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[xplorer˛] — Frequently Asked Questions
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This section is organized thematically in major topics accessible from the menu on the right. Please use your browser's search command (e.g. Edit | Find on page
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A. Download and installation problemsA1. The primary download link doesn't respond Please try the one of the alternative download locations A2. What are the minimum system requirements to run xplorer˛ ? xplorer˛ will run in a basic trim on all win32 platforms (95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/2003/Vista), however a subset of its features depend on windows services that may or may not be available on all PCs. In many cases you can get full functionality by installing a recent version of Internet Explorer.
Early Windows 95 users can install the common control update to get basic toolbars without installing internet explorer. A3. I get a "licencing subsystem fatal error" during installation The most probable cause is that you don't have enough privileges to install programs on your machine. Please contact your system administrator or a power user and ask them to perform the installation for you. A4. I've just received my registration key, where do I type it? If you are running xplorer˛ please first quit all its windows. Then start the program again and paste the registration key in the opening screen.snapshot A5. I have logged on as administrator but xplorer˛ won't accept my registration key Please make sure you are typing the correct key in the registration dialog. Valid keys have approximately 200 characters (numbers and CAPITAL letters, no punctuation). It is easier to copy the key you received by email and use A6. I want to try xplorer˛ but it asks for a registration key when I start it This is by design. To continue on a trial basis, click on continue leaving the registration key field empty. A7. xplorer˛ stopped working before the 21st day of the trial Have you installed xplorer˛ on your machine before? If so the trial has most probably expired, since it counts from the original installation date. If it is a fresh installation there could be some problem with your system clock; please submit a problem report for further information. A8. Do I get any free upgrades at all? Your single user licence entitles you to customer support and free upgrades for one year. From then on you may incur surcharges for future xplorer˛ upgrades. For peace of mind please consider the lifetime upgrade assurance. A9. I can't find the main help file xplorer˛ comes with a large user manual available as a separate download. Please place it in the same folder where xplorer˛ is installed (usually A10. I ordered xplorer˛ hours ago but have received no key yet Normally when you order by credit card you get your key immediately. Sometimes due to essential credit card checks, orders can be delayed 1-2 days. You can avoid most such delays if you use a "good" contact email address — as opposed to a hotmail/yahoo account. A valid email will also ensure you will stay informed on future developments, bugfixes etc.
A11. I got my key but xplorer˛ doesn't ask for it when I start The most likely cause is that you are running the lite version of xplorer˛ (check Help | About dialog). The professional version is a completely different program, and is the only one that accepts registration keys. Please download the "pro" version and install it separately. A12. How can I become an affiliate partner? If you are a webmaster or other person skilled in sales you can earn up to 40% commission by promoting xplorer˛ sales. To register as an affiliate please follow this link. A13. I'm an existing customer; how do I upgrade? If you have an older version of xplorer˛ installed and you want to get the latest update, just use any of the "download trial" buttons and proceed with its installation. The latest version will automatically import your old preferences and licence (if applicable). Just make sure you quit running the old version before you install the latest one. A14. How can I stay informed on xplorer˛ developments? To keep up to date with new releases, upgrades, tips and tricks and other useful information just send us your email address. Nearly every page in the website contains a yellow box where you can enter your details for this purpose. Alternatively you can subscribe to the RSS feed. A15. Does xplorer˛ require online activation? No. xplorer˛ never "calls home", neither during registration nor during normal use, unless you explicitly check for product updates (Help menu). But please observe the fair usage terms in the licence agreement. A16. I can't buy a licence We accept payment through several secure outlets. If you can't access a certain order server, try our alternative ones A17. I can't install/activate xplorer˛ on Windows Vista New UAC policies introduced in Vista cause programs to run with reduced privileges by default, even when you are logged on as Administrator. The easiest solution would be to right-click on xplorer˛ icon/shortcut and pick Run as administrator from the context menu. The registration key should be accepted without problems. From then on you can start xplorer˛ normally. Alternatively you can temporarily turn User Account Control off (from Control panel | User accounts), install xplorer˛ and then turn it back on. A18. I need a portable version of xplorer˛ xplorer˛ standard version can be a handful to use in many computers due to its registration tests. For a small fee you can get your own trully portable edition that can be run anywhere without special user privileges and without leaving traces in the registry or anywhere else. For more details see this page A19. Does xplorer˛ work on 64 bit windows? The built in commands and functionality work on vista 64 and windows XP 64. Only some external shell items will not work, e.g. context menu extensions that are 64 bit DLLs. This is a natural limitation of 32 bit processes. There will be a 64-bit xplorer˛ eventually but in the meantime you can usually find 32 bit versions of many popular shell extensions (e.g. TSVN).
