7 Windows Explorer Addons for Power Users

Apr. 19th, 2008 | by Shankar Ganesh |

Windows Explorer probably lacks a few features that some people desperately require. It might be quite OK to use for the usual purposes, but when it comes to power tasks, it fails.

Here are seven carefully hand-picked utilities that enhance the default Windows Explorer functions and will leave you thinking “Why doesn’t Explorer have these by default?”

1. Folder Size

Windows Explorer, by default, doesn’t show the size of the folder when you opt for the ‘Details’ view. This is one of the little things that users will find lacking in Windows Explorer.

folder_size1

Well, this is when Folder Size comes in as a handy tool that adds the ‘Folder Size’ column to Windows Explorer Details View. Here’s the details column after installing Folder Size:

folder_size2

Download FolderSize

2. QT Tab Bar

QT Tab Bar brings tabbed navigation to Windows Explorer. If you frequently deal with a large number of scattered files, you should definitely consider using this application.

qttabbar

Once installed, re-login to Windows, open Windows explorer, right click on the toolbar and check QT Tab Bar and QT Standard Buttons to activate the tabbed interface.

Download QT Tab Bar

3. InfoTag Magic

Makes the Windows Explorer File/Folder tooltips to display more information than you can imagine about the selected item.

InfoTagMagic

It displays information on MP3, Ogg Vorbis, etc, when you hover over the items. For EXE and DLL files and the like, it displays version information. Furthermore, it goes ahead to display a preview of text files in the tooltip when you hover over them.

Download InfoTag Magic

If you’re an audiophile and have plenty of media files on your hard disk, try MediaInfo that is exclusively made for audio/video files and supports more media file formats than InfoTag Magic.

4. TeraCopy / Piky Basket

The default copy paste tool in XP is probably the most inefficient tool built into Windows. You can’t pause file copying and the process usually stops abruptly when a single file is uncopyable among a pile of files.

TeraCopy replaces the default file copy tool in Windows XP and makes copying big files faster. If a file is damaged, it tries a number of times to recover the file. Go for TeraCopy if you frequently deal with big files.

You can read previous TeraCopy review here.

teracopy

Download TeraCopy

There’s another similar tool called Piky Basket which enhances copy’n paste functionality, perfect for everyday home use. But it also comes with very powerful options that need to be mentioned.

If you have files spread across a dozen folders that should be copied to a single folder, your job of copying those set of files from each location and then placing it in the desired location isn’t going to be easy. With Piky Basket, you can make Explorer remember the locations of the spread-out files and put them all in one folder in one go.

Download PikyBasket

5. Clickie Path Name Copier

Clickie adds two options to the Windows Explorer Context Menu, which Windows Explorer doesn’t have.

clickie

One is ‘Copy Path Name’ - copies the path name of the selected item to the clipboard as normal text. The other is ‘Open MS Dos Prompt’ which when selected, opens the DOS prompt with the selected directory as the working directory.

Download Clickie

6. Drive Icon

This is a little tool that is both funky, nice for a show-off and yet, useful. Changes the hard disk partition icons in Windows XP to look like the ones in Vista. What you see is a pleasing graphic near the icon that displays disk usage. Quite useful if you have plenty of data crammed into your tiny hard disk.

drive_icon

Download Drive Icon

7. Y’z Toolbar

Y’z Toolbar lets you customize the Windows Explorer Toolbar with skins and icon sets. It also hides the throbber in the extreme, top right of the Explorer window.

yztoolbar_screenshot

It doesn’t replace critical system files. Can be activated by right clicking on the Windows Explorer Toolbar.

Download Y’z Toolbar

Let us know about your experiences with the above software in the comments. If you know any better apps than the ones mentioned, do point us to it. Thanks!

(By) Shankar Ganesh, a 16 year old blogger and freelance writer from India. He writes about Computers and Software at Killer Tech Tips.

