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Is there a way to copy in MultiCommander to completely replace the default file explorer in the Win 10 system?

If not, would it not be an interesting option to consider including?

(Directory Opus apparently have this option in their Pro version)

I'm not sure if this is a Multi Commander issue or something strange in my system right now.

Anyways, I just noticed the following strange behaviour:

Pressing F2 to rename a file and then pressing Ctrl-V will NOT paste in the string previously copied,
it will just delete the filename (just as if I had pressed Del instead of Ctrl-V).

This only happens in Multi Commander. I can use Ctrl-V to paste into a text editor with no problem.

The file rename is otherwise working as normal, eg. writing in the new filename from
the keyboard works as expected.

Anybody had this? Any ideas?

Thanks. I agree it's not high-priority since, as I found out, there are other fairly easy ways of doing the same thing.

Yes, I am very familiar with the Commander-style navigation from pre-windows days
when mice were only found in other parts of the house, not anywhere near the computer.

In today's windows environments though, the mouse is just a handy way to navigate
around the desktop, and since your hand is almost permanently on the mouse to begin
with, file navigation with the mouse is just a natural extension of that way of working.

Different strokes for different folks.

OK, I thought I already described it clearly but I'll try again:

The operation I am talking about is done entirely within MC. No other applications involved.

I right-click on a filename, then move the mouse a _short_ distance _within_ the same MC panel,
then release the right-hand mouse button and get a pop-up menu (the Win Expl. one I guess)
and there I select "Copy here" hoping to duplicate that file, within the same directory.

After that the MC copy progress dialogue pops up, and immediately after that comes the error message dialogue.

A fix would still be welcome though with the alternative ways of copying this is not such a high-priority issue for me anymore.

Thanks again.

Ah yes, dropping on the column header seems to work. OK, I can live with that.
But it still seems strange and unnecessary to have dropping (on filenames) disabled
in the same directory and not in the others. I can't see why they should work differently.

Sorry but I beg to differ about hot keys. It is NOT faster to use hot keys instead of the mouse.
It requires you to move your hand to the keyboard, locate the correct keys to press, often involving two fingers
since hot keys are usually Ctrl-something or other, and easy to pick the wrong keys too.
Most directory-tree navigation happens comfortably with the mouse and hopping across
to the keyboard disrupts the flow and is an unnecessary distraction.

Thanks for the quick answer.

Well, it's hard to believe that MC is not involved in the operation since the MC progress
dialogue pops up when attempting to copy in this way.
(1% completed, Preparing ..., with buttons for Skip, Pause, Abort and Show Queue>>)
I think that dialogue definitely is opened by MC. Right?

After that (a split second after) an error window pops up: Source and Target file are the same,
Cannot copy a file to itself. - I do believe this error dialogue may be from Windows itself.

But since the operation is started from MC and the copy progress dialogue opens up,
there should be a way to catch the situation and do something about it from MC.

Also, this copying behaviour is not the same as under Windows explorer.
There the file IS copied and the new target file is renamed as "filename - Copy.ext"
It does look like something different is happening when it is called from MC.

PS. I tried your suggestion and tested with the Copy/Paste buttons (Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V work too)
and there it DOES work the same way as under Windows explorer ie. I get a duplicate with
- Copy added to the filename. This workaround will be very handy, but it would be
better to have the right-click-drag-and-drop work too.

I just spent quite a while searching for the search operation in the interface.
I finally found it under the "Extensions" menu.

It's surprising to me to see what I think is a basic functionality in the "Extensions" area.
Of course it is no problem for me now, that i know it, but it could be for others.
Any chance to give it a more natural home in the tree, such as under "File" or "Edit"?

Another thing that caused confusion: There is an icon with a magnifying glass in the toolbar.
If my experience is anything to go by, the magnifying glass usually represents Searching.

The right-click-drag and drop Copy operation works fine when you copy or move from one directory to another.

BUT, when right-clicking and dragging, wanting to do a "copy here" within the same directory, the "drop" part
of the operation is disabled while the mouse pointer is hovering over existing files in that directory.

