Q-Dir: My Favorite Multi-Pane File Explorer

[11/14/16. My security software recently reported suspicious behavior with a recent installation/update of Q-Dir and removed it. I went to virustotal and checked the download URL: I found 1 hit in over 30 checks reporting malware. I'm not sure if the Q-Dir problem is a false positive or version-specific, but I tend to be more conservative in dealing with reported malware issues. For the time being, I had previously installed Free Commander XE, a dual pane alternative on other PC's and am using it.]

I was first introduced to the concept of dual-pane file managers with PowerDesk when it was freeware and I probably upgraded to one or two versions of the commercial product. Dual-panel managers extended the single-pane Windows Explorer, so you could do things like drag-and-drop files or directories within or between disks in a visually intuitive, compact presentation. I find this tool useful for cut|copy/paste tasks like data recovery, reorganization, and archival. A number of related tools integrated utilities to view, split, zip, and/or transer (ftp) files, like a Swiss knife of file utilities. (I often prefer  to use separate right-click context utilities, like Lopesoft's File Menu Tools, FilerFrog and/or 7-Zip.)

Around the time PowerDesk became commercial, I had started looking at other file managers and eventually settled on Q-Dir, with an unconventional 4-pane default presentation. Note: the interface is highly customizable, if you are uncomfortable with the 4 panes. See figure 1 below; in the middle of the menu bar you will see a number of suggestive alternative pane configurations. Each of the quadrants can load a different folder, and you can set up and/or load quick links/favorites (via CTRL-Q). (Note: you can save the settings/state of Q-Dir through the file menu; Q-Dir frequently remembers your last session settings, but, for example, I updated Q-Dir software this morning and didn't find the quick links I set yesterday.)

[ 10/6/15. For some reason the original Figure 1 and Figure 2 were not usable when I checked the blog post today. I did a follow-up image capture for replacement figures below.]

Let's briefly discuss the icon/ribbon bars at the top and bottom of a quadrant (reverse video in Figure 1 and the summation through Q-Dir favicon in Figure 2). The top bar includes a couple of backward/forward arrows reflect the sequence of folder loadings in the quadrant (if applicable). For example, the current first quadrant includes my desktop. I might then load my flash drive (F:) into the quadrant. I could toggle back to desktop and forward to my flash drive again through these keys. The up arrow reflects more of a hierarchical navigation through the folder tree. For example, if I had previously drilled into a desktop folder in the quadrant, the up arrow would return me to the desktop. The next icon allows you to create a new folder in the current folder view. The pull-down menu folder reflects how menu items appear in a quadrant, e.g., in a list, large icons (e.g., to preview image files), etc. The pull-down address bar menu allows you to load a quadrant from a number of standard folders, e.g., the Window user folder, the desktop, system drives, etc. The last two pulldowns are differing arrangements of the same standard folder grouping, the last one without favorites or Window user folders.

The bottom leftmost icon (Figure 2) provides a menu toggle list of certain aggregate statistic preferences about items in the current quadrant view, e.g., number of objects or size of selected objects. The search bar is used in conjunction with the filter icon (the 45-degree icon to the left of the Q-Dir icon)--for example, you might type txt to search for the text files listed in the currently loaded directory. The up/down icons are based a sequence of selected items in a quandrant from the base item. For example, if I have filtered pdf files, I point/select one pdf file in my selection and then click CTRL-A to select all files in the quadrant, the up and down arrows move within the highlighted list relative to my initial selected file position. The lightning bolt is like a quick access launch list of standard utilities (e.g., regedit, notepad, calc) that you can customize in a manner similar to favorites. The X is a quick-delete key for selected items in the quadrant. The next 3 keys are standard cut, copy and paste items within or across quadrants. We discussed the filtering icon earlier, and the final item is a quick-launch for favorites, which includes some standard Windows directories and items you can easily add  via the menu bar, the favorites folder from the application dropdown menu, or by using CTRL-Q from within a quadrant. For instance, I can navigate to my resume folder in my sync drive, CTRL-Q and select Add Quick Link.  Assuming I routinely save my state via the file menu, if and when I next need to access my resume file, I can launch from the Q-Dir favicon or select the item via CTRL-Q  from within one of the quadrants.

Figure1: Top of Q-Dir Application

Figure 2: Bottom of Q-Dir Quadrant

There are a few minor complaints with the software, as of the time of this post. One is that the software doesn't really have an automated check for updates, so I generally have to navigate to the author's website periodically to do a manual check. (There is a weblink via the Info/About Q-Dir menu.) Another is that launching Control Panel, at least from Windows 10, doesn't seem to function as expected. You can easily drag say the Windows Explorer favicon from Control Panel and/or its components onto your desktop as shortcuts and manually launch them from the desktop, but I've run into issues launching them from Q-Dir.  However, what I have done is create a desktop shortcut to control.exe from the SYSTEM32 directory, which works as expected.