The majority of PC users do not question Windows Explorer. This while there are smarter tools to fly through folders and move files faster. Multi Commander is such a file manager that offers the possibilities that the Explorer lacks. Managing Windows 10 files can be much smoother this way. Watch!
The default Explorer, introduced in Windows 95, is so entrenched in everyday computing that many people don't even wonder if it could be better. And it can be better. There are other file managers that will probably take you some time getting used to the work environment, but once you've conquered the cold feet, the program is much simpler than File Explorer.
You do not have to choose one or the other program. When you have a lot of files to manage, you'll appreciate Multi Commander, while relying on the standard Windows 10 file manager for everything else.
Download and install Multi Commander
First we are going to download Multi Commander. On the site you choose which version you want to download: the 32-bit or the 64-bit version. Not sure which version you have? Then press Windows key + Pause. This last key is sometimes called Break. This will allow you to read the information about your PC. Under System type you can read the answer to your question.
In addition to the desktop program, Multi Commander also has a portable variant that you can run from a USB stick. In this article, we're going for the desktop edition. During the installation of Multi Commander v9.6.1, the installer asks if additional components may also be installed. These are plug-ins that make the program more versatile. We recommend checking all components.
Explore interface
When you start the program for the first time, you will be asked which language you want to use. Then the installer asks how you want the 'look'n feel' of Multi Commander. Do you want to operate this program as much as possible from the keyboard (Commander style)? Or do you want a similar look to the Windows Explorer (Windows Explorer compatibility)? There is also the option Amended where you can choose parts from both of the previous styles. We go for the familiar style of Windows Explorer.
Much of the ease of use is based on Multi Commander's two-part navigation pane. This division allows you to copy and move files within the same screen. In the beginning, the windows are neatly distributed across the screen. 50/50 the tool calls it.
You can grab and drag the divider that divides the window with the mouse pointer. Or you use the fifth button from the top left, where you choose a different distribution: 0/100, 25/75, 50/50, 75/25 or 100/0.
The idea is that you select a different disk location in one window than in the other window, so that you can easily drag or copy a number of files from one disk location to another. To go to a particular folder, use the folder structure in the left or right window or navigate via the drop-down menu at the top of each window half. Via View it is possible to see the two-part interface in vertical layout.
In each pane, the drop-down menu at the top left takes you to the various disk drives and libraries with one mouse click. As with File Explorer, this is the quickest way to folders like Documents, Downloads, Pictures, and Music…
Cloud drives such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive are also in the list… Administrators can even go to the Windows registry or to a location on the ftp network.
At the bottom is the status bar. When you select a folder or file, the status bar contains buttons to view the file, refresh the folder's content view, copy, move, or delete files. In this bar you can also follow the progress of the edits you perform.
Move and/or copy files
To move a folder or file from location A to B, drag it from one half of the window to the other. If you press the Ctrl key, Multi Commander will copy the files from A to B. You can select multiple files by holding down the Ctrl key while selecting. Then a window opens where you can select another location and where you can apply a file operation via so-called plug-in profiles. For example, you can unpacker enable to extract rar and zip files.
In the options it is possible to exclude files from the specified operation via a filter. The plugin Folder Content selects the contents of the different folders you have identified and collects them into a single destination folder.
Suppose you want to copy all the photos from ten folders to the Photo Files folder, this plugin will not take into account the original folders in which these images are located, but will merge everything into the Photo Files folder.
Also interesting is the plugin AutoSort (A-Z). This plugin will automatically create 26 folders from A to Z in the destination folder and put the selected files in the correct folders according to the initial letter of the file name.
Structures and filters
Important are the six buttons that you will find at the top right of each cameo. With the first you see the classic tree structure that you are used to from the Explorer. The slash next to it is the button that takes you to root. The root is the top level of the tree structure. Next to it is the button to open a higher folder, followed by the button to refresh the contents of the window.
The button is also interesting Display mode. This will show you the details, a thumbnail list or thumbnail buttons. The display Flat File System View, available as an option in View mode, is a mouthful for experimental rendering. This view shows all the files from the selected folder without taking into account the subfolders.
