Explore Better

The Windows file manager built for humans and AI: fast dual panes, per-tab terminals, a local MCP server, transactional file operations, reversible Explorer integration, and a visual disk-space analyzer.

Visit the Explore Better website | See the MCP proof | Download the latest Windows release | Read the user manual | Track distribution readiness | Report an issue

Why Explore Better Exists

Windows Explorer is familiar, but demanding file work quickly outgrows it. Large folders can feel slow, multi-folder work needs too many windows, destructive operations provide limited recovery context, and advanced jobs such as disk analysis, synchronization, duplicate finding, indexing, and automation usually require separate applications.

Explore Better was built to provide one focused Windows workspace that:

• stays responsive in very large folders;
• makes source and destination panes visible at the same time;
• treats copy, move, overwrite, sync, and delete work as inspectable operations;
• combines everyday browsing with disk analysis, search, indexing, previews, and automation;
• runs as the current user for normal browsing instead of requiring administrator rights;
• can integrate with Explorer when wanted, while keeping that integration optional and reversible.

The aim is the depth of a serious Explorer replacement without giving up speed, understandable controls, or recovery when a file operation is interrupted.

Install On Windows

Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11, x64
• A normal Windows user account
• Administrator approval only when Windows itself requires access to a protected location

Recommended Installation

1. Open the latest release.
2. Download ExploreBetter-<version>-x64-setup.exe.
3. Download SHA256SUMS.txt from the same release.
4. Verify the installer checksum in PowerShell:

Get-FileHash .\ExploreBetter-*-x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256

5. Compare the result with the installer entry in SHA256SUMS.txt.
6. Run the installer and choose the installation folder and shortcuts you want.

The installer is per-user by default. Normal browsing, the native filesystem helper, Disk Map, indexing, previews, and file operations do not require the main application to run as administrator.

Windows SmartScreen Notice

The current public preview is not Authenticode-signed because a trusted production certificate is not yet available. Windows SmartScreen will identify it as an unrecognized app from an unknown publisher.

Download only from the official GitHub release, then verify the installer before deciding whether to continue:

Get-FileHash .\ExploreBetter-*-x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256

Compare the result with SHA256SUMS.txt from the same release. Do not disable SmartScreen globally or install an untrusted root certificate. The project website keeps the current filename, checksum, and expected first-run warning together in one place.

Tagged builds produced by the repository release workflow also receive a GitHub build-provenance attestation. Provenance ties an artifact to its source workflow and commit; it improves traceability but does not replace Authenticode or remove the Windows warning.

Explorer Integration

Explorer replacement features are opt-in. On the first packaged launch, Explore Better offers to become the current user's default handler for normal filesystem folder and drive opens. Choosing Use Explore Better backs up the exact existing shell values, installs folder, drive, folder-background, and Open file location in Explore Better handlers, and leaves Windows Explorer installed.

You can make the same change later from Integrate > Make Default, add the optional Win+E sign-in helper, or choose Restore Previous to put the backed-up handlers back exactly as they were. Applications that ask Windows to open a folder normally can use Explore Better; applications that explicitly execute explorer.exe are hard-coded to Windows Explorer and cannot be redirected safely. Explore Better also works as a standalone file manager without changing any defaults.

When an older Explore Better release already owns the folder/drive default, current packaged builds automatically replace its legacy PowerShell command with the installed Explore Better.exe while preserving that choice. If another application owns the default, Explore Better repairs only its own existing context-menu commands and does not take the default back.

Feature Modules

Dual-Pane File Browser

• Independent left and right panes with tabs, tab history, locked tabs, and reopen/cycle shortcuts.
• Details, compact, and tile views with configurable columns and image thumbnails.
• Editable path bars, clickable breadcrumbs, aliases, recent paths, and folder suggestions.
• Text, kind, and label filters plus Explorer-style keyboard selection and find-as-you-type.
• Vertical, horizontal, and single-pane layouts with resizable Navigator, pane splitters, Preview, columns, and command dock.
• Linked Panes, Auto Refresh, hidden/system item controls, and reusable folder formats.

High-Performance Large Folders

• Progressive first paint instead of waiting for an entire directory to hydrate.
• Virtualized file lists that keep only a small visible row window in the DOM.
• Shared listing work for matching panes, cached metadata, bounded prefetching, and background hydration.
• An automatic foreground-activity coordinator pauses and aborts speculative work during navigation, search, analysis, file operations, or while the app is hidden, then resumes it without duplicating cached requests.
• Native Win32 enumeration for local folders with a Node fallback for unsupported paths and platforms.
• Persistent Speed Index and Background Index options for repeated searches.

The current 100,000-entry acceptance fixture records a 101.5 ms median first visible window, 616.7 ms median full hydration, and 47 rendered rows.

