Total Commander for Pocket PC v2.0 Released

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ghisler.com/pocketpc.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.ghisler.com/pocketpc.htm</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/pocketpc1.gif" /><br /><br />It's no secret that the file browser provided with the Windows Mobile OS is rather... simple. For me, having a functionally rich file browser is an absolute must! Fortunately there are a lot of great alternatives, and in the case of Total Commander, there is at least one great FREE alternatives. Version 2.0 really beefs up its capabilities adding an FTP client, registry editor and LAN access to a solution that already supported ZIP capabilities, built-in text editor, search capabilities, double-paned viewing, and customizable tree views. If you haven't already spent money on a commercial solution, you really owe it to yourself to check this out!

[lapchinj]

Has potential but it still seems a little raw especially for version 2 product. At the moment I don't think that it's worth yet the $34 asking price. I was kind of suprised at the price. Kind of high.

So far I'm very satisfied with Resco's product (as I am with most of their products for that matter) and I haven't found another file browser that can replace the one from Resco. While some have some nice features they're just not compelling enough to switch or keep on my PDA. It's not always the feature set that turns me off but rather sometimes it's just the common sense behind how the features work.

While the commander product has a two window mode I don't think that you need a search bar on both of them (I couldn't find a way of turning them off). Although 2 windows are nice for copying files from on folder to another it was very hard to find option settings in order to have a split window with folder on top and folder files below.

I guess I'll wait until version 3.

Jeff-

[hamishmacdonald]

$34? I think you're looking at another version. The Pocket PC application is free, if I'm not mistaken. (It's never timed out on me or asked for money.)

It is a little Windows 95 looking, but it has some features I've found useful, like the ability to manually change the reference of a shortcut, and now it adds FTP access, which is difficult to find for the Pocket PC.

[jasonc]

$34 is only for the Windows version.. the PocketPC version is free!

[Menneisyys]

Yes, the PPC version is free.

I've started writing a series of quick reviews on it - feel free to read this (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41013).

[whydidnt]

Has potential but it still seems a little raw especially for version 2 product. At the moment I don't think that it's worth yet the $34 asking price. I was kind of suprised at the price. Kind of high.


I think you must have looked at another product. Total Commander is Freeware. I haven't tried it myself, but I may just give it a whirl at that price, it sounds like it does most everything Resco does, but at less than half the cost. :lol:

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Has potential but it still seems a little raw especially for version 2 product. At the moment I don't think that it's worth yet the $34 asking price. I was kind of suprised at the price. Kind of high.
Realize that there is both a Windows version and versions for the Pocket PC/Smartphone/WinCE systems. It's easy to get them confused with regards to registration, but to be clear, the "pocket" versions (Pocket PC, Smartphone, WinCE) are all freeware. It's the desktop Windows version of Total Commander that requires registration. You'll see on the page that the article linked to that there are downloads available near the bottom of the page for Pocket PC with the specific title, "Download the Pocket PC version (Freeware!)".

[emuelle1]

It looks like it might be useful. I downloaded it.

[powder2000]

This has been my file manager of choice for as long as I can remember (two years?). I have it on my x50v as well as my smt5600. Can't beat the price either!

[Gerard]

Has anyone managed to set up a working FTP link in this version? If so, how? I use FtpView and Resco both for FTP stuff, and both were dead easy to set up, but attempts at connecting to two servers have utterly failed for me. I get the login dialogue and then just see a blank space, no folders nor files. Apparently I'm connected, as attempts using the wrong servername or password deliberately deliver failure notices and the correct data does not. Any hints? There isn't a lot of information on the TC site.

Otherwise I like the improvements, especially the registrry editor. It's not as easy to use as PHM's or Resco's, but being able to tap&amp;hold on any level of registry data, copy it, then paste it into the filesystem as an REG file is really cool. I have a lot of custom REG files saved on a card for from-scratch setups and for swapping between behaviors in a few programs. Tapping on these imports them automatically thanks to Resco's great import asociation.

[lapchinj]

:oops: :oops: Yeah I see that :oops: :oops:
And I even saw that Ekkie wrote that it was free (which makes it hurt more - but I'm over 40 anyway :drinking: ). I went to the link and saw a "buy" link so I clicked on it and saw the $34 price tag. I should have read the large print instead of the fine print.

Anyway I'll still wait until v3 but it's still going to stay loaded on my Dell for a while I check it out further (at least until this thread fades out).