If you want to copy or move a large number of files, use filters. You can record inclusion and exclusion filters in a window. If you want to refer to a specific folder in such a filter, you type a slash before the name of the folder /. If you want to exclude a folder from a move or copy job, use the minus sign -.
For example: with -/VacationNorway close the folder HolidayNorway from. To refer to files use the asterisk *. For example, if you want to copy all jpg files in a certain directory, you use *.jpg. Of -*jpg do not copy or move jpg files.
Or if you want to copy all files *.*, except the Rome folder and also not the mp3 files, then the filter looks like this: *.*-/Rome-*.mp3. To move all .xlsx files except those whose name starts with 2019, use the filter *.xlsx-*2019.
Save selection for later
To make it as easy as possible for you, there are handy functions to expand selections. When you have a file, you can choose Edit, Select same extension,Select the same name or Select the same color. If you think you'll need the same selection later for another edit, it's a good idea to save the selection with Edit, Save selection to file.
To open this selection later, use Load selection from file. That way you can recall all previous selections.
The assignments Save selection to memory and Load selection from memory actually work the same, only you will irrevocably lose the saved selection as soon as you close the program.
If you have selected several files, you can pack them together with File, Pack Files. In a panel you determine the compression profile, where you indicate whether the files are packed as a zip file with normal compression, maximum compression, low compression, as a tar file or 7zip file.
Find hidden files
Making hidden files visible is no longer in the advanced settings. There is a button in the toolbar Show hidden and system files and folders. If you activate the color system, you can see at a glance which files are involved. For example, system files are orange, files you created today are dark blue, empty files purple, photos brown and music pink…
You determine these colors yourself via the button with the color wheel. Then you open theFile color line editor. With this you not only choose the colors that the files and folders get, you also determine the style of the file and folder names, such as bold, italic, underline and text color. To apply the colors select in this menu Confirm file coloring. When you change files, it can be useful to refresh the look with Refresh file coloring for all files and folders.
Multi Commander Plugins
Since you have also installed the plugins, you have in the menu Tools about functions to adjust images, audio and video. This allows Multi Commander to rotate images and convert them into a different graphic format, such as jpg, gif, bmp, png, or tiff. You can directly strip all metadata, so that information about the location or time the photos were taken disappears.
The video tools include a scanner to check what information about movies exists on online archive sites such as IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. Even in the audio tools you can adjust the metadata. This is useful if, for example, a music file shows incorrect information about the album or the artist. You can quickly convert a selection of audio into a playlist.
Customize file names
Sometimes the names of files and folders are a mess. One filename is written in uppercase, the other lowercase, not to mention the spaces, underscores, and hyphens used interchangeably. At the Tools below Rename are the functions to create order in this chaos and to make everything look unambiguous.
For example, you can convert the underscore _ into spaces, or points, or vice versa. It is possible to change the extensions of files or change a certain text combination in the names. If you don't like underscores, periods or hyphens in file and folder names, there's the command Varied (in the English version prettify) which converts folder and file names into a more readable style.
To rename a lot of files in a folder, use in the menu Extensions the assignment Multi-rename. This selects part of the file name. Then you add text or characters and replace your text with rules that you put together carefully. In the same window you adjust the file properties of the entire selection.
The meaningless names of photo files can be replaced in this way by, for example, the recording date followed by a number. If you need to apply the same Multi-Rename command several times, you'd rather save the settings in lines to use them again later.
Smart search function
Finally, you can of course expect an extensive search function. Of Extensions, Search Files open the search function, which has a simple and advanced mode. To find the needle in the haystack, you can always refine the result of a search. Multi Commander stores the results in its cache, so you can get to the right file faster next time. This is especially useful if you are searching in a network.
The search function works with wildcards. For example, if you don't remember whether the file is called summer2018.jpg or summer2017.jpg, you can search for summer201?.jpg. Are you looking for *.cpp, then you will get all files with extension .cpp. You can separate multiple search terms with spaces.
If the space is part of what you're looking for, enclose everything in quotation marks. With New York you search for files that bear New or York in their name, with “New York” you find files named after this city. In order not to be flooded with results, you can specify in how many levels this tool should search. Finally, it is possible to search the content of files for one or more words. In that case, type in the box File Content the text you are looking for in a file.