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B. File managementB1. How can I map a network drive or format disks? There is no dedicated menu command in xplorer˛ to perform such operations since they are available through clicking with the right mouse button on certain filesystem items and invoking the command from the standard shell context menu that appears. The items in question are located either on the desktop or in your "My Computer" folder. So for instance:
B2. Why can't I format a floppy disk? Windows will refuse to format a disk that some program have a lock on. A certain recipe for disaster therefore would be to be browsing the root B3. I can't delete a folder from the tree This is another issue related to resources being in use. If you are browsing a folder in one of the list view panes then it is considered "locked" and you can't permanently delete it. So please make sure you are not browsing the folder in any program, including within xplorer˛. On the other hand you should be able to delete a folder to the recycle bin without problems. If you must delete from the tree you have to check "Don't lock browsed folder" box in Tools | Options | Advanced, but note that it will have repercussions in command line execution (no current directory). B4. How can I have zipfolders on Windows 2000? All you need is a copy of zipfldr.dll as it appears on a windows ME system, and its dependencies dunzip32.dll and dzip32.dll. These DLLs aren't redistributable so you'll need to find them from somebody that has ME installed. Copy everything into your system32 folder and register the main object using:
B5. I can't create (paste) hard links Hard links are only supported for NTFS partitions. Hence windows 9x or NT with FAT32 partitions, floppy discs etc are not covered. Even for NTFS partitions there are limitations; the files thus linked must reside in the same partition. It is not possible to place a hard link in e.g. B6. I can't set file comments This is another advanced feature that can be used only on NTFS formatted partitions. You can't set comments e.g. for files on floppy disks and other FAT32 media. On the other hand you can set comments for all folders and microsoft office documents, even for FAT-formatted media. B7. I get a warning about stream loss when I copy files with comments Since file comments most of the time rely on NTFS, when you copy files to non-NTFS media comments will be lost. Windows is warning you in advance for this potential loss of information. If you want to transfer files on e.g. a floppy without losing the comments please use Actions | ADS | Bundle to go command. After the transfer to the target NTFS folder, use Actions | ADS | Unpack bundle to restore the files. B8. How can I tell if my hard disk is NTFS? If you are running windows ME or earlier 9x, then your disks are definitely not NTFS. If you are running on NT4/2000/XP/Vista you'll need to check your drive properties: browse "My computer", right-click on the drive letter in question and select properties. The formatting (file system) will be shown near the top of the page. B9. How can I disable winXP (or ME) default ZIP handling? To turn off this feature you need to unregister the DLL that "simulates" zip files as folders. Just run this command: regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll from within your system directory where this DLL is kept (%WINDIR%\SYSTEM32). Then just allow your archive program to take over the ZIP file associations. However keep in mind that by disabling the default behaviour you miss out on features xplorer˛ offers within zipfolders, like content preview, thumbnails, comparisons etc.
