file management

Apk Installer/File Manager 3.0.122212 Review

Incredibly useful, file managers allow Android users to move media files around and organize them, rename files, and create new folders. Apk Installer/File Manager functions properly and does everything one would expect from a file manager. It also provides the necessary software to install downloaded applications that did not originate from the Play Store.

Apk Installer/File Manager offers a rather quick and painless installation. There are no unnecessary advanced settings or registration required, and the application automatically accesses the file structure. The user interface is very clean and displays a traditional, tree-style file structure. It is both easy … Read more

A fix for the multifile-selection glitch in Windows 7 and 8

Sometimes you wish Microsoft would let customers decide when to delete a feature. Reader Dan Baechlin depends on Windows Explorer's ability to retain the selection of multiple files after changing the sort order. The feature has been removed from the version of Explorer in Windows 7 and 8. As Dan explains:

My job requires the ability to highlight multiple files or folders in a directory, and to retain that highlighting while re-sorting them by different fields (modification dates, thematically-based titles, etc.) Windows provided that feature -- until version 7. My work unit indexes, manages, and compares policy documents that … Read more

How to identify nameless music tracks in your iTunes library

Commercial MP3s and other digital music files provide a wealth of information about the songs in addition to the audio-playback itself. This metadata makes it easy to display the track name, artist, album, and other facts about the songs in your playback device or program.

When you use an application such as the free Audacity audio-editing utility to convert music from LPs, cassettes, or another analog source, the only metadata accompanying the tracks is whatever information you provide when you create the digital file. There's the rub.

In July 2011 I described how to use Audacity to convert LPs and audio cassettes to digital. … Read more

Utilize content on your device to its fullest with AndroZip File Manager

File management tools are among the most popular downloaded apps for Android users. Packed with many useful features, an intuitive interface and complete support for encrypted ZIP files, AndroZip File Manager enables users to fully control their files. It offers all the features of expensive file management tools free of charge.

This app installs directly to your SD card. The installation itself takes very little time and is easy. AndroZip File Manager does not require extra root permission to view the root file structure, and these files are instantly viewable after installation. With a black background and white text, most … Read more

Get Windows file manager XYplorer for free

Windows Explorer has never been what I'd call a user-friendly tool. In fact, I find it pretty unintuitive. Yet it's what Windows users are stuck with for moving, copying, deleting, and organizing their files.

If you've often wished for an easier, more robust replacement, today is your lucky day: Giveaway of the Day is offering Donald Lessau's XYplorer 11.90 Windows file manager free of charge. It normally sells for $29.95.

WARNING: Do not click the big blue Download button that appears alongside the description of XYplorer. That's actually an ad, and clicking it … Read more

Add tabs to Windows Explorer with QTTabBar

A little Internet Explorer shell named Netcaptor introduced tabbed browsing, and major players like Opera and Mozilla Firefox (and then Google Chrome) made the feature a default tool for surfing the Web. Even though Microsoft eventually added tabbed browsing to its own browser with Internet Explorer 7, the idea of tabs never really translated to Windows Explorer ... until QTTabBar.

QTTabBar is an extension that brings tab functionality to the Windows Explorer file browser. Began as a project by a Japanese developer known as Quizo, QTTabBar (which also goes by QT TabBar) added tabs to Window Explorer during the many years … Read more

How to ensure tracks play in sequence in iTunes

A previous post, Six tips for managing your iTunes library, described how to use iTunes' "Part of a gapless album" option to ensure related tracks that iTunes treats as separate files always play in their intended sequence.

As several commenters pointed out, the tip doesn't work as I described. The gapless option functions only when the two sequential album tracks are played in the order they were imported to iTunes.

The fact is, once album tracks are added to your iTunes library as separate files, it's easy for them to lose their association as contiguous album … Read more

Six tips for managing your iTunes library

About the time my iTunes music library reached 5,000 tracks I knew it was time for a cleanup. While I was at it, I adjusted the volume on some tracks that I had converted from audio cassettes, made sure joined tracks play in sequence, set iTunes to fill my iPod automatically, and learned some handy playback-control keyboard shortcuts.

Now I'm spending more time listening to the tracks in my iTunes library and less time skipping, scrolling, and searching.

The semi-automatic way to remove duplicate media files iTunes provides two options for identifying duplicate files: one based on the … Read more

Five productivity-boosting Google Drive tips

Twice in the last month I had to become reacquainted with Microsoft Office because a company I was working with required a genuine Office file. Both experiences made me appreciate Google Drive's simple, straightforward apps all over again.

Yes, there are tasks Google Drive's word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program can't handle well or at all, but for 99.9 percent of the files I work on, Google Drive fits the bill nicely. Here are five ways to use Google Drive to shave minutes off your workday.

Keyboard shortcut opens a list of keyboard shortcuts After a … Read more