Jeff

[Menneisyys]

Has anyone managed to set up a working FTP link in this version? If so, how? I use FtpView and Resco both for FTP stuff, and both were dead easy to set up, but attempts at connecting to two servers have utterly failed for me. I get the login dialogue and then just see a blank space, no folders nor files. Apparently I'm connected, as attempts using the wrong servername or password deliberately deliver failure notices and the correct data does not. Any hints? There isn't a lot of information on the TC site.


It worked for me with my local FTP server. (It's indeed buggy though - I've found, so far, AS-related problems when transferring files through the USB Internet Pass-through.)

I've just published my FTP benchmarks (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41013); the FTP client has great throughput, compared to the in cases (downloading to a memory card) very slow FTP client in Resco. In uploading, it's the fastest app I've ever benchmarked.

[phs]

One thing I like about Total Commander is that the cecmd.exe launches like old DOS programs. Just tap on it and it will run. It doesn't have bits and pieces in "windows" and other subdirectories. So I always keep a copy of cecmd.exe in my CF card. After a hard reset, I just tap on the cecmd.exe and I already have an unzipper. Then I can unzip all my zipped cab installers.

At least that worked with version 1.21. Hope the new version's the same.

[Gerard]

On the slightly negative side, I didn't like the way the CAB installation grabbed ZIP association without asking. Easy enough to re-associate with Resco, where ZIP encryption and other related tools just make it a better archiver, but this sort of assumption by developers annoys me always.

As for TC 2.0 being just a standalone installation... no. Here's the total data dump as reported by S_K's Remover:

Install Dir: \Built-in Storage\programs\TotalCommanderCE
registry values:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ZIP;Default
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ZIPArchive;Default
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ZIPArchive\Shell\Open\Command;Default
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ZIPArchive\DefaultIcon;Default
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.TCFOLDER;Default
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\tcfolder;Default
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\tcfolder\DefaultIcon;Default
files:
\Windows\cecmd.htm
\Built-in Storage\programs\TotalCommanderCE\cecmd.exe
\Built-in Storage\programs\TotalCommanderCE\ftp.tfx
\Built-in Storage\programs\TotalCommanderCE\registry.tfx
\Built-in Storage\programs\TotalCommanderCE\LAN.tfx
\Windows\Help\Total Commander.lnk
missed files:
\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Total Commander.lnk
\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Total Commander.lnk
\My Documents\Total Commander.lnk

Perhaps the EXE can still operate as a standalone. Many programs can. But full operability? I doubt it.

[Menneisyys]

As for TC 2.0 being just a standalone installation... no.
...
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ZIP;Default
...
\Built-in Storage\programs\TotalCommanderCE\ftp.tfx
\Built-in Storage\programs\TotalCommanderCE\registry.tfx
\Built-in Storage\programs\TotalCommanderCE\LAN.tfx
...


It indeed associates the ZIP extension with itself in the registry and, in addition to cecmd.exe, copies three .tfx files. These latter plug-ins can be freely deleted; then, the associated additional functionality (Registry editor / FTP client / LAN access) won't be shown under \\, but that's all.

Total Commander 2.0 works great (even ZIP'ing / unZIP'ing) if you just transfer cecmd.exe to a freshly hard reset device. You don't even need to do any registry import.

[welovejesus]

Total Commander 2.0 works great (even ZIP'ing / unZIP'ing) if you just transfer cecmd.exe to a freshly hard reset device. You don't even need to do any registry import.

Menneisyys,
I have used Resco Explorer 2003 (v. 5.15), GSFinder+ (1.04), and Total Commander for Pocket PC. So far only Resco Explorer does not crash when I attempt to create a large zip files (such as my entire My Documents folder on my SD Card). I am not sure if Total Commander handles Zipping and Unzipping differently, but one issue could be that my Axim X5 Basic does not have much free RAM. Any thoughts as to why this is happening?

[Gerard]

Another freeware which might be helpful is PocketRAR. It is simply a RAR and a ZIP compressor/decompressor, no more, but these it does very well. No fancy elements in the Pocket version as there are on the PC, such as encryption or analysis of archives, and when creating complex (ie: hundreds of small files) RAR files it can chew through RAM rather quickly, but it's a tool I like to have around. Putting all my 700+ current URL files into one RAR file for dumping to the PC and importing to Firefox is one such use. Unpacking various Resco updates is another, as these and some other PC-based install files are actually RAR archives with CAB files inside. (I know, Resco also supplies CAB versions... but the downloading is sometimes difficult ini Pocket IE.)