The old FreeCommander 2009 used to be one of our go to tools when it came to fixing problems like files being hidden by a virus infection. Here we list 8 free portable file managers that you can use anywhere, even on a USB flash drive. Usually a file manager will be either like an enhanced version of Explorer or a Commander type program with fixed panes. Third party file managers have been around for decades and many are far better at file management than Windows Explorer. There are tools around that can add tabs to Explorer, but it still falls short elsewhere. Something like a web browser shows it’s efficient to use tabs so you can quickly switch between locations. One drawback of Explorer is you need to have floating windows for each separate directory you want to work with. If you are someone that does a lot of file management and copies, moves, renames or deletes files quite often, you will no doubt find Explorer severely lacking in several areas.

But in the end, Explorer still pretty much looks and works the same as it’s always done. In Windows 8 the ribbon interface was introduced in Explorer which did help make file operations somewhat easier, along with a pause option for file copying. Windows File Explorer is not that different now to what it was in the days of Windows XP or even 98.

One area of Microsoft Windows that really hasn’t changed that much over the years is file management.

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