Filed Under: Cool Software Apps ¦ Lists of tools ¦ Windows

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    31 Comments » Leave One...

    Comment by lo4
    2008-04-19 13:44:13

    FileMenu Tools, to really improve the context menu of the Windows Explorer :
    http://www.lopesoft.com/en/fmtools/info.html

    QTTabBar, to have a better Adress Bar (a clone of Windows Vista adress bar, but better) :
    http://qttabbar.wikidot.com/qtaddressbar

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by Abhijeet from Jeet Blog
    2008-04-19 14:27:24

    Very good addons. Especially the first one- Folder Size. I never gave a thought on Windows Explorer add-ons. The word add-on usually came to my mind when I was working on Firefox. But this is a useful list. Good Job !

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by bnm
    2008-04-19 16:16:24

    Thanks a lot for the folder size, I’ve been thinking of it for so long.

    PS

    Not that I couldn’t find it after, but you forgot to put the link fir Drive Icon….

    Reply to this comment
    Comment by Shankar Ganesh
    2008-04-19 20:07:20

    Oops the link was missed. I’ll update the post soon.

    In the mean time, if anyone wants to download Drive Icon, you can go to: http://drvicon.sourceforge.net/

    Reply to this comment
     
     
    Comment by Nxqd3051990
    2008-04-19 17:44:08

    You miss folder menu :)

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by Adheeeth
    2008-04-19 20:44:53

    Hey Shankar, Excellent article and an awsome share!!! i loved it!

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by internet explorer brings good addons | DisCharge the Bug
    2008-04-20 03:07:11

    [...] ahead and proving a lot better than other browsers. Now, Microsoft is catching up with a set of addons. These are supposed to be for power [...]

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by _ck_
    2008-04-20 05:40:30

    What is the download link for “drive icon”?
    Hopefully some of these still work on win2k but I know that’s rare.

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by muneeb
    2008-04-20 16:44:24

    yo its very useful thanx man

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by Starred Items » LostInTechnology
    2008-04-20 22:34:23

    [...] 7 Windows Explorer Addons for Power Users: I have always felt that Windows Explorer could be a little better. [...]

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by Harsh Karn
    2008-04-20 23:08:31

    Please look at ‘Known Issues’ for ‘Folder Size’ at http://foldersize.sourceforge.net/support.html. It need some important fixes before being usable. :)

    Reply to this comment
    Comment by Brio
    2008-04-21 13:15:45

    Actually, those Known Issues are a bit old - some have been fixed already. I should update the list. Folder Size is quite usable for me. :)

    Reply to this comment
     
     
    Comment by Ed
    2008-04-20 23:43:22

    “In the mean time, if anyone wants to download Drive Icon, you can go to: http://drvicon.sourceforge.net/”

    I tried to download the installer from the site and nod32 v3 immediately detected it as a virus. I know the download link is from sourceforge (a very reputable site) but why does nod32 do this?

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by Shankar Ganesh
    2008-04-21 01:46:52

    @Ed: I’m not sure, but this according to this online virus checker, the file is virus free when tested using some 10+ anti virus tool. Only NOD32 detects it as a potential threat. I *think* it’s safe.

    Please check: http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/1d31f8bf63ed3d5a2b12b5164a62c60b

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by Geoserv
    2008-04-21 07:22:21

    STUMBLED!

    Great list, don’t use IE much though.

    VOTED for you at:
    http://www.newsdots.com/software/7-windows-explorer-addons-for-power-users-makeuseof-com/

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by Skylog » Blog Archive » links for 2008-04-22
    2008-04-22 01:30:53

    [...] 7 Windows Explorer Addons for Power Users (tags: windows) [...]

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by Brian
    2008-04-22 01:32:31

    I installed driveicon but for some reason when I tried to run it AVG kept popping up and telling me that it detected a trojan generic 10.ldy or something along those lines.

    I figured it was just a false positive of some sort and tried to ignore but the program won’t run because everytime it tries, AVG detects it as a virus.

