DailyApps » shell

Giveaway : xplorer² – Windows Explorer Replacement

Karthik Kastury — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 04:00:46 +0000

What’s the most common thing that you do on your PC? I’m sure it has to be managing thousands of files on your computer. Managing files is something that most of us do on a daily basis. Be it organizing music, documents or finding that important presentation there are times when the default Windows Explorer can be downright irritating and a pain to use.

But if you are a power user, I’m sure by now you should be loathing upon Windows Explorer. For those of you who have grown sick of Windows Explorer, xplorer² is the solution to many of your problems.

Once you’ve installed xplorer² the first thing you will notice is the dual pane navigation system. Having a dual pane system (as shown in the screenshot above) means copying and moving files has become a lot more easier than it was with Windows Explorer. And if dual pane navigation isn’t enough for you then there is still tabbed navigation. I’m sure having a tabbed navigation will help you in performing complex directory management operations in a few clicks, compared to what it’d take you with Windows Explorer.

What’s the most irritating thing about Windows Explorer according to you? For more it has to be the process involved in creating a new folder. It takes a minimum of 3 clicks to create a new folder, which is a little too much. With xplorer² it just takes a single click to create a new folder, and most importantly you can even assign a keyboard shortcut for it, something that the default Windows Explorer have.

xplorer² comes in two flavors, Lite and Pro. The Lite version is completely free to use while the Pro version that runs you down 29.95$ has many features that you don’t want to miss.

Here are some of the stuff you will only find in the Pro version..

Save and restore tabs
Multi-column sort (using shift+column click)
Individual folder settings
Search for text in office and PDF documents using filters
Search within archives, FTP, webfolders, and more
Search for text using regular expressions
Customizable info bars (status bar for each pane)
Mini- and densely packed thumbnails
Deep synchronization (including subfolders)
Detect duplicate files & cleanup
Robust background file transfers
Color coding of filenames based upon a custom pattern (ex. by file extension)
Keyboard (hotkey) customization

The Giveaway

Well during the birthday celebrations of DailyApps we have 5 Pro Licenses of xplorer² (valued at 29.95$ each) to giveaway to you guys. All you have to do is drop a comment below providing both your name and email address so that we can get in touch with you later.

We will be selecting the winners randomly using a random number generator. Here’s how we are going to give out the licenses for the giveaway of xplorer².

1 Winner will be picked from Comment Number 1 through 5
2 Winners will be picked from Comment Number 6 through 20
2 Winners will be picked from Comment Numbers 20 through how many ever comments are there.

You can leave your entries till 28th July 11:00 PM Eastern Time…

Cairo – A Windows Shell Alternative

Karthik Kastury — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:33:13 +0000

Microsoft has always been loathed for creating User Interfaces with Windows, that aren’t much effective. And in that regard OSX has always come out on top for superior UI and usability. Well Microsoft did work hard with Vista, but the Usability of Vista has only gone from bad to worst compared to Windows XP. A bunch of developers are working on a Windows Shell Replacement called Cairo, that aims to provide a superior UI and rich usability compared to OSX.

Cairo has been in stealth development for quite sometime now, and it has gone much beyond a Windows taskbar replacement. But it’s since evolved into a complete replacement for the Windows shell, with a custom file explorer, favorites manager, and live file previews and more…

The totally revamped Shell aims at providing the best user experience and takes a completely different look at how you access your data. An Alpha release is a few weeks away, and I’m hoping that I get to play with it. Well here a few mockups, for you to feast your eyes upon..

Cairo is currently being developed with Windows Vista in mind, but the developer says that a Windows XP version may also be in the offing.

Visual Task Tips – Shell Enhancement

Karthik Kastury — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 04:20:15 +0000

What is Visual Task Tips?

Visual Task Tips is a lightweight shell enhancement utility. It provides thumbnail preview image for each task in the Windows Taskbar, as seen in Microsoft Windows Vista.

NOTE: Windows XP is required to run Visual Task Tips.

Simple : Visual Task Tips is a simple utility. Just download and install it.
Useful :By using Visual Task Tips you can significantly increase your productivity.
Free :Visual Task Tips is absolutely free for non-commercial use.

Here is a screenshot of Visual Task Tips in action :

Download Visual Task Tips today and increase your productivity…