Quick Name Search. A minimalist interface to finding files. Combines ultimate power with ultimate ease.

The obvious idea is to offer an ultra-smooth access to the most common find task: the search by filename. No more need to open the Info Panel, select the mighty Find Files tab, reset any previous filters, enter a pattern, and press Find Now. Instead you completely bypass the Find Files tab leaving its current settings unused and unchanged.

Here is an example:

1. Click the Quick Name Search button in the toolbar, or simply press F3. (Click to zoom)

2. Enter the string you are looking for (here "bardot"). Then hit Enter or click OK. (Click to zoom)

3. Voilà! All files with bardot in the name are found (recursing all subfolders of the current folder). (Click to zoom)
Note how the pattern is repeated in the Address Bar; this allows you to immediately verify the nature of the search. The pattern is also shown in the tooltip of the tab.

4. As an example for more complex search terms, let's search for all files tagged "cats" OR "dogs". (Click to zoom)

5. Voilà! (Click to zoom)

As an extra service there is a handy additional command Repeat Last Quick Name Search (Shift+F3). It repeats the last Quick Name Search (if any) in the current location. You find this command in menu Edit, and in the right-click menu of the Quick Name Search toolbar button.

Note that the last 64 Quick Name Search patterns are stored in a most-recently-used list, available as dropdown in the dialog, and remembered across sessions.

Tags Tab. XYplorer lets you assign tags (labels, tags, and comments) to individual files and folders. The new Tags tab provides an intuitive all-in-one interface to adding, editing, and viewing the tags.

For example, let's tag some images, and then search for them:

1. Select 3 files in thumbnails view. Open the Info Panel (F12) and select the Tags tab. The tags of the focused file are shown (none in this case). (Click to zoom)

2. Now select a Label (here "Hairy"), add some Tags (here "cats" and "girls"), and click the Apply button. (Click to zoom)

3. Switch the view to Details: The Label and Tags have been correctly applied to the selected files. (Click to zoom)

4. Now let's do a search. Switch location to some higher path (here "Don"), open the Find Files tab, and on this tab the Tags tab (yep, there is another Tags tab under Find Files). Enter the exact same Label and Tags data we have just applied to the files. Click the Find Now button. Voilà! We found our three files. No other files had exactly this combination of tags. (Click to zoom)

Copy Here with Path. A copy command that offers you smart choices regarding the target location. Makes it very easy to mirror copy individual items from/to deeply nested locations.

You find the command in the custom Drag and Drop context menu, and (as "Paste Here with Path...") in the Paste Special submenu.

The commands open a dialog which offers you a complete set of path choices auto-generated from the drop target and the source item(s). Any non-existing subpaths will be silently created in the target; non-existing paths are marked by the "New Folder" icon in the dialog.

Note that in the dialog there is some smartness at work: The path which XYplorer thinks you are likely to choose is preselected. E.g., if you drag directly onto a drive root (or network share), the path that will mirror your source path is preselected.

These commands come in very handy when restoring or updating individual files from one deeply nested place to another one. Here is an example:

1. The file "Don\Pics\hairstyles\movie\Bardot.jpg" is dragged to "Don\Backup" using the right mouse button. (Click to zoom)

2. The custom Drag and Drop context menu pops up, and offers the command "Copy Here With Path...". (Click to zoom)

3. On clicking the command a dialog pops up offering a target path that has been auto-generated from the drop target and the file's source path. The icon shows that the path does not exist yet and will be silently created if you click OK. (Click to zoom)

4. The dropdown list offers more choices. (Click to zoom)

5. After clicking OK the path is created and the file copied. The screenshot shows the copy in the freshly created target location. (Click to zoom)

6. Now, for demonstration purposes, we reverse the operation right away, right-drag the copy onto the special folder "Don", and choose "Copy here with Path..." once again. The dialog smartly offers the correct path, namely the path where the original file is located! (Click to zoom)

Another example might make the logic even more obvious. A file is right-mouse-dragged from its location (D:\Bilder\Icons\_misc\) in one drive to the root of another drive (C:\):

The "Copy here with Path" dialog offers to create a mirror of the source path in the target drive (C:\Bilder\Icons\_misc\). (Click to zoom)

Smart Dropdown Buttons. Simply paste a plain list of documents, executables, and folders into a User Button and enjoy the power of type-aware default actions right from the toolbar.

Here is an example showing how easy it is to create Smart Dropdown Button:

1. Add a new User Button to the toolbar via the Customize Toolbar dialog. Then right-click the button in the toolbar and choose "Edit..." from the context menu. Edit the fields as shown above: State some Name and Icon for the button, and tick the "Fire click on mousedown" option. (Click to zoom)

2. Then click the Edit button besides the "On click" field, and paste some folders, documents, and executables in any mixture and order. A single hyphen in a line stands for a menu separator. (Click to zoom)

3. Voilà! The button appears in the toolbar and features the items in its dropdown menu. (Click to zoom)

Note that the type of the listed items determines the action: The button drops a menu that opens documents, runs executables, and goes to folders. So you have a favorites panel, a launch panel, and an open panel in one place and with the least effort.