windows-explorer-replacement-filepilot-is-awesome/

[giscus[bot]]

windows-explorer-replacement-filepilot-is-awesome/

In this post I describe my experience with the Windows File Explorer replacement, File Pilot. It's blazingly fast, feature rich, and has hotkeys everywhere

https://andrewlock.net/windows-explorer-replacement-filepilot-is-awesome/?__readwiseLocation=

[dracan]

Nice - I'll have to have a play with this. I've been a long-time user of Xplorer², and rarely touch Windows Explorer. But it's always good to try something new - and based on your post, File Pilot looks pretty good! :)

[andrewlock]

Funny story, I had planned to ping you about this directly, as thought I seemed up your alley 😅 Xplorer is one of those that's been on my radar, but never tried out, I'll take a look too, thanks 👍

[yugabe]

Does it work well with file shares and OneDrive? How about image thumbnails and cloud-only files?

[andrewlock]

Can't say for sure, as I don't use those, but it works with Google Drive, so probably! 😄

[RichardD2]

For me, the most obvious feature that's missing - and it's missing from the free "files" app that you mentioned as well - is the folder tree.

It's all very well showing me a list of drives and places. But if I can't drill down into the folder tree to see which folders exist without starting at the drive root and opening each folder in turn, it's not going to cut the mustard.

[andrewlock]

Interesting, you know, I didn't even notice that was missing, I guess that shows how much I use it 😉

[thomaslevesque]

It's true that it's pretty fast in general. One thing that doesn't feel fast, though, is opening the context menu. There's almost one second of delay before it shows up; in fact, it feels slightly slower than in Explorer.

Other than that, its seems pretty nice. I think I'll try to play with it for a few days.

And I don't think £40 is very expensive for a perpetual license for a tools that really makes your life easier.

[andrewlock]

One thing that doesn't feel fast, though, is opening the context menu

Yeah, that's true. I remember the developer saying this is basically a Win32 API that is super slow (which is the same API Explorer uses) which is why it's super slow.

And I don't think £40 is very expensive for a perpetual license for a tools that really makes your life easier.

I'm with you, I've just seen a bunch of other comments around railing on it 😉

[Michounet]

Perpetual license is 160£/200€/$200.

[puschie286]

Tried it, but no network drives... so unusable in modern environment where most files are stored on network drives. Well, sounds interesting but it lack one of the core functionality (and the source of most problems in the windows file explorer) - lets see how the full release will be

[RandallWoodman]

I agree, the network support is seriously lacking. I put in a local network address (\\< servername > and nothing. I could open the network drive in Explorer and click on a directory that would then open File Pilot. I could also navigate to network servers I had already visited. This is kind of a big deal since I have to move around to a bunch of different servers.

[udlose]

hmm, MalwareBytes doesn't seem to like the url...but its VirusTotal url scan looks clean: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/6842d6f5e0ea5de0b1f86bdc73bf563616f3ea493b2a71b9ca47e2c7c86af47e

Website blocked due to suspicioustld
Malwarebytes Browser Guard blocked this page because it may contain malicious activity.

Website blocked: filepilot.tech
v3.1.2 | Heuristics: suspicioustld

We strongly recommend you do not continue. You may be putting your safety at risk by visiting this site. For more information, visit Malwarebytes Support.

[andrewlock]

Meh, it's complaining about the .tech address. Pretty weak sauce IMO

[MrJacquers]

Downloaded the standalone exe. It just shows a blank white screen on W10. And I don't think I'll be paying $40 for a file browser.

[Bristol41]

It's very nice BUT...
You can't copy and paste from RDP/ScreenConnect/etc into the folder. You have to open explorer, paste, and close.
Which also means you can't drag and drop from the above, either.
Response from developer is good, but it needs some fine tuning. And without any indication on when updates will occur I find myself on the fence. I forked over the $ because it is super fast, but am now a bit concerned.

[afluegge]

What about "Directory Opus" as some other alternative? I like it very much.

[crowz4k]

Hey Andrew!
I’m really glad you wrote about this. It actually made me switch to File Pilot.
Do you happen to have a guide on how to replace File Explorer with File Pilot, specifically how to make Win + E open File Pilot instead of File Explorer?

[andrewlock]

If you have the latest version of FilePilot and you use the installer, then this is one of the standard options 🙂

[crowz4k]

Didn't noticed that! Thanks

[valekseev-acu]

Thanks for the article, it was interesting, but...
Total Commander is the only way to go! :)

For more than 20 years its window is always opened on my desktop.

(Strange that nobody has mentioned it yet)

[Andrzej-W]

@andrewlock You should try Total Commander. I bought it more than 25 years ago and still use it. Current price is 42 Euro + VAT. This is lifetime licence and you can use your copy on as many computers as you want. The program is under active development. It offers MANY very useful features, and if that is not enough, you can install add-ons. Take the time to read the documentation, explore the configuration options, and you'll see that this program will truly change your life. The installer is only ~7 MB.

[andrewlock]

Thanks, I'm well aware of total commander, and how much people love it 😁 I just don't have the desire to spend the required time to rebuild all the muscle memory I have😅 If I'd found it 25 years ago then I likely would have jumped at it😉

[wnandolo]

The app is awesome. Very fast. Minus the the tree view, of course.