For me it all started before Windows....in Dos ....and a proggy called Xtree, XTPro and finally XTGold.

Great stuff...but as computers got bigger it hit the 640k limit and went belly-up in 32 bit Win Vers.

Then there was ZTreeWin ....a one-man development that had 'no limits'...still a 'text' file manager...but if you were used to Xtree....you were at home with this one.

Alternate shell users [particularly Litestep] never wanted to inadvertently invoke the dreaded Exploder shell while using the file-managing aspect of it...so looked for alternatives.

The first I started using with much enjoyment was Powerdesk....soon handing over the dosh for the 'Pro' version..... did native zip-handling and file viewing [images, etc] and was so much better than explorer the latter was just plain clunky and inept.

Then there was ExplorerPlus.  I still think it was the bastard child of a coporate take-over gone weird.... as it was essentially the same animal as PDPro....just the players' parent companies were different.

Even in Exploder [the shell] I still simply use ExplorerPlus to manage files.... [and ZTree as well], as it's simply more powerful [feature-rich]....who cares if you have to pay?  Worth every penny.

The other day the [again] new owners of ExplorerPlus emailled me with their tale of woe...about how they were hoping to get the proggy compatible with Vista [as it wasn't yet]...and had discovered it was going to take a crap-load of time, effort and money to do....which prompted them to look at how/if others were doing it [Vista compatibility]......

....and discovered Directory Opus 9 , a proggy originating out of Brisbane, Queensland [Australia, for the head-scratchers... ].

Now, I'm not quite sure WHY one Co should be steering their customers towards another...but that's what they did.

Anyway....with a bit of configuring it's identical to the setup/style/appearance of ExplorerPlus....but it's got so many MORE capabilities I'd be going on for 'yonks' listing them, like 'Windowblinds-aware' - always good to see configs listing WB, etc.  And it works in Vista as well [though I haven't been able to demonstrate that myself....yet...but at least when I get up and running in Vista I'll STILL be able to steer clear of boring old Exploder].

$85 smackers AUS-style and it's yours.  I think it'll be worth it. [about $80 USD].

Online tutorial....shows what it can do....

http://www.pretentiousname.com/opus/index.html#introduction 

And a Pic...of it doing 'things'...