Windows has its own tools for managing your disk and files: the explorer, a search function, disk cleanup and more. The fifteen (free) programs in this article prove that it can all be done more thoroughly, faster or better. All tools work under Windows Vista, 7 and 8(.1).
01 Disk space in view
No matter how big your disk is, every disk clogs over time. Then the search is on for the largest space users. SpaceSniffer can help you with that. This tool plots the disk usage for you: the larger the files and folders, the larger the box in which they are displayed.
You can zoom in and out with Ctrl++ and Ctrl+-. This makes it easy to quickly identify the largest consumers, especially if you use the filter function. For example, with the filter rule >800MB;>1years you only dig up the files that are larger than 800 MB and older than 1 year.
Visual information about the size of your files.
02 Tabbed Explorer
Almost all browsers have tabs and admit it: you can't do without them anymore. So it's strange that a 'file browser' like Windows Explorer still has to do without it. Unless you install Clover: it adds this functionality to Windows Explorer.
To open a new tab, all you need to do is click on a mini-tab or press Ctrl+T. You can simply drag a tab to another location with the mouse. You can immediately bookmark such a tab via the context menu, which then remains accessible from a bar with one mouse click. To learn more about Clover, read this article again.
A (file) browser with tabs: actually the logic itself.
03 Alternative Explorer
Clover is little more than a (admittedly very useful) addition to Windows Explorer, but you can of course just install an alternative file browser. One of the most popular is FreeCommander XE, which is also available as a portable application.
One of the most notable enhancements is that by default, FreeCommander XE has two panels that you can navigate within, which makes moving and copying operations easier. Also useful are the built-in display filters, including support for regular expressions, so that you can quickly zoom in on data of, for example, a certain size, type or age. And for those who regularly consult their web space: this requires little effort thanks to the built-in FTP client.
The busy interface takes some getting used to, but the possibilities are much greater!
04 Sleep & manage
It always takes some effort to get files into the desired destination folder every time. DropIt makes that more comfortable. This tool (also available as a portable application) places a movable icon on the desktop and by dragging folders or files into that 'drop zone' you get them in the correct folders. This is done on the basis of underlying rules, which you can define yourself.
For example, it is possible to set the program to put docx files in one folder and xlsx files in the other folder. DropIt can also be used from Windows Explorer. It is also possible to have data compressed automatically, possibly protected with a password.
Do you want to place files? Leave the 'thinking' to the DropIt ruleset.
05 File Calendar
In a calendar structure you expect appointments and tasks to be performed. However, Nemo Documents puts the names of files in it. By default, this is data from the Desktop and Documents folders, but that can be changed. You can also have files from Google Calendar and Google Drive (read how it works) included in the calendar overview.
You get a preview of some file types. It is useful that files are classified in categories such as Documents, Images and Audio based on the extension, but you can also link extensions to your own categories. If it threatens to become cluttered, link labels to documents. With the built-in search function you can search for file names as well as labels.
Files in calendar format: how strange, but quite useful!
06 Search without index
Windows' built-in search function must be continuously active if you also want to have the file contents indexed and thus tap into more powerful search options. Agent Ransack works differently. No indexing operations or background processes here, but very acceptable search speeds nonetheless.
It is possible to use search criteria such as file size and time, but you can also use regular expressions. The search results are presented clearly: on the left the file names in which the search term occurs, on the right a fragment from the selected document. The number of file types that Agent Ransack can also search for content is limited, only text files, PDFs and Office documents.
Agent Ransack especially excels at searching within unindexed files.
07 Rename in batch
From Windows Explorer it is of course possible to rename files, but as soon as you want to do that with a group of files, your options are limited. ReNamer comes to the rescue. First you define rules based on which the program renames the selected files.
Those rules can get quite complex. For example, it is possible (in a single run) to remove the first two characters and replace them with an ascending number, put the extension in capital letters and just before the extension meta tags such as the date from the exif info (EXIF_Date) in to add. It can be even more powerful, because ReName can handle regular expressions and a Pascal/Delphi-like script.
ReNamer takes some empathy, but it is a very versatile tool.
08 Colorful Folders
By default, the folder icons in Windows Explorer are colored yellow. That looks boring and is not distinctive. Folder Colorizer gives more variety. After the installation (choose the custom installation to avoid toolbars!) an extra option appears in the context menu of the Explorer: Colorize!
It lets you choose from 8 map colors by default, but via colors an almost unlimited color palette becomes available. Immediately after your selection, the folder icon changes to the requested color. Handy, because you can color photo folders green, document folders red, and so on. By the way, you can Restore Original Color back to the original color at any time.
Colored folders are immediately easy to recognize.
