It's an extremely simple idea, but it might change your way of browsing the file system forever:

The Mini Tree displays only the paths you have actually used.

This makes browsing blindingly fast (it's instantaneous even with deeply nested subfolders), it makes the tree ridiculously small, and it makes you feel like being back in control (because you look at just the folders you are actually using, instead of being avalanched by all the folders that have accumulated on your drives over the years).

Check out the tour...

E:\XY\;C:\Temp\;D:\Backup\?*.gif

... and E:\XY\, C:\Temp\, and D:\Backup\ are searched for GIF files.

Quick Searches are remembered in tabs and across sessions, you can save them as Favorites or assign Keyboard Shortcuts to them.

Simply type ">" plus one or more characters into the Address Bar and press Enter, and the focus will jump to the next file beginning with those characters. It's like Type-Ahead Find but done through the Address Bar or whatever location port (Catalog, Favorites, Go To, Scripts, etc.).

For example, to spot all space characters contained in filenames simply try this (there's a space between > and |):

> |

To highlight more than one string at the same time separate them with a pipe (|), for example...

>7.90|xy|2008|2009

... will throw a highlight on "7.90", "xy", "2008", and "2009" (no trailing | is necessary in such a multiple pattern). Click the following image to zoom it:

To remove the highlights, simply enter >, or repeat the same pattern.

Spot patterns can be stored in the Address Bar, as Favorites, or in the Catalog, and thus made be available to a single click.

To repeat any particular section of the medium (audio or video), aka "A-B Repeat", looping must be enabled (tick "Play Again"). The section is defined by clicking anywhere on the progress bar while the medium is previewed (whether running or paused):

Tags. Tags let you give colors and labels to individual filenames. The tagging is done very comfortably via keyboard shortcut, toolbar button, or context menu. Of course, tags are retained across sessions.

There is a choice of seven predefined color schemes (background and text color), which can easily be exchanged for other colors, and extended to up to 15 color schemes. The names of the schemes can be freely changed to represent any user-defined categories:

You may choose how and where the colors are displayed in the file list. This is, for example, the "Tag Column (Symbol)" style:

Comments. You may as well attach individual comments of virtually any size to your files and folders. Just like the color tags, the comments are retained across sessions, and if you move a file the comment moves with it. If files are your daily business, you will surely know what to do with comments.

Usage. In the file list, tags and comments are displayed in individual columns, which can be sorted and thus used to group items according to their tags or comments. You can as well add or edit tags and comments directly in the file list by clicking into the respective column:

To show all folders simply prefix "\|" to the pattern(s). For example:

\|a*  = Show all folders and only files beginning with "a"

\|!*  = Show all folders but no files

To hide all folders simply prefix "!\|" to the pattern(s). For example:

!\|a*  = Hide all folders and show only files beginning with "a"

!\|*  = Hide all folders and show all files

In a nifty variation of the common X button implementation you can opt for displaying the X buttons only when hovering a tab. A new revolutionary and fascinating XYplorer only feature.

// reality check
  if (1 == 2) {
    echo "Help!";
  } else {
    echo "Relax.";
  }      

// set comment "Blah" to these items
  comment "Blah", "C:\foo.txt|D:\bar.txt";