It’s a world of translucent shiny semi-transparent user interfaces (“What’s the difference between Web 2.0 and 1.0? – rounded corners!” …ha…)

Still, there’s one tool from the developer-world that’s so effective, so useful – and so ugly – that not enough users know about it. Total Commander is a shareware file management utility – in other words, a Windows Explorer replacement. Back in the day (and we’re talking a long time ago here), there were several such tools out there to improve on DOS file management. Then Windows Explorer came in with Windows 95, and for the average user, the need for these tools faded. But developers and other old-school type folks (such as myself) kept using Total Commander, so it’s kept going, adding features and supporting all subsequent Windows Operating Systems.

The first thing you’ll notice about Total Commander (and the other older ‘Commander’-style apps such as Norton Commander) is that there are two windows side-by-side – a ‘source’ pane and a ‘destination’ pane. These windows can have multiple tabs (which turns out to be every bit as nice a feature managing files as it is browsing websites). Working back and forth between the two panes, all the obvious file tasks can be done – but Total Commander can do so much more:

• A solid, fast FTP client (the best I’ve used), available directly from within the same Total Commander window you’re managing local files in.
• Transparent access to all networked resources (including non-mapped drives) – conceptually, Total Commander integrates the user’s Network Places into the local window structure (which is as cool as it sounds).
• Packing and unpacking in all popular (and a few not-so-popular) archiving formats, again right within the Total Commander window.
• Folder Synchronization – (really nice for ad hoc backup folders on other drives).
• Multiple File renaming (via rules or in a text editor).
• File comparison (not by name, by the actual contents – the actual 0’s and 1’s).
• File View (in Hex/Binary/Text).
• Search for duplicate files (again, by the actual bits).

I am by no means a power user – for me, what I love about Total Commander are the window tabs, the excellent onboard FTP client directly available from within the 2 Total Commander windows, and the archive functionality. For software or web developers (or anyone who does repetitive file management tasks), the deeply flexible configuration and hot key implementation might be the main sell – but if that’s not enough, there’s also a built-in command line interpreter, and there are plug-ins for almost anything you could imagine: creating ISO images, burning discs, creating AVI files from graphics files, using HTTP and POP, and much more – all within the window (it’s the polar opposite of interface-crazy software such as Nero).

In fact, my only frustration with Total Commander is that I know that there’s some much more functionality and productivity there than I’ve had the time to explore…

So feel free to submit your tips!

Total Commander – it’s not pretty. But it’s powerful, good, solid, non-bloated software.

And isn’t that refreshing?