Today a new version of the nice freeware file explorer Total Commander from Christian Ghisler is released. Both the versions for touchscreen devices as well as the non touchscreen version are upgraded. Those of you who were favourites of Norton Commander in the past probably know the Total Commander desktop software, with its two window style. However Christian Ghisel also developed different other versions, like the one to run from a USB stick or the sp-called U3 platform and ofcourse versions for Windows Mobile.

Both the pocketpc version and the smartphone version are upgraded with the following features:

Support for ZIP encryption, both ZIP 2.0 and AES (advanced encryption standard [ref01]

Personally I’m a huge fan of Resco File Explorer, and I’m willing to pay for the look, feel and features of that product. However Total Commander for Windows Mobile is a thouroughly developed application, with a build-in ftp explorer, registry editor, and virtual 2 window style like its bigger brother. If you just want to use freeware, Total Commander is an excellent choice.

Also the Windows Desktop versions (16bit and 32bit) are upgraded to version 7.04. As I already described I’m a huge fan of the 2 window style and many helpful modules like the build-in ftp explorer, build-in packers, and many other usefull build-in commands. On the website Christian Ghisler provides the following changelog:

New: Updated unterface + icons, compare editor, cursor in lister, separate trees, logging, enhanced overwrite dialoge, and many more new features.

Conclusive:

It’s praiseworthy that Christian Ghisler has developed versions for many different platforms (Windows Desktop / Windows Mobile / U3 USB version) with a comperable look and feel. Although the number of features on the mobile versions is a little more limitted it still is a great choice in comparison with competitive software. The desktop version can be used as shareware, and can be extended with a large number of add-ons. If you are a Norton Commander fan in the past, this simply is the File Manager to use on all platforms !!

Reference list:

1. GHISLER:  Total Commander Pocket Version