I've seen this program come up a few times in the last couple of years - but every time I look at it I can't see a use case that sticks out. I've looked through the FAQ and installed it and I just can't seem to get why I'd use that opposed to Windows Explorer, 7Zip, and WinSCP.
I guess it only becomes a real power tool if you learn to navigate and harness the power of the 2 side-by-side panels by keyboard.
Long story short, let me sum up some of my favorite features:
- Tab to switch between panels
- Navigate with arrow keys through the files list
(very handy if you have it on 'brief' view, especially since you can walk
through whole directories with left/right arrow until you hit the '..')
- CTRL + F1/ CTRL+F2 to select drive for the left or right panel
- Using any type of packer (zip,arj,7z, etc) as a directory by just hitting
enter on it to see the files inside, view them, extract, add and remove
- CTRL + Pagedown to navigate even into some packaged files that aren't
normally accessible as folders (like .msi)
- F-Keys with a clear indicator at the bottom to move and copy files, insert
to select and move to the next file
- F3 for an all you can eat file viewer that can switch to different view modes
like HEX by pressing 1,2,3,4 and doesn't bork on large files
- F4 launches your favorite editor
- Hit space on a directory to compute the full size recursively
- ALT+F7 for find-in-files and fast file search
- The most powerful multi-rename tool you could ever wish for in the file menu
- Built-In FTP Client (CTRL + F) with a favorite list, queue list
and resume from queue list.
- Download any random file (with resume and queue) using CTRL+N (HTTP/FTP)
- Plugin support to enhance the thing with stuff like SFTP/FTPS support,
which you can open from the 'network' drive
- Background copy for most operations (in it's own thread, and with pause)
- Double click the file path at the top of the panel for a popup hotlist where
you can add favorite jump-to spots
- CTRL + Arrow key opposite to the current panel opens the folder under the
cursor in the opposite panel
- CTRL + UP arrow on a folder opens it in a new tab (which you can even lock to
persist them or have handy nav points)
- Numpad + to select files in a folder according to a wildcard
- Numpad * inverts currrent selection or selects all
- Pack some files using CTRL + F5 on a selection
There's just so much goodness that this list could go on and on for way too long.
Double Commander comes close on Linux, but there's no thing like TotalCMD for me when i'm on Windows.
Stuff I use daily:
- extremely quick copy pasting and moving between two folders
- filter by extension
- dir bookmarks
- extremely quick compressing
- easy and simple enough file diffs
- command line from every folder
- fast navigation using smart search of file in current dir
- pretty good search within folder
- viewer for text files(useful when need to read the last couple of lines from 10GB log file)
It is somewhat more/easier configurable than mc or FAR. I know you can get dozens of plugins for all these actions but totalcmd has the right amount of stuff I need and is not bloated. Been using it for almost 15 years.
Can you share why you find it useful? Thanks!