Tabbed File Browsing: QTTabBar

A major reason for my switching to Firefox several years ago was its tabbed browsing experience.  Just one browser window, and multiple websites open all at once.  It was a huge difference.  Microsoft followed suit eventually with IE7, and today it’s unheard of to have a browser that doesn’t support this function.  So why do Windows users still have to open an instance of Windows Explorer in order to view the contents of each directory that they want to view?  Linux users don’t have to.  Nautilus (GNOME) and Dolphin (KDE) both support tabbed browsing of the filesystem:

When I began writing this article, I wanted to suggest QTTabBar.  It’s a great idea, but it was a little buggy on my 64-bit Windows 7 install, and I can’t say that it’s quite ready for primetime.  But give it a try, your mileage may vary.  The idea is solid, and I will be keeping an eye out for future revisions. 

PSD (and others) Thumbnails: Mystic Thumbs

Anyone that works with Photoshop — even casually –  will know how irritating it is that PSD files don’t display as thumbnails in Windows Explorer.  Having to load up Photoshop just to see if a given PSD is the file needed is a tedious process.  Mystic Thumbs eliminates that problem by displaying these files as thumbnails, just like any other image file.

Batch File Renaming Utility: Renamer

This little app is great.  You’ve got to think a little when you use it so as not to create file name conflicts –and thus generate error messages as opposed to renamed files – but it’s really a straightforward application.  Simply drag and drop the files you want to rename, create some rules and Renamer takes care of the rest.

It’s got a very basic user interface, so you’ll need to use your head a little bit in determining the order that your rules are processed, but it’s not rocket science and it’s much easier than the old “right-click, ‘Rename’” or “select, ‘F2’” methods of renaming multiple files.

Library Icon Replacement: Replace Librarie Icons

Windows 7 only.  Libraries are at first glance an unremarkable addition to Windows.  But when properly utilized, they are a powerful way to organize and search your data.  By adding folders to a library, one can quickly search for files based on filename, file author, or even text within the files themselves.  The downside is that if you want to add any libraries, any additional Library you create will use the same generic icon.  Not a huge deal, but if you add more than a few, it begins to look a little homogeneous.  Which is pretty much the antithesis of the goal of an icon. 

So, Replace Librarie Icons to the rescue!

Credit goes to LifeHacker for the discovery of this simple, yet useful tool.

Any others you’d like to add?  Please, share in the comments section.