Windows File Explorer does the job, but only just. No quick previews, clunky cloud access, and tedious batch operations make day-to-day file management more difficult than it needs to be. These free add-ons fix that.
6. Listary
People have tried a lot of File Explorer search tricks over the past decade, but they've always failed over time. That's why so many people have relied on Everything Search for years; nothing beats its lightning-fast file search speed.
But Listary has recently won over users because it does something Everything can't: It integrates directly into File Explorer and every dialog box in Windows. So instead of navigating to a folder, you can just type in a file or folder name and go directly to it.
5. TeraCopy
While Listary handles searching, copying large files on Windows is still a pain. The progress bar is unreliable, the transfer randomly fails, and while Windows has a pause button, it doesn’t always work as expected. Pausing isn’t instantaneous, and if your system crashes or reboots, you can’t pick up where you left off.
TeraCopy replaces the default copy handler with a more advanced file transfer utility. Whenever you move or copy files on Windows, TeraCopy automatically manages the progress, displaying the actual transfer speed and accurate time estimates. You can easily pause the transfer if you need to free up bandwidth for other tasks.
People work with cloud storage every day to manage article drafts, code repositories, and research files. But constantly switching between browser tabs and syncing entire folders is time-consuming and clutters your device. Mountain Duck solves this problem by displaying cloud drives like regular storage in File Explorer.
Mountain Duck is compatible with most of the best cloud storage services—not just popular ones like Google Drive , but also FTP servers, WebDAV, and dozens of more technical storage options like Wasabi and Backblaze. The app includes pre-configured templates for these services, so you don’t have to figure out the complicated server details yourself.
3. DropIt
If you regularly download research PDFs , client drafts, images, or code samples to your Downloads folder, that folder can quickly become cluttered. While you could manage these files manually by moving them to the appropriate folders, no one does that, especially when you’re dealing with dozens of them every day.
DropIt is one of my favorite Windows automation utilities, even though it hasn't been updated in a while. It makes file management easier by monitoring folders and moving files based on rules you set.
2. QuickLook
Windows File Explorer's Preview pane is a convenient way to view images and text files in the right pane without opening them first. However, this feature only supports basic image formats, plain text, and some Office documents (with inconsistent results). QuickLook is a free utility that lets you preview any file by pressing the spacebar and close the file by pressing Esc .
Whether it’s a PDF, an image, a video, or even a ZIP file , QuickLook shows the contents instantly. You can flip through multi-page documents, play videos, and even browse folders without opening them. For someone who handles dozens of files a day, this feature lets you browse through files without having to deal with multiple applications and their loading times.
Bulk Rename Utility handles complex file renaming tasks that File Explorer can't handle. While File Explorer only adds basic sequential numbers when renaming in bulk, this tool can rename multiple files and even entire folders using advanced patterns and rules.
Bulk Rename Utility offers a variety of options to rename files using dates, metadata, change case, insert text at specific locations, update extensions, or use regular expressions. You can extract EXIF data from photos or ID3 tags from music files to create meaningful names based on the actual file contents. Live previews show you exactly what each file will look like before applying changes, so you know what to expect.
In the following article, we will present the basic operations to recover deleted data in Windows 7 with the support tool Recuva Portable. With Recuva Portable, you can store it in any convenient USB, and use it whenever needed. The tool is compact, simple, easy to use with some of the following features:
CCleaner scans for duplicate files in just a few minutes, then lets you decide which ones are safe to delete.
Windows doesn't come with security set up by default, which means there are some default settings you need to change.
USB devices have become indispensable in everyday life, allowing us to connect a wide variety of essential hardware to our PCs.
If you properly lock down your guest Wi-Fi network, you can share your Internet connection with any visitors without sharing any other information.
For some reason, your Windows 10 computer lost Admin rights, every time you open an application on the screen you receive an error message. So how to restore lost Admin rights, please refer to the article below of WebTech360.
In this article, WebTech360 will guide you how to turn off the firewall on Windows 11.
After a long wait, the first major update of Windows 11 has officially been released.
The Unhandled exception has occurred error is not related to a specific application, making it more difficult to resolve. This article will guide you through some ways to fix the Unhandled exception has occurred error on Windows 10.
These days, most PCs and Apple devices can handle both MOV and MP4 files, at least to some extent. However, the need to convert MOV video files to MP4 files has not diminished.
Recognizing this need, major online messaging services use a technique called end-to-end encryption, to secure and protect users' conversations.
Setting up multiple monitors on Windows is quite simple and only takes a few minutes to do. After setting up multi-monitor mode (multiple screens), you can set up separate wallpapers for each screen. To do this, please refer to the article below from WebTech360.
Hidden deep within Windows is a world of command lines that few people know about. In this article, we will guide you on how to fix errors and make your computer more secure using the cmd command line tool.
Instructions on how to enter BIOS on Windows 10 for you, with video illustration.
Clipchamp is the default video editor on Windows 11, but if you just need to make a quick cut, split a simple photo, or add music to a clip, the classic editor inside the Photos Legacy app is a much better choice.
In the following article, we will present the basic operations to recover deleted data in Windows 7 with the support tool Recuva Portable. With Recuva Portable, you can store it in any convenient USB, and use it whenever needed. The tool is compact, simple, easy to use with some of the following features:
CCleaner scans for duplicate files in just a few minutes, then lets you decide which ones are safe to delete.
Windows doesn't come with security set up by default, which means there are some default settings you need to change.
USB devices have become indispensable in everyday life, allowing us to connect a wide variety of essential hardware to our PCs.
If you properly lock down your guest Wi-Fi network, you can share your Internet connection with any visitors without sharing any other information.
For some reason, your Windows 10 computer lost Admin rights, every time you open an application on the screen you receive an error message. So how to restore lost Admin rights, please refer to the article below of WebTech360.
In this article, WebTech360 will guide you how to turn off the firewall on Windows 11.
After a long wait, the first major update of Windows 11 has officially been released.
The Unhandled exception has occurred error is not related to a specific application, making it more difficult to resolve. This article will guide you through some ways to fix the Unhandled exception has occurred error on Windows 10.
These days, most PCs and Apple devices can handle both MOV and MP4 files, at least to some extent. However, the need to convert MOV video files to MP4 files has not diminished.
Recognizing this need, major online messaging services use a technique called end-to-end encryption, to secure and protect users' conversations.
Setting up multiple monitors on Windows is quite simple and only takes a few minutes to do. After setting up multi-monitor mode (multiple screens), you can set up separate wallpapers for each screen. To do this, please refer to the article below from WebTech360.
Hidden deep within Windows is a world of command lines that few people know about. In this article, we will guide you on how to fix errors and make your computer more secure using the cmd command line tool.
Instructions on how to enter BIOS on Windows 10 for you, with video illustration.
Clipchamp is the default video editor on Windows 11, but if you just need to make a quick cut, split a simple photo, or add music to a clip, the classic editor inside the Photos Legacy app is a much better choice.