If there are only a few files in that directory this is not a problem. You just head south with the pointer
to the empty area below the files and there you can do a "drop" and select "copy here" in the popup.
But if there are many files in the directory the list of files will take up the entire panel and there is no
empty area at the bottom. This means that the "drop" operation is disabled in the entire panel and
there doesn't seem to be a way to do a "copy here" at all within such directories.

As I said in another post. Copying "here" to duplicate files within the same directory is almost a daily
operation in my case, and I suspect for many others, so it would be good to have it work a little more
smoothly.

I am posting this as a new feature request since I haven't found a setting
to get around it in the current Ver 2.8.2. But if I am missing something please let me know.

First, I have disabled the annoying prompt dialogues when copying and moving files.
They don't really serve any useful purpose and just cause a lot of extra clicking.

BUT, there is a special case: When right-clicking and doing "copy here" to create a
duplicate file within the same directory - NOW I get a message that there is already
a file with the same name. Of course there is - that's the whole point - but am not
given a chance to rename the new copy, the copy operation just fails.

I generally have to revert to the horrible windows file explorer to do this, or copy
to a different directory first, then rename and copy back. All of which is a very
cumbersome way of doing things.

Creating duplicates of an existing file is something I do fairly frequently, and I suspect
a lot of others do as well, so I think there is a good business case for having this
detail fixed.

More specifically, the functionality I am requesting is:
- When copying files and there is filename-conflict with an existing target file: Prompt for a new filename, don't just fail the operation.
   (even if the prompt dialogue has been disabled for non-conflicting copy operations - the dialogue is not needed there)

There is another feature I am missing with "copy here", but I'll write a separate post for that.

Totally agree.

Ah, OK, thanks for that. I didn't notice the star icon.

I would have expected to be able to open it from a menu as well though.

As I understand it it is a general principle that everything that you can do
from a button or an icon should also be available somewhere  in the menus.

And the right-click access is nifty, I'd prefer to have that back as well.
I'll post a request in the suggestions forum.

Hello, I totally agree on this file navigator being absolutely great.

Changing the so-called "Hot Paths" to a "favorites" system sound like a good idea.

The bookmarking functions were solved satisfactorily in most web browsers long ago,
and jumping around in the file tree shoudn't be any different.

But I'm afraid I'm a little clumsy and can't find this new "favorites" interface anywhere.
How can I access it?

And since the "Hot Paths" were removed leaving the right click at the top of the panel
available and currently doing nothing, why not have the right click open that elusive
"favorites" window that I can't seem to find.

BR

Ah yes, I can see the difficulty.
(Yes, "Default Date Format For New Tabs" makes it clear, but it would still be more intuitive to find the two settings one beside the other in the tree)

Probably some people will want their individual tab-specific settings to be persistent across app restarts too.

Maybe a new option or two would do it:
- Apply this setting to:
     o  this tab (yes/no)
     o  other current tabs (yes/no)
     o  future tabs (yes/no)
     Default could be: this tab = yes, other current tabs = no, future tabs = yes

OK thanks. I was using the latter. I see how it works now.

But I still have to gripe a little because now the interface is contradictory. If you change a configuration and press "Apply" (there is even a choice between "Apply" and "Save") you'd expect it to be applied and have an effect there and then, not at some future point. And you'd certainly not expect to see the old setting still in effect after restarting the application.

Also, needing to navigate to two widely distant points in the menu tree to set the same characteristic (one for the current view, the other for future ones) just seems terribly disorganised and confusing.

Oh well, here I go, complaining about the dentistry of a gift-horse again, thoroughbred though it is...

Running MC 64-bit build Aug 19 2012 on Win7-64.

I have set Date Display format to "Standard" and also restarted MultiCommander,
but it is still displaying file dates as "Today", "Monday" etc. instead of the full date format.

Not really new concepts, but do not think of bookmarks in a File Manager is the same as a WebBrowser.. There are used in completely different ways.

That's a new revolutionary concept of its own right there, at least to me. I can't imagine what different ways you have in mind but it will be interesting to see them when they are implemented.

