Beautiful Windows File Manager?

[Ocean]

i have 2 or 3 directories that have lots of movies and tv shows in. i would like to have an attractive interface rather than windows explorer to browse and open these files with my preferred media players.

by attractive, i mean fast and svelt, kinda like piclense, and that i could click on an explorer link to normally XYZ directory and that an application would open up in that directory. im not wanting a full screen app, just something that can replace one explorer window with something more interesting.

windows xp pro,

does it exist?

im considering linux as well.

 

[Unknown-One]

I would have said just open up Windows Media Center...but your version of Windows doesn't come with it.

Might try Media Portal or XBMC for Windows.

 

[Whatsisname]

I'm sure if there was a 'nice and attractive' way to manage files, someone would have come up with something by now. What you are asking for is not a file manager.

 

[Catweazle]

by attractive, i mean fast and svelt, kinda like piclense, and that i could click on an explorer link to normally XYZ directory and that an application would open up in that directory. im not wanting a full screen app, just something that can replace one explorer window with something more interesting.

Checked out Vista yet, by any chance?


Video folders in Vista have a 'preview' pane where a thumbnail of the selected video file is displayed and can be played (so long as appropriate codecs are installed of course). the thumbnail preview has, under it, an 'enlarge' icon which fires it up actual size in Media Player.

That ain't Piclens, but it's a reasonable enough alternative.

 

[jratzo]

Picasa 3 has a viewer like pic lense works really well actually, I think it works with videos

 

[Demon10000]

Media Portal has a great interface for video files. Give it a look.

 

[TGA]

Checked out Vista yet, by any chance?


Video folders in Vista have a 'preview' pane where a thumbnail of the selected video file is displayed and can be played (so long as appropriate codecs are installed of course). the thumbnail preview has, under it, an 'enlarge' icon which fires it up actual size in Media Player.

That ain't Piclens, but it's a reasonable enough alternative.

Agreed

When I first installed Vista I was initially very disappointed with the explorer. However it only took a few min to learn the new layout and tweak the sort by options to the things I use.

Now personally I found the thumbnail viewing of media files to be suitable for my needs but they have improved upon this feature in Vista and it has saved me some time on more then one occasion.

I suppose I could also use Media Center to manage my movies but to be honest in the 2 years I have had Vista I have yet to launch Media Center.

 

[gerok]

When I first installed Vista I was initially very disappointed with the explorer. However it only took a few min to learn the new layout and tweak the sort by options

Yep, I would agree with Vista as having sorta an "attractive" interface. I recently transitioned from XP pro and was skeptical at first, but once you learn new explorer, you'll sorta appreciate it more. The previews definitely helps a bunch.