DON'S FREEWARE CORNER -- FEB 2013
FILE MANAGER PROGRAMS

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DON'S FREEWARE CORNER  2013-02
FILE MANAGER PROGRAMS

©2014 Donald R. Snow

My Freeware Corner Notes are printed in our Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group monthly newsletter TAGGology and posted on my Family History Class Notes webpage http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html , sometimes with updated information there.

FILE MANAGER PROGRAMS
This month we consider two free Windows utility programs that I find very helpful in family history, as well as for any work on the computer.  These short reviews only cover a few things these programs do.

1.     EVERYTHING (Yes, that's the name of the program.)
This is a freeware utility program that searches for files on your computer by any characters, words, phrases in the file name, or file type, that you enter.  EVERYTHING finds the files regardless of their location on your machine.  As you enter search terms it immediately shows you the list of files whose names contain those terms and as you enter more search characters, it shows fewer and fewer files since the more terms you enter, the fewer file names will contain them all.  It finds all copies of the file on your computer, so it will find lost files that you have forgotten about, if you remember anything in the file name.  It does not search inside the file; we'll cover those programs another time. The results screen shows the file name, directory, date created, size, etc., and you can sort on any of these properties.  You can launch files by clicking on them, as long as you have that extension associated with a program on your computer, and you can rename files right in the program.  Used in tandem with a file manager like Windows Explorer or Q-DIR you can move files by dragging and dropping to other directories to clean up your computer.  As you move the file you see the directory change on the results screen in EVERYTHING.  The first time you run the program it builds its title database which it then keeps up to date as you form, copy, or move files around.  If you name your files in a systematic way, you can find them easily with EVERYTHING no matter where you put them.  But even if you haven't named them systematically, you can find them if you can remember anything in their file names.  The program is super fast and I use it many times every day.  Download it from  http://www.voidtools.com/ .

2.     Q-DIR
Q-DIR is a free file maintenance utility that can be customized to show from 1 to 4 panels with each panel set to the same or different directories.  It also allows you to open tabs in each panel which you can set the way you want.  This makes it easy to move files or folders between locations since you can keep the different locations open in the different panels.  You can drag and drop files or folders from one panel or tab to another so it helps in file maintenance.  For example, if you need to move files from one folder into several others, keep the one folder open in one panel and the others folders open in other panels and drag and drop the files to the folders they belong in.  It has many different views, e.g. List-View and Tree-View and allows changing views just by clicking.  It has keyboard shortcuts for most of its functions, as well as using the mouse.  Highlighting a file and clicking a button does web searches with various search engines for that file name.  Highlighting a file or directory and right-clicking it gives an option to copy the path to the clipboard which you can then paste anywhere you want.  It has many other features, including a magnifier that can be moved around the screen, but the different panels are the most helpful property for me.  It comes in installed and portable versions.  Portable just means that it can be run from a flash drive without being installed on the computer, so it's helpful when you are on a FHC computer.  Again, this is a program that I use many times every day.  Download it from  http://www.freewarefiles.com/Q-Dir_program_40958.html .

I hope you find these helpful.

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