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C. User interfaceC1. How can I make xplorer˛ the default application for all my folders? This is not recommended since you'll run into problems with virtual folders. What you can do instead is add a new verb for the Directory "file type" and associate that with xplorer˛. See C2. I can't see previews for some image files There are a couple of possible explanations. If this only happens to large image files (above 1MB) you may need to increase the thumbnail size limit found in Tools | Options | General. If the problem isn't size-related and started after you installed a program, your registry may be corrupted. Please see KB article 192573 for more details. C3. When in zipfolders I can't see previews of some files Given that extracting files from archives, FTP and other slow folders is rather expensive, xplorer˛ has a default limit of 512KB; files above this size won't be extracted and hence won't be previewed. To increase this limit use Tools | Options | General. C4. Doesn't xplorer˛ support path autocompletion? xplorer˛ does support autocompletion but not like windows explorer. You start typing part of the path and then press C5. I can't see thumbnails for all M/S Office documents Some office applications like PowerPoint automatically include previews in their files, hence ".ppt" files always have thumbnails visible in xplorer˛. Other applications like Word need some coercing for including previews in ".doc" files. You'd have to use File | Properties menu in Word, and check "Save preview picture" box in Summary tab. On the down-side the file size may increase a lot. If you are only interested in plain text previews, xplorer˛ can extract text automatically from Office documents, if you have windows 2000 or later. C6. xplorer˛ eats up a lot of RAM when previewing photos xplorer˛ caches the bitmaps of items you preview either in the quick viewer or as thumbnails. This may lead to high memory consumption when you are browsing folders with a lot of pictures. To reclaim memory you can refresh the folder contents using C7. I love the extended file information; are there any more columns? xplorer˛ will automatically integrate with any shell column handlers you install for your windows explorer. As a sampler you can try the following extensions:
C8. I have windows XP and can't see HTML previews Most likely you've fallen victim to microsoft's security panic introduced with XP SP1. You can bring order to your PC with a simple registry hack described in the forum. C9. How can I print folder contents? You can't print directly from xplorer˛ but you can extract the information you see as text using Edit | Copy Columns menu. This puts the selected items in the clipboard which you can then paste into any program e.g. Excel and print from there.
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D. File searchD1. I can't find files within some folders Some folders like D2. I hate the default Windows Find command in the lite version The "lite" version lacks the powerful find files command of the "pro" xplorer˛ and by default D3. How can I search for text inside PDF documents? xplorer˛ can search and preview plain text within Office documents and Adobe PDF. You only need to check "Search all files" box in Find Files dialog. If you can't extract text from PDFs, you must download and install a component from Adobe (not required if you have Acrobat Reader v7 or later).
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E. Known problems and "features"E1. My namespace extension X doesn't work with xplorer˛ It is unfortunate that many 3rd party NSEs are designed only with windows explorer in mind. Such extensions will run into trouble when accessed from xplorer˛. The symptoms vary according to the level of compliance of NSEs to the shell model, so you may read some folders but the details are wrong, or you can't manage items, or you can't read from a virtual folder at all. We consider these products to be at fault for such problems, not xplorer˛. Properly designed NSEs — like most of the microsoft ones — will work witout a glitch. E2. FTP folders show incorrect details The FTP namespace extension provided by Internet Explorer — which xplorer˛ taps into — is arguably not the best NSE designed by microsoft. There are a number of small glitches, including file dates being doubly-adjusted for timezone, autorefresh playing up, etc. E3. I can't access my remote FTP folder When you type a ftp:// address in internet explorer, you are prompted for your account login details. As far as we know this exchange is not documented and cannot be used from xplorer˛. The workaround is to include your login information in the "path" as such:
E4. FTP doesn't seem to work at all xplorer˛ uses Internet Explorer for FTP folders. If you type a FTP URL (ftp://...) in IE and doesn't work or it returns a webpage-like listing, xplorer˛ can't read it either. Some times you can improve FTP through IE's Tools | Internet Options | Advanced: "Enable folder view for FTP" and "Use passive FTP". Please contact your administrator for further details. E5. Zip files inside zipfolders open in windows explorer Although xplorer˛ will properly read subfolders within zipfolders, it can't open embedded zip files. There is no known workaround. E6. Recycle bin won't autorefresh Recycle bin is one of the few virtual folders that doesn't play by the rules, so autorefresh will only work when you permanently delete files from it. For all other cases (e.g. after restoring files) you will have to do a manual refresh with
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