File Explorer is helpful as it let us manage folders and files on Windows. They help us to create, edit, view, play, move, copy, delete and search for documents. By default, Windows comes with File Explorer to access the stored contents on your disk drive. Other than default file explorer, there are plenty of third-party explorer apps available. These third-party explorer apps offer more features than the default one. If you don’t want to use the default file explorer app, look into this article to find out the best file explorer for Windows.
Best File Explorer for Windows PC
We have shortlisted the 16 best File Explorer for Windows 10/8/7 you can make use of.
- FreeCommander
- Explore++
- Total Commander
- Directory Opus
- Q-dir
- One Commander
- Multi-Commander
- ExploreMax
- Xplorer2
- Clover
- WinDirStat
- XYplorer
- Altap Salamander
- Double Commander
- TagSpaces
- fman
FreeCommander

FreeCommander is the best alternative for default Windows file explorer. Here all the necessary functions are available to manage your data stock. It offers a dual-pane interface using which you can view two different folders simultaneously. And it comes with a built-in file viewer to view files in hex, binary, text, or image format. You can easily access system folders, control panel, desktop, and start menu with this explorer. In addition, FreeCommander provides features to create and verify MD5 and SHA checksums.
Explore++

Explore++ is a small and fast file manager for Windows. It is an open-source file manager app that comes with a lot of unique features. You can customize the interface of this explorer, and you can do all the functions such as merge, split, filter, move, sort, and more. It provides a dual-pane to browse files and OneDrive integration. In this explorer, you can manage multiple folders and search files using names and attributes.
Total Commander

Total Commander is an old file explorer, but it is still popular. If you prefer transferring a large number of files, Total Commander can be the best choice. It comes with a built-in FTP client with HTTP proxy and FXP support. It can handle all major file formats, and you can read the compressed files without using any additional tool. The best part of this file explorer is you can pause, resume and set a speed limit for each file transfer. Further, it offers advanced search tools, and cloud storage services.
Directory Opus

Directory Opus is a complete replacement for the default explorer. It stands out with more power and functionality. You can select a single or double pane to view the files. The best part of this file manager is you can add tags and descriptions to files. And you are able to set colors, icons, and ratings to all your files. It can be used as an FTP client and file compression tool. Using this file manager, you can quickly filter, sort, group ad search your folders. Finally, it offers a tabbed interface to keep multiple folders open and switches between them quickly.
Q-dir

Q-dir is the best file explorer for Windows 10. It features a four-pane interface to view the files, which is a great option for users. And the best part of this four-pane feature is, you can change the number of panes and keep them vertically or horizontally. The interface of this file manager is very attractive. And it offers all the basic functions to manage the files. You can use the bookmark feature to have quick access to your most accessed files. The file manager supports tabbed browsing.
One Commander

One Commander can be an excellent alternative for your default file explorer. It is completely free to use a file manager with no ads. You can find all the features in this app. It uses redefined user interface, so it is very easy to navigate the files. It offers two themes, so you can select the theme between light and dark when you access the One Commander on Windows. And it comes with the built-in file preview feature to view the files. One Commander is available only for Windows and offers double window and multi-column viewing.
Multi-Commander

Multi-Commander provides an efficient way to work with folders and files on Windows. It supports both Windows Explorer-style and the popular commander-style keyboard. And it uses the popular dual-pane layout and is designed to be very keyboard friendly. Multi-Commander comes with an in-built scripting language and has a lot of tools and plug-ins to manage different files and folders. With this file explorer, you can use the drag and drop function.
ExploreMax

ExploreMax is a smart file explorer for your Windows. It offers a tabbed interface, powerful file search, bookmark to your favorites, and dual pane. ExploreMax comes with the same features as Windows Explorer. Here you are allowed to open multiple folders, and you can quickly switch over between them. The interface is very straight forward so you can navigate the files quickly.
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Xplorer2

Xplorer2 is a dual-pane file manager for Windows. It comes in two paid varieties, professional and ultimate. The ultimate version offers a faster search engine and is portable. You can easily manage the large volume of files, and select the design from a modern ribbon user interface to have a more standard menu bar. Further, Xplorer2 offers advanced features like shredding, file splitting, file merging, and more.
Clover

Clover is a web browser-style file explorer with tabs and bookmarks. And it is very easy to use and integrates perfectly with this explorer. It adds web browser-style tabs to File Explorer. Unlike some file explorers, you can also add bookmarks to the most frequently accessed files and folders.
WinDirStat

WinDirStat is another best open source file manager for your Windows PC. Further, you can say WinDirStat is a free disk space analyzer tool because it has been developed to know how much disk space is being used on hard drives, flash drives, and external hard drives and what files and folders occupy space on your disk. In addition, you can also get the daily usage statistics, and it also offers cleanup tools. And it supports multiple perspectives of file sizes. You can also scan a single folder instead of a whole drive.
XYplorer

XYplorer is an advanced file manager available for Windows. On this software, you get hundreds of ways to customize your device. The best part of this explorer is that it automatically checks for updates and has in-built download and update functionality. It makes you do your work faster. Furthermore, you can manage files with two panes that can be arranged horizontally and vertically. And each can have multiple tabs to boot. XYplorer is very easy to use.
Altap Salamander

Altap Salamander is a powerful two-panel file manager for Windows. It is fast and reliable. It comes with built-in FTP and SFTP clients. With this software, you can control all your recent history files and protects your sensitive files. In addition, this manager even works as a password manager. And it offers features for file comparator and powerful renamer login. Altap displays the contents for all the file formats, including text and binary files, bitmap images, and database files.
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Double Commander

Double Commander is an open-source and cross-platform file manager which offers two panels. Yet, it is another best file explorer for Windows 10,8,and 7. It is lightweight and simple to use. On the panels, you can browse different folders and do basic file operations. You can also save the shortcuts for the folders. The manager has a custom toolbar with buttons to launch external programs of internet menu commands. In addition, it also has an in-built file viewer to view files in hex, binary, text format, and views GIFs.
TagSpaces

TagSpaces is an offline, open-source, and personal data manager. It helps us to organize files on Windows, Linux, Android, and Mac. Further, it is a cross-platform file manager. Unlike other file managers, you can browse files easily on this file manager. It works well with Owncloud, Nextcloud, Dropbox, or Google Drive. It uses only human-readable text files to persist all the meta information such as tags, descriptions, and colors. And TagSpaces also supports mostly all the file formats.
fman

fman is a dual file manager, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The plugins are written based on the Python programming language. And it is very simple to use. But it doesn’t include any toolbars and buttons, so you have to rely on the keyboard shortcuts. If you don’t want any advanced features, you can go with fman file explorer.
Winding Up
These are the best file explorers for your Windows PC. In this article, we have clearly discussed all the file explores listed here. You can just go through it to select the best file explorer for Windows. And comment us how much this article had helped you to find out the best file explorer.