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If you have to frequently rotate in and out of several projects every day, you do need good tools. I use two tools to maintain sanity, dexpot (a free virtual desktop mngr) and xplorer2 (a multi-tabbed file explorer). Let's say you are working on a project and you get a call about another system. Simply click on a new virtual desktop and open xplorer2. In xplorer2, click on a saved folder group of directory locations (they are like firefox tabs, but for dirs/files). You're now ready to work. xplorer2 also lets you sort by custom groups. Thus, your solution/project files will sort to the very top while your code files & folders fall below. I typically run about 75 apps at any given day and maintain about 300 projects. Thus, I have a custom folder group for each system and sub custom folder groups for the very complex systems. xplorer2 also has bookmarks. I type p and instantly go to c:\programs dir etc... There are many apps like xplorer2. Whichever you look into, make sure it has custom groups. Note, you should ditch Win 10 due to privacy issues. Dexpot is rock solid, beautiful, and works with XP & Win 7. I also use Oracle VBox, running 4 XP VMs on any given day (VM for Visual Studio 6, ADO, etc). I leave my box running until it starts to die due to MS sloppy memory leaks (usually need to reboot about 2x a month).

http://www.dexpot.de/
http://zabkat.com/

Let's analyze these "reasons" ...

* virtual desktops -- Virtual Desktops are hidden in Win7 ... gee, let's copy OSX which has had it for *years*
* a rumored tabs in explorer -- xplorer2 has supported this for years
* kernel level sandboxing that all browsers can use -- Sandboxie does it for ALL applications
* much improved power consumption -- we are talking pennies a month on a desktop .. big whoop
* directx 12 with low cpu overhead -- not a fan of forced obsolescence. Games _still_ support DX9 for crying out loud. We already went through this shit with Vista and DirectX 11.
* USB 3 support -- with what devices??

So basically $100 for features that MS should of done **years** ago that I can get elsewhere. *Yawn*.

If you are using other people's computers (which it certainly didn't sound like when you first posted which sounds like you are just looking for excuses now) then I'd suggest one of the bazillion free file managers that can be run completely from USB. There are several but Xplorer II Lite sounds like it would be right up your alley, it uses a classic two pane that has been around since the days of Norton commander.

Again there is absolutely NO REASON to "put up" with anything in windows, as it literally takes seconds to change and is much faster and more consistent to change than any *NIX. So the only excuse you have is 1.-you are lazy or 2.-You are just looking for something to complain about . i have a feeling its the latter myself.

the lack of usable file tree structures (no lines anymore, needless wasted space...) really puts a damper on my development tasks (especially when you dig 14 levels into a folder of classes and version trees...)

Are you talking about file explorer? I haven't used Windows own since 95. I used to use Turbo Navigator, but it was never patched for Vista/Win7 user account changes. But xplorer2 is better anyway and comes with tabs and lots of powerful tools, pretty much everything you can want.

I'm not even going to mention how handy the old XP (2000?) classic menu was that allowed me to organize my applications by company, use and then product so I could quickly find what I needed without having to remember it's icon name to search for it. (Yes, there are tools that I might only use once in a blue moon, like packet sniffers, hex editors, etc. that have some ridiculous names.)

But hey... I'm a developer who uses tons of tools all day long. If MS doesn't want me to be productive, I know where I can go. Now, if I can get my company to agree...

I use tons of tools every day too. I think the search box in the start menu is great, you write a little bit of the software's name and can usually just press enter to launch it. It's very seldom I actually need to go the actual menu.

I've never liked the default file explorer in Windows, from 95->XP I used Turbo Navigator, but it's a little bit outdated now and bugs with admin/user access.

I suggest you try xplorer2 tho, it's *a lot* better file explorer with tabs support and a lot more. The default file explorer arguably isn't really good in Windows.

I personally use Xplorer2 as a file manager with Aston as the shell, not only because it uses less resources and is less buggy than Windows Explorer, but it also fixes that stupid explorer bug. Xplorer2 by default shows the file names but when you click rename it highlights ONLY the part BEFORE the dot3, allowing me to quickly rename without having to constantly type .txt,.jpg,etc. It also gives me the classic two pane commander style layout which has always made more sense to me than Windows Explorer. I just use a little command hack in Aston that tells it to launch Aston instead of Explorer and I never have to deal with that fugly mess.