    Too bad though, it looked rather useful.

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by qhzq88
    2008-04-22 05:33:54

    They are pretty good,isn’t it?
    I like teracopy mostly.

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by Techbuzzard
    2008-04-22 06:24:03

    Terracopy may be quite an useful tool for copying big files. But the Windows built in copying tool is much more faster. The only good thing about Terracopy is that it has a error recognition mechanism wherein it can locate errors while copying. Terracopy is no where faster when copying big files, the simple Windows copying tool just does it right and faster too..

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by dos system vista
    2008-04-22 19:42:59

    [...] to power tasks, it fails. Here are seven carefully hand-picked utilities that enhance the defaulthttp://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-windows-explorer-addons-for-power-users/Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Fri 9th Jun 2006 22:42 UTC OS NewsMicrosoft will not fix a serious [...]

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by Why I’m Digging Digsby | MakeUseOf.com
    2008-04-27 14:05:16

    [...] at Make Use Of, we like to give you choices. Explorer add-ons? Here’s seven. Want your blog to get noticed? Here are six ways . Online desktop? Try eight [...]

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by links for 2008-04-27 « RabiFoot
    2008-04-27 16:32:13

    [...] 7 Windows Explorer Addons for Power Users | MakeUseOf.com 7個加強檔案總管的軟體 (tags: windows 軟體 software tools list) [...]

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by 8款强大的资源管理器插件 | 帕兰映像
    2008-04-28 03:17:04

    [...] 原文：7 Windows Explorer Addons for Power Users 译文：8款精心挑选的强大的资源管理器插件 译者：LiGht [...]

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by Best of April, Killer Links #2 and some more news!
    2008-04-30 23:22:00

    [...] 7 Useful Windows Explorer Addons for Power Users [...]

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by Syahid A.
    2008-05-01 11:41:36

    Great list Shankar. I’ve never know that Clickie even existed. Cool!

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by » Del.icio.us: Anbefalte lenker for uke 18 - 2008 - Leif Dalands blogg - IT & Produktivitet
    2008-05-03 04:19:22

    [...] 7 Windows Explorer Addons for Power Users | MakeUseOf.com - Windows Exploerer er ikke akkurat kjent for å være den mest avanserte filbehandleren på markedet, men heldigvis finnes det gode muligheter for å utvide funksjonaliteten også her. Her får du en liste med 7 gode tips til å forbedre filbehandlingsverk [...]

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by 6 Useful Vista Features You Didn’t Know About | MakeUseOf.com
    2008-05-29 15:48:42

    [...] got annoyed with Windows Explorer? Haven’t we all. Shankar offered some tips a few weeks back for the power user, but if that’s a bit much then there is one simple thing you can do to [...]

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by PP BLOG# » Blog Archive » 7 Windows Explorer Addons for Power Users
    2008-05-31 00:30:57

    [...] 原文：7 Windows Explorer Addons for Power Users [...]

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by white rabbit
    2008-06-16 14:33:23

    QT Tab Bar is the ****! Thank you for posting this, otherwise I may have never known about it. If this kinda functionality was added to Vista I’d be the first one to buy it. On the other hand I’m glad I can have that functionality with Vista. Tabs, and the extra file previews and folder previews, and more, I mean it’s just amazing!

    Reply to this comment
     
    Comment by Carlo Mendoza
    2008-06-28 06:05:24

    Folder Size is neat! I just might try that.

    This may not be an add-on, but you might also be interested in this tip I just discovered:

    Get a List of Files or Directories in Windows Explorer

    Reply to this comment
     
    Pingback by 专注.NET，JAVA技术 » 8款精心挑选的强大的资源管理器插件
    2008-07-03 05:53:16

    [...] 原文：7 Windows Explorer Addons for Power Users 译文：8款精心挑选的强大的资源管理器插件 译者：LiGht [...]

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