For: File Manager (Windows) A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to work with file systems. The most common operations used are create, open, edit, view, print, play, rename, move, copy, delete, attributes, properties, search/find, and permissions. Files are typically displayed in a hierarchy. Some file managers contain features inspired by web browsers, including forward and back navigational buttons.

Some file managers provide network connectivity such as FTP, NFS, SMB or WebDAV. This is achieved either by allowing the user to browse for a server, connect to it and access the server's file system like a local file system, or by providing its own full client implementations for file server protocols.

Orthodox file managers

Orthodox file managers or "Commander-like" file managers have three windows (two panels and one command line window).

Orthodox file managers are one of the older families of file managers. They develop and further extend the interface introduced by John Socha's famous Norton Commander for DOS. The concept is more than twenty years old as Norton Commander version 1.0 was released in 1986. Despite their age they are actively developed and dozens of implementations exist for DOS, Unix and Microsoft Windows. A public standard (version 1.2 dated June 1997) is available from Nikolai Bezroukov's website.

Features

The following features define the class of orthodox file managers.

• They present the user with a two-panel directory view consisting of one active and one passive panel. The latter always serves as a target for file operations. Panels are shrinkable and if shrunk they expose the terminal window hidden behind them. Normally only the last line of the terminal window (the command line) is visible.
• They provide close integration with an underlying OS shell via command line and associated terminal window that permits viewing the results of executing the shell command entered on the command line (e.g., via Ctrl-O shortcut in Norton Commander).
• They provide the user with extensive keyboard shortcuts.
• The file manager can be used without or with minimal use of the mouse.
• Users can create their own file associations and scripts that are invoked for certain file types and organize these scripts into a hierarchical tree (e.g., as a user script library or user menu)Fact: date=August 2007.
• Users can extend the functionality of the manager via so called User menu or Start menu and extensions menu. Norton Commander introduced the concept of user-defined file associations that is now used in all modern file managersFact: date=August 2007.

Other common features include:

• Information on the "active" and "passive" panels may be used for constructing commands on the command line. Examples include current file, path to left panel, path to right panel, etc.
• They provide a built-in viewer for (at least) the most basic file types.
• They have a built-in editor. In many cases, the editor can extract certain elements of the panels into the text being edited.
• Many support virtual file systems (VFS) such as viewing compressed archives, or via an FTP connection.
• They often have the word commander in the name.