alternative to windows explorer

i've replaced window's IE with firefox, and now im looking for a better alternative to windows explorer and ms outlook, freeware if possible. thanks.

 

for outlook, you can use thunderbird.

 

You mean "Internet Explorer" not "Windows Explorer", right?

 

I'll second Thunderbird. Used to use Eudora but it has become a mere shadow of it's former self in recent years. There are no good free file managers for XP that I know of unless you want to go to the extreme and completely replace the shell with something like LiteStep, but Total Commander is a good alternative to Windows explorer (if that's indeed what you meant) with built-in FTP client, tabs, multiple panes, etc. although quite expensive.

 

yes, i do mean file managers, other than windows exlorer. i have explorer2, but i havent installed it yet. im waiting for a better, recommended alternative.

for thunderbird, can i export all my contacts and email from outlook to thunderbird? does thunderbird work with gmail?

 

You sure can.

Here's Google's tutorial for setting up Tbird to work with Gmail

 

I use Directory Opus 8 and love it. Dual panes, FTP, great interface and very customizable. It's not free but worth every penny.

 

I've been using Opera for browsing and email for quite a while. The mail part takes a little getting used to, but is very powerful in what it gives you for organizing and searching. Free at www.operasoftware.com

- Ed

 

Ooh, Opera, good one. Forgot about that one. The "Swiss Army Knife" of browsers. Picks up where the Mozilla suite left off and does it better, IMHO. I really like it and wish I could use it full time, but I don't like the way it handles some pages. Hopefully Opera 9 will bring it's CSS3 support up to snuff. Then I'll probably switch over for good.

 

umm...I think the author of the thread is looking for Windows Explorer file management replacements. He already replaced Internet Explorer with Firefox.

 

He's talking about shell replacements.
I use Talisman 2 for windows shell replacement.
http://www.lighttek.com/talisman.htm
It uses about 1/4 the resources as explorer.exe
It's free for 30 days, but i liked it so much I dropped the paltry $25 on it.
You can see some examples of the customizability (is that a word) with these shots of a few of my desktop themes- http://www.cs-onp.com/files/elminst/desktop/
What you don't see in the pictures is that menus for various functions pop out of different places. they are hidden into the "frames" or morph out of the objects on the desktops.

The other most popular option for shell replacement is LiteStep.
http://www.litestep.com/
Litestep is a bit more daunting for most people, but it is also considered to be a bit more "powerful". And it has a pretty good following. And, I think it's completely free. I have a couple friends that use Litestep, but have not used it myself.

 

Total Commander hands down.

But it's not completely free.

 

No, he's not.
He said "Windows Explorer" not Windows shell replacements. Apps like Total Commander, Explorer2, Directory Opus, etc. fall into the category of Windows Explorer replacements.

 

He was also asking about alternatives for Outlook, thus the Opera suggestion which does email, and alot of other things as well.
BTW (off-topic, don't mean to hijack but), Talisman looks kind of cool - never seen it before. I kind of like the idea of shell replacements as I use multiple window managers and desktop environments in Linux. It's nice to have alternatives. And LiteStep is pretty neat, but alot of it's themes are really ugly.

 

Well windows explorer is the windows shell. Explorer.exe is what controls the windows environment, not just the folder windows. Hence my response.
I would call the things you list "folder management programs". But we're just arguing semantics at this point. I blame MS for bad naming.
As i read back he did say file manager, so my bad.

mach_zero:
I very much like Talisman. I've been using it for over a year now. I switch themes every once in a while depending on mood. Several of the themes have multiple desktops like in linux. I think you would like it.
It's also fun for confusing other people that try to use your computer and can't find the start button. hehe

 

Sounds like fun, lol. I once did up my KDE theme so close to WinXP my kids couldn't tell the difference until they clicked on the "iTunes" icon and got Amarok instead.

 

Those talisman themes look fabulous. I have a copy of it somewhere from a mag- just needs to be registered for full functionality, I think. Does talisman really only use a quarter of the resources of WE? I have tried liteshell and a number of others- but ended up back in windows.

 

It has been a while since I did a real comparison (running both shells for multiple days of use), but the difference is usually between 1/4 and 1/3 the resources.
IIRC, Explorer.exe would run anywhere from 12-20 Meg of memory, or more. As I write this, talisman.exe is using 8M, which is higher than usual.
YMMV.

 

is there a free alternative that would be "default" file manager. something like directory opus. with commanders and such I have to first open the application and search within it, but I want to be able to double click a folder and this new application instead of windows explorer would open.