Heh, I was replying to this post to note that Vista selects before the dot, but I guess its just xplorer2 :) I changed to it aswell after I started using Vista, before that I used Turbo Navigator from Win98 times. However it kinda broke with Vista's UAC, and doesnt pop up that admin accept dialog. Now I've learned the nice sides of xplorer2 too aswell tho.

I should probably try Aston Shell aswell, I hope they're fixed tray icons now a days tho. Before they didnt have any (or atleast good) support to those and you just didnt see them.

As a PC repairman with nearly 15 years in the biz, allow me to answer your questions. First of all, there is a REASON,right or wrong, why show file extensions is turned off by default. Because folks just hit "rename" when they want to change the name of something and every version of Windows(don't know about Vista, customers hate it so i don't stock it) allows you to rename the file AND the file extension by default. Most folks then just rename the file, say "sally's trip" and then when it doesn't work because they have tossed the .jpg, .raw, whatever, they tend to get pissy.

As for "do they put everything in My Documents"? They save wherever the default saves to. I have seen desktops sp buried in .exe files you couldn't even tell what kind of wallpaper they had because Firefox by default saves to the desktop. So since many of the most popular programs save to "My Documents" by default, that is where their files are. But there isn't any planning on the users part, they simply hit save and have no fricking clue where it went after that. To access the file they simply launch the program that made it.

I personally use Xplorer2 as a file manager with Aston as the shell, not only because it uses less resources and is less buggy than Windows Explorer, but it also fixes that stupid explorer bug. Xplorer2 by default shows the file names but when you click rename it highlights ONLY the part BEFORE the dot3, allowing me to quickly rename without having to constantly type .txt,.jpg,etc. It also gives me the classic two pane commander style layout which has always made more sense to me than Windows Explorer. I just use a little command hack in Aston that tells it to launch Aston instead of Explorer and I never have to deal with that fugly mess.

But most of my customers can't honestly tell you where ANY of their files are, or even what the extension is. They just know to launch their picture software and the file is listed there. Which is why you have to be careful not to use anything like Crap cleaner as it will clean recent lists which blows their whole system to shit.

Well I can say That I like hearing about stuff like this. I would certainly rather read about cool software like mc than see that Obama pic o' the day. Now here is a nerdy question for everybody: Which commander was the FIRST commander? Was it Norton's old commander? Or was there one even earlier? Because I have been hooked on the "commander" style two pane file managers for so damned many years(My beard is actually turning grey! sob,sob) that I honestly can't remember which two pane style I used first, and even then being stuck in the sticks it was probably a copy of something even earlier.

I know that for me personally it was probably old Norton commander for DOS(remember when Norton meant quality tools? Damn I miss the days of Norton Utilities being good.) and today I am so hooked I carry Xplorer2 on a flash drive, so that when I have to work on a customers PC I don't have to use that God awful Windows explorer. So does any of the greybeards here have better memory than I and can tell me which was the first two pane "commander" style file manager?

After months of fighting with Explorer (I don't want to know the details of all images and videos), I decided to drop Explorer by installing xplorer2 lite.
If you want to get rid of Explorer altogether you'll need to install a new graphical shell (like Blackbox), which saves RAM, CPU cycles and (can be) easier on the eyes.

Thank you! I used Powerdesk in the 90's so that is probably it. I knew it had to be one of the "Commanders". Man, does anybody else remember when you just HAD to have a "Commander" style file manager to deal with Windows? I use Xplorer2 now as it works on everything from Win95 to Vista and I can just drag the folder onto my flash and carry it with me. After using the "Commander" style interface for so many years I just can't go back to the lousy Windows file management interface. I swear whoever designed the file manager in Windows should be fired. Anyone who has ever used a Commander will look at the Windows file manager like something from the dark ages.

Actually,no it doesn't.