Transactional File Operations

• Copy, move, rename, bulk rename, transfer, sync, archive, recycle, app trash, and permanent delete.
• Conflict previews with rename, overwrite, and skip policies before files are changed.
• Destination-volume staging and overwrite backups for recoverable commits.
• Operation queue with progress, transfer rate, ETA, pause, resume, cancel, retry, and undo metadata.
• A bounded chronological timeline records queueing, phases, progress milestones, cancellation, retry, Undo, recovery, and completion, with related operations linked in both directions.
• Startup reconciliation for interrupted operations and cross-volume moves awaiting source removal.
• Protection against drive-root deletion, app-state deletion, recursive source/destination mistakes, and stale destructive previews.

Disk Map And Size Analyzer

• Full-window hierarchical treemap for understanding where disk space is used.
• Nested folder and file rectangles with drill-down, breadcrumbs, Root, Up, Focus, and Open actions.
• Logical-size and allocated-size modes with clearly labelled accuracy information.
• Color by file type or stable top-folder branch.
• Top folders, files, extensions, and type-category summaries.
• Warm scan caching, cancellation, operation invalidation, and keyboard navigation.
• Exact local Windows allocation data through GetCompressedFileSizeW and volume geometry.

Search, Indexing, And Cleanup

• Bounded recursive filename and text-content search.
• Filters for kind, size, timestamps, and Windows attributes.
• Warm-cache search across saved background-index roots.
• Flat View for recursively presenting a folder as one virtual pane.
• Duplicate Finder with same-size grouping and optional SHA-256 confirmation.
• Checksum manifest creation and verification with SHA-256, SHA-1, or MD5.
• Folder-size calculation directly inside normal file panes.

Compare And Synchronize

• Left/right folder comparison with left-only, right-only, newer, different, and type-mismatch states.
• Top-level or recursive comparison.
• Explicit left-to-right and right-to-left sync plans.
• Reusable Sync Profiles for folder pairs and policies.
• Optional mirror cleanup through recoverable App Trash moves.
• Preview tokens that reject an apply if the filesystem changed after planning.

Organization And Workspaces

• A compact Pinned section presents Favorites and path aliases together without merging their persisted models, followed by the primary Folder Tree, meaningful connected Devices, Quick Access, Drives, and up to eight Recent locations with an explicit show-all control.
• Named layouts that restore panes, tabs, filters, sorting, view modes, and panel sizes.
• Folder Tab Groups, File Collections, Selection Sets, and Pane Snapshots.
• File Basket for gathering paths from multiple locations before a batch action.
• Color labels and notes that follow app-managed rename, copy, and move operations.
• Folder Formats, Display Presets, and Filter Presets.
• Exportable configuration backups for workspace and automation settings.

Preview, Viewer, And Quick Edit

• Built-in previews for folders, text, images, PDFs, audio, and video.
• Larger Viewer with neighboring-file navigation and a filmstrip.
• Quick Edit for small text files with an undoable save operation.
• Properties and Path Health views with sizes, timestamps, hashes, drive information, and bounded diagnostics.
• Native Windows Properties and Reveal in Explorer handoff when needed.

Command Center And Automation

• Searchable command palette with fuzzy matching, pins, history, and hotkey badges.
• Every command identifies whether it stays in Explore Better, requests File Explorer, launches an external app, or opens a Windows dialog, and explains the expected result.
• The Electron title bar stays on one 44 px row from 390 through 1920 px; measured overflow collapses labels and moves Focus, Operations, then Disk Map into a keyboard-accessible More menu before Search or Command.
• Custom command dock profiles for frequently used actions.
• Saved trusted PowerShell or Command Prompt tools with captured output.
• Saved trusted scripts with a bounded file-management API.
• Custom app-level hotkeys for built-in actions, tools, and scripts.
• Open With presets and extension-matched quick launchers.

Per-Tab Integrated Terminals

• One lazy ConPTY terminal for every file tab, rendered with xterm.js in a resizable drawer below its pane.
• Independent left and right terminals that stay alive, retain output, and return with their tab while the app is open.
• PowerShell 7 discovery with Windows PowerShell and Command Prompt fallbacks.
• New terminals start in the tab's folder and can follow later pane navigation when the shell is idle.
• Search, clear, restart, profile selection, external launch, drag-and-drop path quoting, and an explicit Open terminal folder in pane action.
• Dark, Light, and High Contrast themes plus configurable font size, cursor, and scrollback.
• Optional administrator terminals through a narrow one-session UAC broker; the main app and local backend remain non-elevated.

