The Windows 7 Explorer, on Linux
A faithful recreation of Windows 7's Explorer built with Qt6, KDE Frameworks, and libAeroQt, with every file operation handled by KIO. Best enjoyed with AeroThemePlasma.
Warning
Very much a work in progress.
Most things are done, but there are still things that need work. Not really daily-driveable yet.
Built for CachyOS / Arch. Other distros should work given Qt6, KF6 and libAeroQt.
sudo pacman -S qt6-base qt6-multimedia cmake kio kcoreaddons kwidgetsaddons kwindowsystem kio-extras
cmake -B build
cmake --build build -j
./build/explorerYou'll also need libAeroQt.so on your system, built from libaero-qt.
Everything below is checked for at runtime. Without one, the feature it backs is hidden or falls back rather than failing.
| Package | What it gives you |
|---|---|
kio-extras |
Real search behind the search box, and archives that open as folders |
kio-admin |
"Open as Administrator", this desktop's version of the UAC prompt |
ark |
Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder |
ffmpegthumbs, kdegraphics-thumbnailers |
Thumbnails for video, PDF and RAW |
kdenetwork-filesharing |
Samba browsing behind Map network drive |
Explorer answers org.freedesktop.FileManager1, which is what every "Open Containing Folder" in the desktop calls. Dolphin ships a service file for the same name and usually gets there first, so hand it over for your user:
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/dbus-1/services && cp dbus/org.freedesktop.FileManager1.service ~/.local/share/dbus-1/services/
xdg-mime default linux-explorer.desktop inode/directoryBecause the part of a file manager that is genuinely hard to get right, and dangerous to get wrong, isn't Dolphin. It's KIO, a KDE Framework any application can link: overwrite and conflict resolution, permissions, cross-device copies, restorable trash, cancellable progress and undo all live there. Dolphin calls into it; so does this. src/model/FileOps.cpp is a thin facade over KIO jobs, and nothing in this repository reads or writes file contents itself.
What's left to write is the Windows 7 chrome, which is the part worth writing by hand, and which a fork would have made permanently painful to keep in sync with upstream.
- Windows 7 chrome: navigation bar, breadcrumb address bar with per-segment dropdowns, command bar, details pane, and the classic menu bar on Alt
- All eight view modes on Ctrl+Shift+1..8, remembered per folder, with thumbnails and a preview pane
- Details view with a column chooser, sorting, and Win7's "Group by"
- Navigation pane backed by the desktop's shared bookmarks, plus full back / forward / up history
- Drag and drop, including to and from other applications, and spring-loaded folders
- Cut, copy, paste, rename, trash, delete, shortcuts, Send To and undo, all through KIO
- Rename a whole selection at once, the way Win7's F2 does
- Filter as you type; press Enter to search subfolders, then widen to file contents or the whole computer
.zip,.tar.*,.7zand.aropen as folders, with Extract All- Map network drive for SMB, SFTP, FTP, WebDAV and NFS, in UNC (
\\server\share) or URL form - Open as Administrator on folders you can't write to
- An Options dialog laid out like Win7's Folder Options (General / View / Search)
- One instance per session, with window size, pane widths and view settings remembered between runs
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+L, Alt+D, F4 | Edit the address bar |
| Ctrl+E, Ctrl+F, F3 | Search box |
| Backspace, Alt+← / Alt+↑ | Back / up one level |
| F2 / F5 / F11 | Rename / refresh / full screen |
| F6 / Shift+F6 | Cycle panes |
| Ctrl+Shift+1..8 | View modes, or Ctrl+wheel |
| Alt+P / Alt+Enter | Preview pane / properties |
explorer ~/Documents # open a folder
explorer --select ~/a.txt # open its folder with the file selectedWhy don't you also check out the other ones?