How often does a user actually WANT to change a file extension? I know that in my day to day I've had to change a file extension maybe twice in 10 years,and that is probably overstating by at least one change. But when you have "hide file extensions for known file types" unchecked,and you right click and pick rename,WHAT does it highlight? The entire file,INCLUDING the file extension. So quickly the user gets pissed because he fucks up the file extension,then has to pick "no" and undo his rename becuase he doesn't know WHAT the original file extension was,and THEN he has to rename by typing the whole name or clicking multiple times until he gets ahead of the dot 3 extension. Does that sound intuitive to you? Try switching a user to shown file extensions and see how quick they call you because "something is wrong with my PC" and you have to undo it.

To this day the only thing I have seen handle it correctly is Xplorer2 file manager replacement by Zabkat. When you have file extensions visible and click rename,guess what it does? That's right,it puts the rename BEFORE the dot 3 extension,and keeps you from changing the file extension unless you go out of your way to move the cursor and change it!!! Now doesn't that make a whole lot more sense? Lets face it,99% of your users are never going to need to mess with the dot 3 extension. Yet with Windows either you hide the extension or every time you hit rename and backspace the FIRST thing it does is clear the ENTIRE file,including the extension! So I'm sorry,but that is still all or nothing in my handbook. Instead of making it intuitive,they made it a royal PITA to not have the extensions hidden. Just dumb design and it makes the user hide the extensions or get slowed down in his work.

Actually Windows has been doing this since Win95,maybe even earlier,but it has been so long since I worked with Win3.X I can't really tell you off the top of my head. Sadly,the only way I've found to get rid of this "bug" without having to worry about my nephews erasing the file extensions when they rename files is by bypassing Explorer completely and using Xplorer2. I have a code snippet that launches when you click on either My Computer or My Documents that launches Xplorer2 instead of Windows Explorer and Xplorer2 allows you to rename files WITHOUT changing the file extensions. Why MSFT after all these years can't seem to get something so simple right I'll never know. Oh and as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Now as far as KDE goes, I can't wait to give it a spin once more packages are released and it becomes more stable. Until then I have the KDE look and speed thanks to Aston and Xplorer2 Lite. I simply tell Aston not to use Windows explorer when it is installed and instead use Xplorer2. Between the two of them my pc is only consuming 9Mb of ram and 2-4% cpu, on a 1.1Ghz celeron. It is great for older machines like this, as I can have a nice shell (they have skins for KDE, Gnome, Vista, XP, and Mac OSX as well as many originals) without it bogging down like it would with explorer. Xplorer2 Lite is free and Aston has a free trial period if you want to give it a whirl and see if it is right for you.

I wish the KDE guys much luck and success and hope that this will be the start of true platform independence. I am looking forward to the day I can run all my favorite KDE apps on both Windows and KDE.

I've been there and have stopped using Microsoft's Explorer as a file manager years ago.

After trying some file managers (can't remember them all, just Singularity) I settled on Nikos Bozinis' 2xExplorer. http://netez.com/2xExplorer/ It's one of the very best free Windows file managers there is (and I have tried a lot of them). It's not open source, but neither is Windows itslef.

Some years later Nikos went commercial: http://www.zabkat.com/ I've used the trial but I like 2xExplorer. It's good for fast keyboard navigation. I don't even use the tree view, just the two panes. There are hotkeys to jump to bookmarked directories (control+1,2,3...), or directly to drives (control+alt+drive letter).

Nowadays I use it at work (Windows XP), and I'm a lot happier with Ubuntu Linux and the plain Gnome file manager Nautilus at home.

And if you want to replace Explorer with Xplorer2 when clicking on desktop links, simply switch the link under "edit element" to application or document and put in the following code. By using this I never have Explorer load which keeps my resources for my apps and not my desktop

"C:\Program Files\zabkat\xplorer2_lite\xplorer2_lite.exe" ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

This loads xplorer2 with My Computer as its starting point. And since Xplorer2 uses a two pane tree view where I need to go is never more than two click away.

Use xplorer2 for all you file management needs. It is incredibly powerful and the price is reasonable (~35 US).

Note: I am not affiliated with this product other than being a very satisfied user.

Or the free-for-personal-use xplorer lite.