EF Commander is a file manager for the Windows which comes complete with bubble and online help. You can search directory trees and directories and perform actions, including Run, on files. You can also check file attributes and edit files with search-and-replace and drag-and-drop functionality.

The application allows you to use the internal editor or associate one of your choosing to edit files, easily view files and configure the buttons to suit your needs, and get system and disk information with a click of the mouse.

Download EF Commander 6.61 in Softonic

Undelete Plus is a quick and effective way to retrieve accidentally deleted files, files removed from the Recycle Bin, in a DOS window, from a network drive, from Windows Explorer with the SHIFT key held down. If you've ever accidently deleted a file or experienced problems with your system after a major change, check out undelete plus

Download Undelete Plus 2.95 in Softonic

ReNamer is a small, yet very flexible file renaming tool, that offers all the standard renaming procedures, including prefixes, suffixes, replacements, case changes. The program can also be used to remove brackets, add number sequences, remove digits or symbols and change file extensions.

The program allows you to combine multiple renaming actions as a rule set, applying each action in logical sequence, which can be saved, loaded and managed within the program. In addition, ReNamer supports Meta Tags, such as: ID3v1, ID3v2, EXIF; and has an ability to rename Folders.

Download ReNamer 5.30 in Softonic

Both the iPhone and iPod Touch are great tools to have your favorite music and videos always with you, but what if you also want to carry files or documents?

The solution is then DiskAid, a simple tool that lets you manage the contents of your Apple device as if it was just another removable drive plugged into your computer. DiskAid doesn't require any special drives or difficult configuration at all; just connect the iPhone or iPod Touch to the PC and you're good to go.

DiskAid lets you browse the contents of the device in a neatly organized folder structure, drag and drop these contents to and from the PC and also perform some file management tasks like creating new folders or renaming others.

On the downside, you'll find that the folder structure is not easy to recognize, that is, folders' and files' names do not always correspond to the apps and files you have in your device. For example, while checking my music collection, I saw that all the MP3 files were renamed to strange character sets instead of their regular names.

With DiskAid you can easily use your iPhone or iPod Touch as a storage unit for files and documents, and also transfer them to and from the PC. You'll have to guess what their real names are though.

Download DiskAid 1.2 in Softonic

Xplorer2 is a file and information manager that adheres to the philosophy "efficiency through simplicity". Without reinventing the wheel, it integrates the best features of Windows' shell architecture in a small, resource efficient package that's instantly familiar to work with. But look a little closer and you'll discover a whole new world under the surface that offers power, precision and flexibility, and will boost your everyday productivity no end!

All the shell goodies from windows explorer — none of the hassle! Plus all the features you would expect from a powerful tabbed dual-pane file manager, including Omni-Finder, a find files module that simply outclasses all known search tools. Don't take our word for it, seeing is believing!

Shell namespace explorer

Xplorer2 will browse and manage all your folders including virtual ones folders like zipfolders, webfolders, even FTP, as long as these services are available in your system. If you extend your shell namespace with new folder types, Xplorer2 will read them too, in a familiar tree/view window format.

Tabbed dual-pane interface

Can't decide between dual pane and tabbed browsing? No worries, Xplorer2 does them all. The traditional dual-pane format, handy for comparisons and file transfers, is augmented so that each pane can hold more than one folder. Hopping from one folder to another is just a tab click away.

Instant preview of files

Xplorer2 can preview most text, graphics, audio/video, and html & office documents — and does so in nearly all folder types including zipfolders etc. Wherever it finds file-like content it offers file-like access!

Browsing flexibility

You can browse your content in most useful view modes supported by explorer, including thumbnails. Within large folders you will appreciate the organization capabilities offered by arranging in groups and multi-way sort. Xplorer2 will remember your favorite mode for each folder.

Download Xplorer2 1.7.1.4 Beta in Softonic

It's a little known fact that deleting files or formatting your hard drive doesn't actually remove the data from your PC. This can leave you vulnerable to attacks from hackers and identity thieves looking for credit card numbers, bank account statements, passwords, and other personal information that still resides on your drive.