AI Bridge And MCP Automation

• A bundled ExploreBetterMcp.exe stdio server for Codex, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT-compatible clients, and generic MCP hosts.
• Live structured context for active panes, stable tab IDs, visible selection, focused item, layout, and a monotonic context revision.
• Typed tools for bounded listing, indexed search, path inspection, text reading, checksums, disk analysis, duplicates, folder comparison, collections, labels, and operation recovery.
• A renderer-owned semantic UI registry exposes bounded, selector-free navigation and form actions through list_ui_actions and invoke_ui_action; wait_for_ui and MCP resource subscriptions provide cancelable, event-driven observation without polling.
• The additive v1 contract contains 32 tools, 6 resources, 4 prompts, and 43 controlled views, including Devices and Health. Existing profiles keep their saved permissions; only newly created profiles receive the new safe defaults.
• Durable background jobs with progress, cancellation, paginated results, and bounded output for very large folders.
• Read-only profiles by default, separately revocable per client, with explicit authorized folders and individual tool permissions.
• Every write uses a planner and a one-use 120-second apply token bound to the client session, paths, plan digest, conflict policy, and filesystem signatures.
• Local stdio and a same-user random named pipe only: no remote listener, arbitrary shell execution, terminal control, registry changes, or AI-driven elevation.
• One-click reversible setup for Codex, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code with byte-for-byte configuration backups and preservation of unrelated MCP servers.
• A standalone Windows MCPB release with the official Registry identity io.github.terrorproforma/explore-better.

Is MCP Actually Useful Here?

Yes, for the parts of file work where a terminal is too broad or too text-oriented. The public MCP evidence page and machine-readable benchmark run the real Electron host and bundled Go stdio sidecar against the same deterministic fixture as equivalent PowerShell scripts.

The current evidence proves:

• 3 of 3 shared search, duplicate, and disk-analysis workflows return the correct known result through both interfaces;
• 7 of 7 MCP-specific controls pass, including schema discovery, bounded pagination, live pane navigation, semantic UI action and wait correlation, authorized-root denial, read-only capability reduction, and labeled allocated-size data;
• on the measured fixture, MCP recorded 148.3x lower median latency for filename search, 4.7x for disk analysis, and 5.3x for duplicate finding than equivalent fresh PowerShell processes;
• the comparison discloses that PowerShell timings include fresh process startup and does not claim MCP is universally faster than a persistent warm shell.

MCP complements the terminal. Use the terminal for arbitrary commands and system administration. Use MCP when an AI needs Explore Better's live panes, selections, indexes, Analyzer, client-specific folder authority, or preview/apply operations backed by the transaction journal.

Reproduce the focused proof on Windows:

npm run verify:mcp-value

Devices, Health, And Windows Integration

• A capability-aware Devices & Windows locations dashboard separates connected devices, drives, mapped network locations, libraries, and virtual Windows locations. Initial loading never waits for the slower Network provider.
• Device actions say exactly whether they browse in Explore Better, open in the active pane, or request Windows File Explorer; unsupported actions are not rendered.
• Health & diagnostics reports renderer, backend, native helper, MCP bridge, shell provider, cache, index, queue, updater, package, and adaptive scheduler state. A streamed support bundle is path-redacted by default, never includes file or terminal contents or secrets, and is capped at 10 MB.
• Explorer replacement and Windows integration remain optional and reversible per user.
• ZIP browsing as read-only virtual folders without extracting first.
• Windows file clipboard and drag/drop interoperability with Explorer and the desktop.
• Recycle Bin browsing and native restore support.
• First-launch opt-in plus current-user folder, drive, folder-background, and file-location handlers.
• Optional shortcuts, startup behavior, and Win+E helper.
• Exact integration backup, status reporting, launch tests, rollback, and cleanup from one center.

Native Windows Filesystem Provider

• Bundled Go x64 helper using a versioned NDJSON protocol.
• Request IDs, progress messages, cancellation, and structured Windows errors.
• Fast directory enumeration, tree scanning, volume information, and allocated-size lookup.
• Supervised helper lifecycle so a helper failure does not crash the desktop app.
• Node fallback for UNC paths, unsupported filesystems, non-Windows development, or helper failure.

Security And Recovery

• Loopback-only backend with a random per-launch API capability.
• Host, Origin, fetch-metadata, method, and JSON mutation validation before route dispatch.
• Strict Electron navigation and permission boundaries.
• One-use destructive apply tokens bound to normalized paths, policy, and filesystem signatures.
• Durable operation journal, backup records, and deterministic recovery choices.
• Normal-user operation by default, with narrow elevation packages only for protected remaining work.

First-Run Workflow

1. Launch Explore Better from the Start Menu or desktop shortcut.
2. Choose whether normal Windows folder and drive opens should use Explore Better. This can be changed later under Integrate.
3. Open a source folder in one pane and a destination folder in the other.
4. Double-click folders to navigate, or use Enter, breadcrumbs, history, and the path bar.
5. Use F5 to copy or F6 to move the current selection to the opposite pane.
6. Open Ops to inspect progress, retry remaining work, recover an interrupted operation, or undo a supported action.
7. Open Disk Map to scan the active folder and drill into its largest branches.
8. Choose the terminal icon in either pane, or press Ctrl+Backquote, to open that tab's shell in its current folder.
9. Open Command or press Ctrl+P to find every action without exposing every control in the toolbar.

