Commander

Overview

Commander is a keyboard-driven file manager with two independent panes. It is built for the everyday rhythm of copying, moving, comparing and organizing files, but it also carries heavier tools: batch renaming, recursive search, directory synchronization, archive handling, file conversion, encryption, SFTP panels, S3-compatible object-storage browsing, Windows Network Neighborhood browsing, gallery browsing and CleanMyMac-style disk cleanup. It runs on macOS, Windows and Linux.

The trial is not crippled. Commander is fully functional as shareware: every feature is available, and the unregistered edition only shows a short startup dialog before the app opens. Buying a license removes that dialog and supports continued development.

For a searchable guide to the product, see the Commander documentation.

Latest changes

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Two modes

On first launch Commander asks how you like to work, and you can switch at any time.

Normal

A clean, roomy layout for everyday file management — comfortable spacing, curated columns (name, size, date), hidden and system files kept out of the way. Recommended for most people, with the full set of file, view, batch, archive and conversion tools.

Advanced

A dense, terminal-forward layout for power users — sysadmins, developers and tinkerers. Compact monospace listing, a POSIX permissions column, hidden files shown, and an always-on command line with shell-history autocomplete. It adds a Git status bar, a system panel, a binary inspector, a hex viewer, a package manager (Homebrew / Chocolatey) and an external-tools checker.

Features

Panes, navigation & menus

• Dual panes with folder tabs, independent navigation, selection, per-pane footers and sortable columns for name, extension, size and date.
• Sessions persist between launches, including pane locations, tabs and history; a new window starts keyboard-ready in the left pane.
• Native OS menu bar with Commander, Files, Edit, Mark, Commands, Show, Configuration, Help and, in Advanced mode, Tools. Menu commands display their keyboard shortcuts, with Alt+letter menu access on Windows.
• Clickable breadcrumb paths, native macOS file icons with cross-platform fallbacks, per-pane history (Alt+↓), keyboard drive pickers (Alt+F1 / Alt+F2) and directory hotlist bookmarks (Ctrl+D).
• Right-click context menus for files, folders, tabs, trash and empty pane space, including native Windows Shell verbs and platform-specific actions such as macOS Open With, Share and Tags.
• Quicksearch by typing, next-match cycling, list filtering (Ctrl+F), hidden-file toggle (Ctrl+H), folder tree sidebar, thumbnail view and gallery view.

Viewing, preview & plugins

• Quick View (Ctrl+Q) turns the opposite pane into a live preview that follows the cursor.
• Standalone Viewer windows (F3) support text, source with syntax highlighting, Markdown, tables, images, PDFs, EPUB, audio and video.
• Viewer tools include word wrap, text/hex mode, encoding switch, zoom, rotate, find, next/previous file navigation and a separate native Viewer menu.
• Office/iWork previews use QuickLook on macOS when available.
• Advanced mode adds raw hex view and a binary inspector for executables and libraries, including sections, symbols, strings and linked libraries.
• Viewer, packer and filesystem plugins are discovered at startup, while deployable plugin packages are advertised from the release server so compatible plugins can be installed as they become available.

File operations & batch tools

• Classic function-key workflow: F2 rename, F3 view, F4 edit, F5 copy, F6 move, F7 new folder, F8 delete, F9 new file and F10 quit.
• Copy and move open an editable destination prompt, then run in the background across local and SFTP panes with overwrite, keep-both, skip or cancel choices.
• Recoverable delete moves files to the OS Trash; Shift+F8 or Shift+Delete deletes permanently. Trash views include Put Back and Empty Trash actions.
• Explorer/Finder-style clipboard operations (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V) work for files, including paste into the other pane.
• Drag rows between panes or onto folders; holding Alt moves instead of copies.
• Multi-rename (Ctrl+M) supports name, extension and counter masks, search/replace, case transforms, live preview and collision detection.
• Find files (Alt+F7) searches recursively by name and content, supports date, size, kind and extended-attribute filters, can search inside archives, then jumps directly to a result.
• Directory synchronization categorizes differences between the two panes and copies either direction; Compare by Content opens a side-by-side line diff.
• Properties (Alt+Enter) shows file details and can calculate folder sizes on demand; Space on a local folder calculates and displays its size inline.

Archives, conversion & documents

• Pack selected files into the opposite pane with Alt+F5, with an editable destination and configurable archive formats where supported.
• Unpack archives into the other pane with Alt+F9.
• Browse supported archives as virtual folders, including plugin-backed archive and disk-image filesystems, and extract selected members with F5.
• Packer plugins can handle extra archive formats and report cancellable live progress while packing or extracting.
• Combine multiple files, split large files, combine PDFs and split PDFs into pages.
• Convert known file types across data, image, audio, video and document categories, including PDF output where supported.

Remote, command line & system tools

• SFTP remote panels open servers in a pane like a normal folder. Commander uses the system OpenSSH client with key/agent authentication, so passwords are not stored.
• S3-compatible object-storage panels browse buckets and prefixes using profiles stored in the OS secret manager.
• On Windows, Network Neighborhood opens in-pane as workgroups, computers and shares, then continues as normal UNC paths instead of launching Explorer.
• Local-to-SFTP and SFTP-to-local copy workflows use the same pane model as local files; object-storage panes support browsing, preview and deletion.
• Built-in command line (Ctrl+L) runs shell commands in the active directory; cd navigates the pane.
• Command-line autocomplete is fzf-style and learns from the current session plus real shell history from zsh, bash or fish.
• Advanced mode adds live processes, listening ports, open files, installed apps, startup items, package managers, external-tools checks, hex view and binary inspection.
• Configurable button bar lets you add your own command buttons alongside the built-in toolbar actions.

Security, cleanup & settings

• Encrypt files into .cmdr containers using passphrase-based encryption; decrypt restores the originals with the passphrase.
• Optional keychain/libsecret storage can remember passphrases on supported systems.
• Protect Folder revokes OS access permissions behind a passphrase; Unlock restores access. Use file encryption for data that must be cryptographically protected.
• Smart Clean includes System Junk, Large Files, Large Directories, Duplicates and Git repository maintenance, reports reclaimable space and removes selected items.
• Cleanup is conservative: junk locations are whitelist-based, duplicates are confirmed by checksum, and deletion defaults to the Trash.
• Options cover hidden files, confirmations, visible columns, custom toolbar buttons and Normal/Advanced mode.

Keyboard shortcuts

Download

Free to try, then $10 / year to keep — for macOS, Windows and Linux . The unregistered app is fully functional and only shows a startup dialog; a license removes that dialog. Once installed, Commander can check for and install updates automatically.

Each menu lists the available architectures and package formats.