I never once posted about windows explorer replacement/alternative or file managers such as xplorer², Total Commander, UltraExplorer, FreeCommander, Directory Opus, XYplorer and etc because I think that the current Windows Explorer is good enough for my daily task in creating new files, moving and copying files. Or maybe it is because I am so used to it since Windows Explorer’s layout didn’t changed much except for enhancement since Windows 95.

For the past few months I’ve been noticing that Q-Dir being updated very frequently. I remembered that it is some sort of file management freeware and I didn’t bother about it since I am already satisfied with Windows Explorer. I am trying NOT to focus so much on security, I thought perhaps I should check and see what is Q-Dir all about.


Q-Dir is a lightweight and easy to use piece of software that allows you to easily manage your files and folders.

Features of Q-Dir:

Favorites: Quick access to most often used folders.
Drag&Drop: Move files by dragging in Q-views, and other programs such as MS Explorer.
Clipboard: Copy/ Paste between the Q-Dir directory views, and other programs such as MS Explorer.
Folder-Type: ZIP-, FTP-,cabinet-,network-, system – folders, shortcuts …
Views: Large icons, tiles, list, detail, thumbnail (Vista: extra large symbols) .
Export: to XLS, CSV, TXT, HTML.
Popup Menus: Desktop, My Computer.
Screen magnifier: Anything on the screen can be enlarged.
Color Filter: Different colors for different item types (e.g. *.log;*.txt).
Highlight-Filter: Effective way for fast items highlighting.
File-Filter: Allows for quick and easy filtering of the items.
Columns: All columns support, and save function .
Quick-Link’s: For fast folder access.
Folder-Select: Fast & flexible folder selection address-bar/ desktop menu/ my-computer menu/…
Multi-INI: Several INI files for Q-Dir.
Tree-View: Simple and quadruple.
Preview: Allows a quick preview.
Portable: Q-Dir is portable since v2.77

Actually Q-Dir is very similar to Windows Explorer but it adds a few enhancement to give us better file and folder management. The most significant advantage over Windows Explorer is the Quadro-View which splits into 4 window. The shortcut keys in Q-Dir such as CTRL+C for copying, CTRL+X for cutting and CTRL+V for pasting are the same as in Windows Explorer. This is good so it won’t be confusing and you don’t need to memorize new shortcut keys. The color filter is also very useful because with one look we get to know what type of file is that.

To run Q-Dir as portable without installation, unzip Q-Dir_Installer.zip and you’ll get Q-Dir_Installer.exe. Simply rename Q-Dir_Installer.exe to Q-Dir.exe and it will automatically run as portable.

From Q-Dir’s changelog, we can see that this freeware is being updated at least twice per month. Since Q-Dir is being updated so frequently, I’d like to see a built-in update checker to notify me whenever there is an update or even better, auto download and replace the old one with the updated version of Q-Dir. Okay, Q-Dir might not be the best File Manager that has tons of features but I like it simply because it is similar to Windows Explorer. Last but not least, Q-Dir is FREE.

[ Download Q-Dir ]