■ xplorer² operation "wart buster" released

When a program is under development for nearly 15 years as is xplorer², it is hard to find meaningful things to add (other than throwing the kitchen sink or a coffee maker into the program). So this time, instead of adding a single headline grabbing feature or other, I decided to iron out a large number of small annoyances that irritated xplorer² users over the years. More particularly:

Network responsiveness. We don't use network folders much here at zabkat, but many of you do, and have suffered for long delays and unresponsiveness from intermittently available network connections. Although there's no cure for slow networks, xplorer² at least should not get stuck when the inevitable occurs. Now if you leave xplorer² browsing an unavailable network location, it won't hang for ages when you restart it. At most it will wait for 5 seconds pinging (this duration is an adjustable advanced option), or less if you press <ESC> key. Homegroup folders are also improved. Remember for better network responsiveness it pays to tick the "Faster network access" (regular) option. You lose a bit in bells and whistles but you can get through to your remote files.
Faster folder statistics. The Stats ribbon button (or <Alt+D> command) now works in all kinds of folders, including your phone, zipfolders etc. You can export the results quickly as text and search them. See the Actions menu in the folder data window for more commands.
Searchable advanced settings. There are tons of small tweaks available to optimize xplorer² to your needs, so many that it is hard to find what you need. Now the advanced settings editor (accessible through Options > Advanced options, see the ribbon's leftmost File tab) has a search field at its lower left edge, that will help you locate that elusive option. You may have to switch tabs (Global - Layout settings) to find all the options. Click Find next button till you locate what you are after.
Zoom and rotate images. The Draft preview tab, when showing pictures, bitmaps and the like, can rotate and zoom them. A popup toolbar guides you or you can use the keyboard and touch gestures. Note when you rotate an image the actual file is not modified. If you need to see bigger images you can double click on the previewer pane's title bar to detach it from xplorer² frame window.
Touch scrolling works. A long term complaint of the increasing number of people using xplorer² on tablet PCs was that the pan gesture (finger scrolling) wouldn't work. You won't believe the amount of effort I put fixing this one, but at any rate it's working now, enjoy! :)
Easy folder background menu. Another hard to fix quirk. Sometimes you need to access the folder background menu (as opposed to the selected item's shell context menu). For that you'd have to find some empty space to right click onto. Now you can do so if you find any white space after the filename — works even with full row selection. Keyboard lovers can access this menu pressing first <Alt+A> to unselect everything followed by the context menu key (next to the spacebar). This fix also allows lasso (marquee) selection around filenames
Group ID property. When you search for duplicate files xplorer² will add a "group ID" column to the results. This is not a real file property but helps identify which files are considered duplicate — that is in the same group. This allows you to regroup the files in their sets in case you e.g. change the sort order.

For more details on these and lots of other added features please see the change log.

Upgrade information

Version 3.3 is a free upgrade for most people that already own v3.x licenses. A small exception is people who got a v3.0 key as a free upgrade using the "free upgrades for a year" policy. So if your unlock key is dated before 1 January 2015 (check your About dialog), then you'd need a new key, but you should be able to get one at a discount. On the other hand if you've already bought a v3.x key or you own the free lifetime upgrades cover, you don't have to pay again.