Recent studies show that 74% of hard drives sold or given away contain data that can be easily read and recovered - and 36% of those hard drives had even been reformatted.* Avoid this danger by permanently wiping your hard drive using DriveScrubber to ensure that sensitive information cannot be recovered.

Features:

• Permanently erases all traces of data from your hard drive
• Restores your hard drive to its original condition, just like it was new
• Eliminates all remnants of even the most stubborn viruses and spyware
• Includes bootable CD-ROM and floppy disk creator for full-drive wipes
• Drive security analysis displays a graphical representation of your drives' current risk levels
• Offers a wide range of advanced wiping options and techniques
• Easy-to-use interface
• Support for multiple hard drives and partitions
• Unlimited email, phone, and web support
• For up to three PCs

Download DriveScrubber 3.5.5 in Softonic

If you're bored of Windows Explorer or would like to experiment with something a little different, then NexusFile may be your answer.

NexusFile is a powerful and fast file manager that allows you to browse through the contents of your hard drive with great ease. The vast majority of its functions can be controlled by keyboard shortcuts, which makes it quicker and more convenient than other programs especially Explorer. The program also includes integrated utilities that let you go beyond just file browsing and exploring such as a file extractor for compressed files in ZIP, RAR and ACE and it also allows you to create ZIP files, rename multiple files and directories simultaneously, add a description to your personal files and directories, and much more. The program features a very intuitive interface also can be customized completely, using colour coding to better distinguish the various elements, changing fonts and so on.

This is a neat little alternative to Explorer although it takes some getting used to but if you invest the time, you might find yourself sticking with it.

Download NexusFile 5 in Softonic

Power users often find the standard Windows File Explorer too limited and need a more complete file manager to suit their needs. If you're among them look no further because we've got the right app for you.

Q-Dir is a multi-pane file manager for Windows that makes file management more convenient and above all, far more comfortable for you. Having several windows pointing to different locations on your hard drive makes it much easier to move or copy data from one folder to another, and also makes browsing faster. Q-Dir supports different layouts with 2, 3 o 4 panes and each one of them can be configured separately.

The program doesn't really add any extra function to the ones already featured in Windows Explorer, but there's one special feature I did like: the possibility to show files in different colors according to the file type, such as blue for images, red for music and so on. Plus, this color code is totally customizable.

Q-Dir doesn't require installation and can even been run from a USB stick.

Though it doesn't feature any special tool, Q-Dir is still a more complete file manager with multiple panes and customizable color codes for file types.

Download Q-Dir 3.16 in Softonic

XYplorer is a simple to use file manager which replaces Windows Explorer with several enhanced functions and interface improvements.

Whatsmore, it's completely portable so you can put it on a USB stick and use it wherever you want and whenever you need it. The biggest advantage this program has over Windows Explorer is undoubtabley the Move and Copy dialogues. XYplorer allows you to configure hotkeys to carry out the most common copying and moving operations that you require meaning less mouse movements and faster management of your files and folders. XYplorer also removes the need for multiple folder windows along your taskbar because it employs the use of tabbed file management much in the same way as Firefox does with internet browsing. These tabs are fully customizable too - you can drag them around, rename them, hide them, lock them and much much more. This tabbed feature does give XYplorer a distinct browser style feel especially the featuring of an address bar which accepts not just folders, but also files, URLs, and search terms. This latter function can save hours of time searching through files by allowing you to search directly in XYplorer - without any need to use Windows search tool - simply by placing a "?" between the location and search pattern.

A truly impressive replacement for Windows Explorer - once you've used it you may never go back.

Download XYplorer 7.30.0000 in Softonic

Back up software has gone through something of a boom of late. With the huge increases in storage, more and more of us are on the look out for reliable, stable file protection. GoodSync is such a program - it offers fast, automated back up, synchronisation and restore between multiple devices - all in a relatively simple and easy-to-use environment.

Upon first launching GoodSync, you're immediately prompted to select source and destination folders (essentially, your original file folder and the new one you'd like to use as a backup location). The destination folder could be on the same computer, on an iPod, a network drive or any other external storage device. We tested GoodSync with a network drive and found it exceptionally fast.