With the disc sizes these days the hard drive easily ends up almost as complicated to navigate as the internet, mine certainly does. The difficulty to find things in your own computer is the same as on the net, a slightly smaller difficulty but still the same kind.

Personally, the plain old bookmark functions would be enough for me, the same as in a browser, though I might change my mind when I get to see the advanced ideas you mention.

I'll have to look into the ways of creating my own menus. A lot of things I haven't had a good enough look at yet. It's possible that most of what I need can be done already in slightly less obvious ways.

I hope you keep up the good work! The more I look at MultiCommander the more I like it!

I got some plans for something better then a just a long list (with or without submenus ) but do not know if I implement it because it would require a lot of time to create. Might just add a boring long list like browsers. Time will tell.

Interesting if there are new concepts on this. But I suspect that if they are really useful we would have seen them in browsers already.

If I were you I'd consider implementing the boring alternative first while thinking about the advanced stuff for later on. For some things boring solutions are, perhaps sadly, the ones that work best for most users.

Report bugs about the places that are wrong and it will be fixed. Nobody says anything it will not be fixed.

Yes I know, and I feel bad nitpicking about such an excellent product. All the same, I do see many errors and convoluted clunky wordings in the tip of the day hints especially, and some issues in the interface too. But maybe I should shut up as long as I haven't got the time to make detailed improvement suggestions for each of them myself.

In the meanwhile there is Hotpaths, Buttons in the Button Panel, QuickLaunchBar

The UI functionality should be easy to decide just by looking at any popular web browser. Most of them handle bookmarks in very similar ways, and they ended up that way because it's what works out best for most people. Same thing here. But I guess you mean implementation decisions.

Good to know it's in the works though, and those alternatives are probably good enough in the meantime.

Yes some translation are missing for the Swedish language files. So when running with Swedish you still get a lot of English.

Actually, I am running the program in English. By "Swenglish" I meant poorly translated English.

It is called Vertical because it is what it is. It says 'layout' afterwards. And the when active the UI is placed in vertical order. (Top -> Bottom). It should also have been named "Horizontal Splitting" or something.

I can see you are from the opposite school ). I don't need it renamed just for my own use. I just think it would be a handy way to avoid the issue altogether, to use "toggling" instead of naming. It would eliminate the confusion for a lot of people.

Hello,
I have tried a fair number of file navigators over the years and I am always on the lookout for new ones, since MS for some reason chose to supply a pure crap "explorer" to go with Windows out of the box. The one in XP, though limited and eminently improvable, was the last one worth having.

I just stumbled over Multi Commander today and I must say it's one of the most promising-looking efforts I have seen so far. It really is. It seems to have most of the features I like to see in a file manager.

Then I have to rant a little about a couple of things I think need fixing:

1. The Favorites/Bookmarking function. I see this is already in the list of suggested improvements. Very good to see it as number one on the list. I'd just like to stress that it's very important to fix this, it's the most glaring gap in the tool at the moment imho. The existing "Hot Paths" feature is useful, but with only 10 paths, non-editable and a flat structure it is too limited (apologies if I am missing something). For a bookmarking system worth its salt it's essential to have editable bookmarks in a tree structure, with similar functions to any browser out there. I don't think it's essential that each and every one of them be accessible from an individual keyboard hotkey, sticking to this philosophy is just going to put unnecessary limitations on your design.

2. I see some "Swenglish" here and there, and some language inconsistencies that should be fixed eg. selecting "Vertical Layout" in fact selects something that many people, myself included, would call Horizontal. Maybe some people see it the other way around. I'm not sure which camp is in the majority. In fact, this difficulty could be neatly avoided by having a toggle function instead: "Toggle Vertical/Horizontal layout". That would always be correct whichever way you look at it.

3. This is a function I would use once in a blue moon (though we did in fact have a blue moon the other day ha ha), thus low priority and not a big issue: The animation that happens when changing View->Split size to another setting can be a little annoying. It was very slow and clunky-looking on one computer, but quicker and OK on another. I'd prefer to turn this animation off. (apologies if it is already possible to turn off, I haven't checked through everything yet)