[ed. 4/3/16. I recently found Lopesoft FileMenu Tools uninstalled, which may be similar to the file corruption issue I discussed below. I have since switched antivirus vendors and the new software also didn't want to download/install. Interested readers may want to check other utilities, like Free Commander, a dual pane utility, which includes folder sizes, and Eraser, which provides secure file/folder deletion.]
Let me define what I'm describing here: a Swiss knife utility to handling file operations. For example, you might want to create, duplicate, synchronize, move or securely delete a folder/directory of files, modify or capture file attributes (e.g., date, rename, full path), or manipulate or transform files (split/join, encrypt, find and replace text).
Now how are these functions useful beyond default Windows features? Let me give a couple of examples. I might decide to aggregate image files in a consolidated directory I'll eventually write to a DVD. But the source image name may not be distinct. For instance, someone may email me a photo 1.jpg. I may later download an image from my browser, also named 1.jpg. If I regularly sweep my new image files to the virtual DVD folders, I might be prompted on whether I want to overwrite the existing 1.jpg. Rather than risk such collisions, I could rename source files with a unique tag at the beginning or end of the filename, e.g., 1_16jan08a.jpg, before moving them to the target.
Another useful function is a size of folders chart. For example, I may want to store a DVD image of roughly 4.38 GB. My video, music, image, software, and ebook directories may range from hundreds of megabytes to 2-3 GB. It may well be that the aggregate exceeds my DVD capacity, but I have a 600MB video which I can set aside for a future DVD data disk.
I have used two software products over the last few years in this category: FilerFrog and Lopesoft FileMenu Tools. (There are a number of features in common, but also some nuanced differences. For example, FilerFrog has encryption and file splitting features, while FileMenu has size of folder and folder synchronization features.) The way you use these products after installation is by using the right-click context menu (e.g., in Windows Explorer or an alternative like Q-Dir (see my earlier post)) after selecting relevant files or folders. There is a top-item menu bearing the name of the product in the context menu and you look in a first- or second-level menu for desired features. FileMenu Tools also allows you to reconfigure its menu through configuration options.
I recently had to reinstall FileMenu Tools because of a corruption issue (I had noticed the menu item had disappeared from the context menu). Lopesoft had recently republished a product version and my security software didn't want to download it. This is speculative on my part, but I did find a note on the website that it had a relationship with Open Candy, a known adware vendor. Lopesoft does offer an adware-free version for a suggested minimum donation. I will say that downloading the portable version on the download page did not seem to result in the same security software issue.
However, I ran into another issue with the portable version. After running the executable, I did not see FileMenu in my right context menu. What seemed to resolve my problem was to launch the configure FileMenu window and check under the Options menu. I found the (first) Enable FileMenu Tools option (supposedly) enabled. I toggle-switched the option off and on and got a Windows pop-up to verify the option. After I approved the change, I found the FileMenu menu in my right context menu.