Additionally, GoodSync's automation feature does exactly what you'd hope for: automatic synchronisation and backup with a raft of configuration options. If, like me, you're backing up important work documents to a network drive, you can easily pick how often this job should be done, to do it just on shutdown, or to allow the task scheduler to handle the job.

You can choose either to back up an entire folder (or folder system) or just specific files. This, along with GoodSync's effective duplicate controls, means that for a simple tool, this program offers you a highly customisable back up and sync solution, enough to offer any user true peace of mind.

A reliable and effective back up solution. Highly recommended.

Download GoodSync 7.2.8 in Softonic

Instant File Name Search is an effective search tool that helps you find any type of file on your PC or local network almost instantly. It does an initial index of all your drives which later on allows it to perform much faster searches. This index list must be maintained so that it is up to date and you can set the program to refresh each time it starts up.

It supports complete or incomplete names, wildcards and boolean operators. You can also set the program to exclude certain types of file or directories resulting in speedier results.

Download Instant File Name Search 1.7.5 in Softonic

One of the worst moments you can live as a computer user is realizing you just deleted your most precious photos from the hard drive by accident. Don't worry, it has happened to all of us at some point.

In any case, before you start banging your head against your desk, try using UndeleteMyFiles and see if you can recover your important files. This tool analyzes your hard drive and finds any file that's suitable for recovering, even if you've already emptied the Recycle Bin.

Bear in mind though that this suitability depends on many factors, such as how much time has passed since you deleted the files and how much you've been using the computer, but as long there's a chance, there's hope.

UndeleteMyFiles is very easy to use and works not only with hard drives, but also with removable drives. Plus, it includes some file management extra features such as a file wiper, a disk imaging tool and an email recovery tool, among others.

With UndeleteMyFiles there's still a chance to recover those mistakenly deleted files, either from your hard drive or from any other removable media.

Download UndeleteMyFiles 2.5 in Softonic

If you're anything like me then you're probably installing and uninstalling apps on a daily basis, which usually messes up all file associations in the system.

In that case, you can either repair them manually or run a program like Types. This simple tool lists all the file types available in your system and helps you view and edit their associations with certain apps. This means that, for instance, if you've always opened JPG images with XnView but this association has been taken over by another graphic editor, you can easily restore it with Types. Plus, it doesn't even require installation.

Besides file associations, Types also lets you edit icons, context menu, properties and other features of all file types shown in Windows Explorer. On the downside, the program is not very easy to use and doesn't include any documentation either, so you better know what you're doing before editing anything.

Types can help you restore broken file associations in your system, though it may not be easy to use for a beginner.

Download Types 1.0.2 in Softonic

Bulk Rename Utility is a utility which allows you to easily rename files and directories, based upon extemely flexible criteria. Add date-stamps, replace numbers, insert strings, convert case, add auto-numbers, process folders and subfolders....plus lots more.

Bulk Rename Utility is easy to use and has a small memory “footprint” so can be left running all the time without consuming all your memory. It started life as a Visual Basic application, but as its popularity has grown it has been completely rewritten in C++ (MFC) to be robust and lightweight - and very, very fast! It casn easily handle folders/discs containing well over 100,000 entries, and it can rename 1,000's of entries in seconds.

Download Bulk Rename Utility 2.7.0.3 in Softonic

Back2Life is a fast and really easy way to recover files emptied from the Recycle Bin, deleted by application programs or via a command prompt, uninstalled, removed with directories, lost due to hardware or software failures, power failures, virus attacks, system restore or drive reformat.

Back2Life is user-friendly and intuitive to use, even for non-technical users. Looking and acting similar to Windows Explorer, it provides recovery access to erased folders and lost files, which can be treated just like normal ones. So no exceptional skills are needed - find missing files and bring them Back To Life!

Download Back2Life 2.6.1 in Softonic

DataRecovery could be the key that lets you undelete files that have been deleted by accident. This application is able to analyze your hard-drive (supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS) and locate files that have been deleted, offering you the option to undelete them.

