Spotlight On . . . Total Commander 7

The best don't always get better, but it's nice to know that old expression is true at least some of the time. Total Commander 7 is a case in point. As a file management utility, essentially a replacement for the unalterably rudimentary Windows file selector/My Computer combination, Total Commander 7 remains the stalwart, stable and vastly powerful file manager it has always been. New in v7 however are some changes, including full compatibility with Windows Vista, which truly help Total Commander step up into the top three utilities in this software category. New features abound. The Compare by Content functions now lets you edit files and re-synchronize manually. Tree panels are available for both of the master file panels. The Lister now supports a text cursor, and you can also center and resize images. File operation logging has been added (a very nice touch, especially for project and research work). Drive letters can be shown in folder tabs. File system plug-ins are now available which support custom columns and thumbnails. The multi-rename tool has been tweaked so you can now edit target names. The copy/overwrite dialog has been beefed up to include compare content, rename target, auto rename, copy all smaller and copy all larger actions. Sorting functions have been expanded. Search on FTP servers has been added. The overwrite dialog now displays preview images and custom fields. If you try to perform a file action which requires Administrator rights, you have the chance to enter the appropriate permissions, password and so on. Even some high-end niceties have been refined, e.g., the addition of Alias commands through the command line for internal work or when calling external programs. There's tons more. The whole idea seems to be to provide all computer users at all skill levels with a robust file manager that can be used at any level of need. After three weeks of absolutely beating up on Total Commander 7, we have to admit that this release seems to be the best version ever. That's quite an accomplishment. If you regularly handle lots and lots of files of any kind, you owe it to yourself to give Total Commander 7 a long look.

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Spotlight On . . . Total Commander 7

Total Commander has been my file manager of choice for about five years. In that time it has evolved from a comparatively simple file utility into an all purpose file access, file management, archiving and file handling tool complete with fully customizable menus and toolbars. Version 7 is just about out the door with Release Candidate 1 appearing at the end of March 2007. If you manage a lot of files on a weekly basis, dual-pane file managers are probably familiar to you already, so learning to use Total Commander effectively should be quite easy. My first goal while reviewing v7 was to determine Windows Vista compatibility and I didn't find any problems at all. A couple of general file manipulation functions are slower than they should be, but that's attributable to some test or beta code that's probably still hanging around in the release candidate. Total Commander v7 received a much-needed face lift including new graphics and window treatment. It looks much better than previous versions. File browsing, copying, moving, renaming, splitting, encoding, decoding, archiving, sorting, space calculations, drive mapping, built-in FTP, back ups and directory updates all work swiftly and smoothly. File synchronization between folders located anywhere on a network or local drives works extremely well. Because of the number of files I handle daily, my workflow includes Total Commander set up to launch with Windows. Developer C. Ghisler & Co., has done a good job of keeping Total Commander small, efficient and powerful. Total Commander v7 does not have a robust file viewer—you can look at text files only. That's a minor gripe which is completely offset by Total Commander v7's excellent performance in all other areas of file management. 4 out of 5 stars