05-28). "Emacs On VMS". EmacsWiki. http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsOnVMS. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Projects/KDE on Windows/Installation - KDE TechBase". Techbase.kde.org. 2013-06-09. http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/KDE_on_Windows/Installation. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "The MacPorts Project - Available Ports". MacPorts. http://www.macports.org/ports.php?by=category&substr=kde4. 
  17. ↑ Cygwin or Win32 Native
  18. ↑ Runs in text mode inside Terminal window
  19. ↑ "Der Schwan-Clan". http://www.schwan-clan.de/index.php?lang=en&fr0=AmigaFrameNav.php%3Flang%3Den%26sub%3D0&fr1=amiga%2FAmiCygnix.php%3Flang%3Den. 
  20. ↑ Windows 95 and later
  21. ↑ Windows Mobile
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Activating Image-Dired command in the graphical interface.
  23. ↑ Tab-bar mode can be activated to show the tab-bar (else it will be hidden).
  24. ↑ With ConEmu Far Manager plugin conemu-maximus5
  25. ↑ Files matching certain user defined criteria (e.g. name pattern, attributes) are displayed in another color. Example: Since Windows 2000, the UI guide requires NTFS compressed files and folders displayed in blue, whereas uncompressed ones are black.
  26. ↑ Mass Rename is a feature to rename large number of files in a convenient way and including a preview, see the screenshot for an example. Common options are subdirectory inclusion, wildcards, manual mode (offering to edit names as text files in editors), counters, time related fields (e.g. "date created"), path related fields (e.g. "parent directory name"), regular expressions, etc. See also: Batch renaming.
  27. ↑ Altap Salamander offers to show only selected files and hide unselected ones, also in picture viewer, etc. For selection, the usual wildcards and add/subtract/intersect with 1...N stored selections are offered.
  28. ↑ ACL is dependent on the type and version of file- and operating system. Altap Salamander offers quick access to owner, auditing and permission settings in WinXP with NTFS 5.
  29. ↑ Only actions operating on filesystem data (filename, path, timestamps, acls, etc.); file contents have separate and independent per-file undo/redo. Filesystem actions that modify file contents (deleting, overwriting, truncating, &c.) can be undone/redone with optional integrated use of automatic trash/backup/auto-save/version-control features.
  30. ↑ With plug-ins, or this can be implemented as a macros
  31. ↑ Konqueror can undo, not redo.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Needs KRename, an application that integrates into Konqueror and Krusader.
  33. ↑ Create new file with desired name, then paste contents.
  34. ↑ Only text which is dragged from another program and dropped into a folder in GNOME Files (Nautilus) can be pasted as a new file.
  35. ↑ Removed in version 3.29.
  36. ↑ Path Finder apparently integrates with Knox , an encryption utility.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 The encryption feature in Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional, and Windows Server 2003 is in fact a user-transparent filesystem-level encryption feature for NTFS. The file manager merely enables or disables it.
  38. ↑ Supported up to Windows XP only. Document scraps are not supported in Windows Vista and later.
  39. ↑ Via system File Properties dialog, NTFS-only. Must be enabled manually in Windows versions prior to Server 2003.
  40. ↑ Via system File Properties dialog, NTFS-only.
  41. ↑ Encryption is supported for Zip and Rar, other formats depend on the editable ARCHIVER.BB2 file
  42. ↑ "Dual-pane file manager for Mac - Commander One". http://mac.eltima.com/file-manager.html. 
  43. ↑ via image-mode, GUI only
  44. ↑ "Shell Commands in Dired". https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Shell-Commands-in-Dired.html. 
  45. ↑ Press and release Alt
  46. ↑ Via plugins, or manual with helping of the embedded Advanced Compare.
  47. ↑ Extensible via compression plugins, supported formats list depends on distribution package maintainer
  48. ↑ Can be done in two steps
  49. ↑ "Two-pane file manager for Windows with symlink and large file support". stackexchange.com. http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/17628/two-pane-file-manager-for-windows-with-symlink-and-large-file-support. 
  50. ↑ "Flogisoft - Nautilus Terminal". http://projects.flogisoft.com/nautilus-terminal/. 
  51. ↑ "Launchpad - Nautilus Terminal". 7 September 2010. https://launchpad.net/nautilus-terminal. 
  52. ↑ "Path Finder 7 by Cocoatech". http://www.cocoatech.com/pathfinder/. 
  53. ↑ "LXDE.org Forum - Try PCManFM with a tabbed terminal included". http://forum.lxde.org/viewtopic.php?t=487&f=22. 
  54. ↑ "Two-pane file manager for Windows with symlink and large file support". stackexchange.com. http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/17628/two-pane-file-manager-for-windows-with-symlink-and-large-file-support#comment29304_17628. 
  55. ↑ Copying directory junctions across drives creates an empty directory in the target
  56. ↑ "Xfile: The Standard Setter - Features". http://rixstep.com/4/0/xfile/features.shtml. 
  57. ↑ "xplorer² tour#6: external command console". http://zabkat.com/tour5.htm. 
  58. ↑ via XYplorer script- SlideShow
  59. ↑ "XYplorer - 9.90 Released". http://www.xyplorer.com/release_9.90.php#customCLI. 
  60. ↑ Part of Emacs.
  61. ↑ "Krusader - Twin panel file management for your desktop". krusader.org. http://www.krusader.org/text.php?t=krusader-2.0.0-beta1.changelog. 
  62. ↑ IFilters

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