5 reasons HiFile should be your file manager on any PC

If you remember the first file manager tools for PC, such as File Commander, or Midnight Commander, you will love HiFile. It has many more features than File Explorer, doesn’t get stuck all the time, and has an excellent file search tool. Without further ado, here are the main reasons why HiFile should become your trusty file manager on any PC.

Advanced search and filtering

Find any file in seconds

You know how searching for a file in File Explorer goes. If you have no idea where your file might be, you select a whole drive, type the filename in the Search bar, and wait a long (long) time. In the meantime, you will have to open up another instance of the app if you want to perform other actions.

HiFile has great search and filter options. For instance, you can just select a side from the dual panel and press space to type the name of the file. However, clicking the magnifying glass icon in the top bar is much better. That will open a separate search window. There, you can type the filename and configure your location search, select the file type, and even search in archives. If your search is vague, the process will still take less time than in File Explorer, and this time, you can use HiFile for other operations.

HiFile also has a text search option. Yes, you can search for text within files on your computer! The icon is a magnifying glass with some small text inside, right next to the usual magnifying glass.

With HiFile, you can also filter the files on your PC if you click on the funnel icon at the top-right corner of the UI. This feature allows you to filter files based on their extension, type, or the date they were created. Filtering is instant.

Advanced customization

You can truly make HiFile your personal file manager

When you install HiFile for the first time, you get to choose a set of icons, the background color, style, font, and others. But don’t worry, because you can make all those changes and more right from the app’s Preference menu.

For instance, you can choose between nine color themes, including a Pink one (that almost burned my cornea when I tried it). Then, there is a customization to change the buttons’ roundness radius and gradient.

However, the most important customization is for the toolbars. You can change the positions of several buttons in the UI. You may also change the font in the interface from Courier New with many other options and styles.

But these are only on the layout side. There are plenty of other customization options to change, from the language and size units, to how it displays the date or the size of the app’s cache. I really don’t know what I would like more about the customization part in HiFile.

Built-in preview for all file types

Well, almost all

A huge advantage of HiFile is that you can preview any file type right in the app, without the need for any external tools. Select an image, click on the glasses icon in the toolbar, and you’ll get a preview with all the image details. I could also open a DLL file in machine language.

However, when I selected a .pptx file, HiFile opened just a machine language source, not an actual preview of the presentation. Of course, if I double-click it, I can see it in PowerPoint. You also have the option to Show it in the right-click menu, but you get the same result.

You can also display thumbnail previews for images by pressing Shift + F3, which you can see in File Explorer.

However, I was impressed by the image file viewer because it has plenty of options. For example, you can play a slideshow of all the images in a folder or resize individual photos without using other apps. The text previews are also editable, though the built-in editor is not better than Notepad.

Finding and removing duplicate files

I got rid of a few GB of duplicate files from my drive

There are a few file managers out there that can find duplicate files, but File Explorer doesn’t do that. You have to go through a couple of steps to find and delete them. That’s why it was refreshing to find a perfectly working one in HiFile.

To search for duplicate files, you just have to go to Tools -> Find duplicate files or simply press Shift + Ctrl + D. Then, select the location where you want to search and input the filenames and the comparison criteria. I looked for *.jpg to find all the images with the same name. You can also select their sizes and content to find the exact match. Finally, you can simply delete the duplicates or go to the source and remove them from there.

The search through a whole 500GB drive took less than five minutes, and I don’t have a really speedy laptop, to be honest.

Finding all recent files in an instant

Now you know where you’ve saved that file

When you open File Explorer, if you scroll down, you will see a list of the recently saved, downloaded, or opened files. However, the list is limited to 20 items. The older ones won’t be shown, and in the recent list, you don’t get details about the files you edited, viewed, or opened.

With HiFile, you must hit the Clear History button at the top-right corner to delete your files and start fresh. Additionally, this app has tabbed categories for edited, viewed, and opened files to help you filter through them faster.

As opposed to File Explorer, in HiFile, you have to press Ctrl + R to see the recent files list, but it’s worth the extra step.

Is HiFile a good replacement for File Explorer?

HiFile is not all roses and butterflies. For instance, if you select more files, you must repeat the process of selecting them instead of just clicking on a random file like in File Explorer. The dual-pane display mode might throw you off for a while if you’re used to traditional file managers.

The app still has a lot of experimental features, so they might be bugged. However, after I used it for a while, it convinced me to replace File Explorer. It’s simply easier to use and more efficient in so many ways. But there’s a catch: it’s free for only six months, so after that, I will need to buy a license.

Source Info: https://www.xda-developers.com/reasons-hifile-your-file-manager-on-pc/