Three utilities to enhance functionality in Windows Explorer

Posted on September 27, 2007 at 7:36 am

Unfortunately due to many problems that people have with Windows Explorer, such as random error messages and computer crashes, many people want to change or replace Windows Explorer altogether with a more robust alternative. I have tried this myself, but have found that I end up always coming back to the default Explorer installed in Windows because it’s just there and works fine most of the time.

However, there are a couple of nifty and free tools that you can install on top of Windows Explorer that can add a few useful and convenient features. Yesterday I ran into a site where I found three Windows Explorer utilities that you might want to try out.

Display the contents of two folders at once in Windows Explorer

The first utility that I really liked is called FolderBox. FolderBox basically allows you to display the contents of two folders at once by adding an extra pane to the lower part of the Explorer interface. Also, you can configure up to five tabs of "boxes" with additional drives or for your favorite folders and access them with a single click.

Once you install the program, you need to activate it in Windows Explorer by going to View and then Explorer Bar and choosing Folder Box.

You can add more folder boxes to the bottom and configure their default locations by clicking on the FolderBox Options button that’s at the far left.

Create a new folder in Windows Explorer via a hotkey

The second useful utility is called NewFolder and allows you to create a new folder by using a hotkey or by clicking a single button on the toolbar. It’s a very simple extension to Explorer, but it’s so much easier than right-clicking, choosing New and then choosing Folder.

Quickly configure context menu option Open With for any file type

The last utility that I liked was OpenExpert, which basically takes over the Open With submenu in the Explorer context menu and allows you to configure any filetype with more than one program. By default in Windows Explorer, each filetype can only be associated with a single program and therefore when you right-click and choose Open With…, if you want to use another program, you have to click on More Programs and then choose the other program.

For example, if you have a JPEG graphics file and sometimes you open it in Adobe Photoshop to add some effects, but other times you open it in Corel PhotoPaint to do something else, it would be nice if you could just choose between the two when you clicked on Open With. Using this nifty little app, you can!

You can add an unlimited number of applications for each filetype and you can easily export your settings and import them onto another computer! Nice!

So check those out and hopefully your experience with Windows Explorer will be slightly better! Enjoy!

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2 Responses to “Three utilities to enhance functionality in Windows Explorer”

Alek Davis said on : September 27th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

Thank you, thank you! I have been looking for something like this (specifically, FolderBox-like) for a long time. Great!