How is this possible? Simple: because Windows doesn't actually delete files without overwriting the part of the physical disk where the file was located. With this program, retrieving deleted files will not always be possible, but it may just be enough to get what you want.

Download DataRecovery 2.4.3 in Softonic

Because people are on the move more and more, synchronisation is an increasingly important part of the mobile life.

If you're constantly looking for ways to make your life easier in this regard then you may well like Allway Sync. The program synchronises data between laptops, mobile devices and just about anything else that runs Windows.

It's completely free although if you're going to use it for business purposes, you have to request a licence from the developers. The program can perform as many synchronisations as you need in one go and it features on-screen hints to help you on your way so it's very useful for beginners.

One of the problems with synching is monitoring what happened to your files since the last synch. The program takes care of this by monitoring all changes in its database. Whats more, the developers have also released a USB version which you can take everywhere and install on all of your separate devices.

This also means that you can synchronize removable devices (USB key, flash drive, CDRW) with a local drive which is life saving if you ever experience a hard disk crash. Both the interface and logarhythms have been updated in this latest version so that the synchronisations are fatser and the program is generally much better presented and easier to use.

For any Windows device, this is a very quick and light synchroniser which does the hard work automatically so you don't have to worry about it.

Download Allway Sync 7.1.2 in Softonic

Sometimes you need a quick and easy solution to your conversion needs whether it's audio or images that are the problem.

Konvertor is a simple multimedia viewer and converter which supports conversion of various formats of images, animations, audio, video and text formats quickly and easily. Konvertor is able to convert just about any conceivable format which makes it extremely powerful. You can also use Konverter to organise your files by labeling them with personalised descriptions and as regards images, add filters. These include such effects as resizing, blurring and charcoal effects and it even accepts Photoshop plugins. However, the program only works alongside Internet Explorer as a plugin so Firefox users will be disappointed. By right clicking on images on any internet page, you can preview them in Konverter and be given options which format you want to convert it to. It also offers you the option to send the photo by e-mail or set it as your Windows wallpaper. The developers claim it supports over 140 formats and while that may be hard to believe, you'll certainly find it hard to catch it out.

Konverter is a great IE add on for anyone that wants to have an all powerful conversion tool for images and some audio.

Download Konvertor 3.65.5 in Softonic

CloneSpy is a very efficient program that finds duplicate files on your PC, allowing you to free space on your hard disk. This ensures your operating system to run better and even faster, depending on the type of duplicate files you had.

You almost surely have doubled music files which occupy useless space on your HDD. This happens when, for example, you borrow a music CD from a friend and you copy it all without realizing you might already have some of the songs included in your friend’s CD.

Before you can start scanning your system though, add a folder in the ‘pool1’ section. When you browse the directory you want to analyze, bear in mind you need to press the ‘add selected folder’ or the ‘add all sibling folders’ button, otherwise the process will not work, and you will be left with a feeling of not knowing what happened. If you don’t change settings, the program will ask you every time before deleting a file, always showing you the two supposedly duplicate files.

Although ConeSpy’s GUI is surely not so user friendly, the program is so useful that we can close an eye on that. It helps you find all duplicate files on your computer to free space on your hard disk and make your PC work better.

Download CloneSpy 2.32 in Softonic

Archivarius 3000 is a full-featured application to search documents and email on the desktop computer, your local network and removable drives (CD, DVD). The documents can then be searched by keyword or using a query language.

Due to full Unicode support, Archivarius 3000 allows correct search in multilingual documents. For instance, a Greek-German bilingual document can only be handled in Unicode, otherwise Greek symbols and German diacritics would be lost.

File names are also in Unicode, which enable correct handling of Asian documents (Japanese, Chinese, Korean). Archivarius 3000 searches not only e-mail messages, but also attachments, including compressed ones. The following formats are supported: Outlook, Outlook Express, The Bat!, PocoMail, Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, and those that are compatible.

Server mode allows you to search remotely and have remote access to your documents through any web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer). This mode can be switched on with a single mouse click.

Download Archivarius 3000 4.05 in Softonic