The user manual covers all primary controls, keyboard workflows, per-tab terminals, resizing, file operations, Disk Map, scripting, recovery, and Explorer integration.

Project Architecture

Area	Location	Responsibility
Electron desktop shell	electron-main.mjs	Native window, backend supervision, single-instance routing, updater bridge, and external URL policy
Renderer bridge	electron-preload.cjs	Narrow desktop capabilities exposed to the local UI
Terminal service	terminal-service.mjs	Per-tab ConPTY ownership, shell discovery, folder synchronization, IPC isolation, and elevated-session brokering
MCP automation facade	mcp/automation-service.mjs	Profiles, root authorization, bounded tools, jobs, planners, audit records, and shared filesystem policy
AI Bridge pipe host	mcp-bridge-service.mjs	Same-user authenticated named-pipe transport, lifecycle, cancellation, and renderer context forwarding
MCP stdio sidecar	native/mcpserver/	Official Go MCP SDK adapter that keeps protocol traffic on stdout and forwards typed calls to Explore Better
Local backend	server.mjs	Filesystem providers, operations, recovery, indexing, search, Analyzer, shell integration, and API security
User interface	public/	Dual-pane workspace, dialogs, Disk Map, command system, and virtualized lists
Public landing page	site/	Static product website deployed through GitHub Pages
Release provenance	.github/workflows/release.yml	Draft release builds, SHA-256 manifests, and GitHub artifact attestations
Native filesystem helper	native/fshelper/	Go Win32 enumeration, allocation data, tree scans, progress, and cancellation
Verification fleet	scripts/	Security, operations, performance, package, updater, shell, layout, and acceptance checks

The desktop app starts the backend on a private random loopback port and verifies its identity before loading the renderer. Development mode can also run the interface directly in a browser.

Build From Source

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20 or newer
• npm
• Go 1.25.12 for the MCP sidecar; Go 1.23 or newer for the native Windows helper
• Windows 10 or Windows 11 for the desktop package and Win32 verification

Clone And Run The Desktop App

git clone https://github.com/terrorproforma/explore-better.git
cd explore-better
npm ci
npm run build:native-helper
npm run build:mcp-server
npm run desktop

Run The Browser Development Version

npm start

Then open http://127.0.0.1:4627.

Build Windows Packages

npm run build:icon
npm run package:dir
npm run package:win
npm run package:installer

Generated packages are written to dist/.

Desktop Updates

The installed desktop app checks the public GitHub release channel shortly after launch and every six hours while it remains open. When a newer build is available, Explore Better shows a dismissible in-app card with the version, release notes link, and a user-controlled download action. The download runs in the background; once it is verified, the card changes to Restart to update. A downloaded update also installs on the next normal app exit.

Run Check for updates from the Command Palette (Ctrl+P) at any time. When Explore Better is minimized, Windows may also show a native notification for a newly detected version.

Builds released before this update UI was added require one final manual installer upgrade from GitHub Releases. Releases after that bootstrap upgrade can notify and update users inside the app.

Verification

Run the release-critical checks sequentially:

npm run verify:all

Run the complete verification fleet:

npm run verify:all:full

Useful focused checks include:

npm run verify:security-boundary
npm run verify:transactional-operations
npm run verify:native-helper
npm run verify:mcp-contract
npm run verify:mcp-security
npm run verify:mcp-context
npm run verify:mcp-operations
npm run verify:mcp-semantic-ui
npm run verify:mcp-operation-wait
npm run verify:packaged-mcp
npm run verify:mcp-value
npm run verify:health-devices-support
npm run verify:navigator-product-ui
npm run verify:seo-discovery
npm run verify:layout
npm run verify:speed-health
npm run verify:release-readiness

The consolidated verifier timestamps its evidence under artifacts/acceptance/, isolates performance runs, enforces timeouts, and removes test-owned child processes.

Public Release Status

The current public release provides a per-user Windows x64 installer, native helper, checksum manifest, blockmap, and GitHub-hosted update metadata. Public Windows CI verifies dependency audit, native helper compilation, security boundaries, transactional rollback, helper protocol behavior, layouts, and folder double-click behavior.

Two external certification inputs remain outstanding:

• trusted production Authenticode signing;
• physical MTP/PTP phone or camera certification.

These limitations are disclosed in each release. They do not require normal browsing to run as administrator.

License

Explore Better is open-source software distributed under the MIT License. The standalone MCPB bundle includes the same license and may be used, modified, and redistributed subject to its notice requirements.