WorkSoft Navigator

WorkSoft Navigator is a dual-pane file manager that features a bunch of practical options, such as folder comparison, case conversion, file listing, an internal packer, and an advanced file searcher. It can be handled by all types of users.

Before proceeding any further, you should know that this application is old. It still works on newer Windows editions, though.

After a fast setup operation that shouldn't give you any trouble, you're welcomed by a standard window with two panes which permit you to explore two different directories and easily copy or move files between them via drag-and-drop support.

WorkSoft Navigator has an internal viewer for text documents, images, HTML, binary and hexadecimal mode, along with an external viewer that's associated with the default text editor by default. You can specify external viewers for both viewing and editing files, though, as well as apply file masks and enter command-line parameters.

Shortcuts are provided for viewing, editing, copying, moving and deleting files, and for most commands available. WorkSoft Navigator lets you compare two side-by-side locations to find out total containing items (excluding subfolders) and their size, create new shortcuts, rename items, or create RAR, ARJ, ZIP, TAR or CAB archives using an internal packer, which is accompanied by an unpacker.

It's possible to enter and edit the description of any item, save filelists to open them later or export them to plain text documents, convert selected file names to uppercase or lowercase, filter displayed items in any pane or make a group selection by applying a file mask, as well as sort files and folders by name, size, type, attributes, or date of last modification.

The left and right panels can be swapped or equalized by bringing the inactive panel to the same location as the active one. You can study disk information (e.g. free and total memory, swap file size, memory load, filesystem), map network drives, create and organize favorites, as well as create a menu with shortcuts to any file, folder or application you want to quickly access.

Advanced search operations can be targeted at folders and subfolders. You can narrow down search results by indicating file extensions, enabling case sensitive mode, setting a range for the date of last modification and for the file size, as well as by marking file attributes (read-only, archive, hidden, system, directory, compressed).

It had minimal impact on computer performance in our tests, carried out file operations jobs fast, and didn't hang, crash or prompt error messages. Considering the age of WorkSoft Navigator, it was a surprise to us that it worked smoothly on newer Windows. No error dialogs popped up and it didn't hang or crash.

To sum it up, WorkSoft Navigator comes loaded with a rich set of options and configuration settings dedicated to file browsing and management. It's definitely worth looking into if the interface's appearance is not on your priority list.