Gadgets

These 5 apps are better than Windows Explorer for organizing your files

Published

1 day ago

March 23, 2025

Empowerment

These 5 apps are better than Windows Explorer for organizing your files

Summary

Total Commander offers easy file organization and synchronization with intuitive tools and FTP server management.

Directory Opus allows customization, duplicate file search, and file conversion to enhance file exploration.

OneCommander provides a user-friendly interface, file automation tools, and color tagging for easy file sorting.

Most of us stick to File Explorer in Windows 11 as our default file organization app because it does the job and has a familiar interface we’ve all been using for years. However, there are many third-party file management and explorer apps out there that are worth trying.

These apps offer features like multiple viewing windows, mass file renaming, and other tools that make organizing and converting your files and browsing your Windows 11 laptop easier. These five Windows Explorer alternatives are the best solutions if you’re always searching through countless files and want a more efficient system to get things done faster.

Windows 11 is copying one of the iPhone’s best features

Microsoft is gearing up to release a new iPhone-inspired Start Menu feature that makes app organization a breeze on Windows 11.

1 Total Commander

Easy packing and unpacking of most formats

Total Commander is a super-handy tool for organizing your files and folders. It’s a shareware app that offers a 30-day trial before you need to pay a $50 once-off fee for a security key. It’s worth the price for the intuitive dual-pane default dual-pane view, and you can even tweak it to display up to four panes, with parent directories on the left and highlighted files on the right.

Total Commander makes creating and managing an FTP server easy, and you can set speed limits or pause the file transfers if you’re worried about system resources.

This app has numerous file management tools and can synchronize different folders, so you don’t lose critical information. It has shortcut buttons to pack or unpack files in a folder and has built-in compatibility with zip, rar, and other standard formats, so you don’t need third-party apps. You can also rename multiple files in bulk, either by extension or using a simple search-and-replace tool. Total Commander makes creating and managing an FTP server easy, and you can set speed limits or pause the file transfers if you’re worried about system resources.

2 Directory Opus

Easy exploring and file converting

Directory Opus is another file management app with a dual-pane display that makes navigation easier. One of its best features is its in-depth customization options, which let you tweak its toolbars, hotkeys, and views. It also has a light and dark mode, and you can download various themes from the Opus Support Forum to customize its look.

The Find Duplicate Files tool makes it easier to free space and declutter your drive. You can search by directory, exclude online files, and filter by file type for more accurate searches. The app also has a split tool to break huge files like ISOs into smaller, more manageable parts and a joining tool to combine later. I like the simple Print Folder feature, which takes a screenshot of my folder contents and converts it into a PDF file for me to view later.