■ Extensible architecture with shell extension handlers
xplorer² is tightly integrated with windows shell. There are many 3rd party shell extensions that enrich your desktop experience which work both in windows explorer and xplorer². There are many kinds of plugins available to download:
- shell context menu (IContextMenu) for custom commands on files
- thumbnail generators (IThumbnailProvider) for images
- preview handlers (IPreviewHandler) for rich document preview
- text extraction (IFilter) and desktop search
- column handler (IColumnHandler and IPropertySetStorage) for custom file attributes
- icon overlay (IShellIconOverlay) for file icon status indicators
- property sheet (IShellPropSheetExt) extending file property pages
- infotip (IQueryInfo) for file information as popup text
Below you will find many recommended plugins that extend xplorer² (and DeskRule). We are not affiliated with any of them but the downloads are mostly free or free for personal use. If you are a programmer you can create your own shell extension to extend xplorer².
If you are on 64 bit windows and using the 64 bit xplorer² please make sure you download the 64 bit extension you are after — if available. Alternatively if a shell extension you want comes only in 32 bit format, you can use it by installing the 32 bit xplorer² on your 64 bit system.
■ Text preview and desktop search
Text filters designed for windows indexing server allow you to preview (draft) and search for text in many document types like MS Office, PDF, WordPerfect, OpenOffice and others. Click on a link to
download.
■ Native preview handlers
For windows vista or later there are many preview handlers that work for the
Native preview tab in xplorer².
■ Column handlers for file attributes
Add extra information for the detailed view mode according to filetypes, as well as more metadata to search for. NOTE: xplorer² professional can utilize old style column handlers even in windows
vista and 7/8/10.
- ID3 tags for music and video (MP3, WMA, APE, WAV, ASF, MP4 etc)
View and edit ID3 tags (also property sheet extension) with AudioShell
- Folder size
Show total folder sizes in a column without delays
- Tortoise SVN version control
Source code versioning columns and icon overlay handler.
- PDF title, authors, pages etc
If you don't have PDF X-change installed, get this small shell extension to enable PDF document properties.
- RAW photos (NEF, CR2, CR3)
Extracts EXIF data (camera, date taken etc) from high-end camera photos. It also provides thumbnail images
xplorer² also integrates with
total commander WDX content plugins for even more searchable file attributes.
■ Image thumbnails
See image content instead of a generic file icons in thumbnail view mode.
Note: these are the only extensions that will work with the free lite version.
- Any image format you can imagine (RAW, ACE, PSD, DWG, CDR, EPS and more)
Sagethumbs adds thumbnailing for a massive selection of image types
- Amazon Kindle ebooks (AZW, MOBI, PRC)
See your book covers as thumbnails and also their properties. (Alternative download link)
- EPUB ebooks
Thumbnails for your EPUB book covers via CBXShell.
- FFmpeg Video (MKV, FLV, AVI, MP4, MOV, RMVB, M2TS, OGM)
Icaros plugin offers video thumbnails and also properties like length (duration) for its supported formats. You may already have this plugin installed if you have the K-Lite codec pack
- HEIC images
This format (High Efficiency Image File) comes from Apple and supposedly is for smaller image files without losing out in quality.
- SVG images
Popular with graphics designers, this is a vector format that looks good for all resolutions.
If you want a preview handler too, try MS powertoys
■ Browser extensions
Enable xplorer² to browse, preview and search in special kinds of virtual folders
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