probably a long shot but are there any lightweight alternatives to windows file explorer for 2024?

i’m stuck on windows for now until the time comes to grab a new laptop. so sick of the default one in windows 11 though.

27 points

Surprisingly enough KDE’s Dolphin

Nightly Installers on the bottom:

You’ll want the bottom x86_64.exe👍

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That looks very interesting, gonna try it out in a VM later.

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3 points

hope it works and is useful to you!🤗

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Probably won’t be that useful for me, since I use Linux most of the time, but I’m thinking about new Linux users. If they could already start using all the KDE applications on Windows, the learning curve after switching to Linux would be much lower. I’ve also seen other KDE apps for Windows and macOS before, but had no idea this would also work with Dolphin.

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3 points

Had a great experience with Dolphin on the Steamdeck. It supports tabs which is a great positive over the Windows File Explorer imo. (I know the Windows 11 File Explorer also has tabs but I’d rather not touch Windows 11 with a ten foot pole.)

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There’s a few of them, the open source options include Double Commander, Files, Explorer++, Spacedrive (links files from multiple devices into one explorer), and Sigma File Manager. QTTabBar is an extension for the windows file manager which provides tabbed browsing as well. Here’s a list covering these and many others with links to official websites for each one: https://alternativeto.net/software/windows-explorer/?p=2

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4 points

Ah, right, Files! I keep forgetting that it’s Open Source as well. (And it is pretty nice. Not really lightweight though, despite its clean looks.)

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9 points

(replying to everyone instead of each post)

thanks all - i was looking at some awesome windows lists on github but most were for file transfer clients not file explorers so i figured i’d ask. will check all of these out today.

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8 points

As we’re in the Open Source community here, the massive list of possible answers is suddenly rather short, I’m afraid. Explorer++ might be your best bet.

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4 points

Double Commander is also worth mentioning

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2 points

I’ve been using Double Commander for a long time. I can recommend.

I’ve looked for alternatives occasionally, because I’d prefer some things differently, preferably something I’d be able to source inspect or work on as well, but haven’t found anything better.

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