The BEST File Manager for Windows
Works with and greatly enhances:
Windows 11, 10
Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP
Servers 2003 and later
Starting at just $50 for home use and $69 for a business license (and a business two-pack for just $99!)
What's New / What's Up
Version 4: the future
Major new tools, significant upgrades to current components and faster folder listings.
- Find and rename problem files: bad paths, illegal characters, Linux & iOS (Mac) characters.
- Check files and folders for compliance with different file systems e.g., NTFS, Fat-16, Fat-32, eFat, CDs, iOS, Linux and custom.
Know if the files are right before you copy. - Delete files no matter their length or how they are named.
- Powerful renaming with RegEx e.g. change 'Romeo Smith' into 'Smith, Romeo' and much more.
- Lightening fast directory listing no matter how large the folder.
- Detailed reports for copy errors.
- Variable text size for views and dialogs.
- and many more improvements and fixes..
See the V4 preview here.
Update May 2017
A May 2017 Microsft security update for Windows 10 conflicted with a major routine in FileBoss resulting in FileBoss not starting on some Windows 10 systems.
Versions V3.101 and later, fix the problem. You can read more about this at the page
Windows Creators Conflict.
Mac / iOS/nix Filenames - Technical
Please note that this docmentation applies to FileBoss V4 which will be released in the beginning of 2022
Apple Mac (iOS) computers and all operating systems derived from Unix allow a number of characters in filenames that the Windows world considers to be illegal (these characters are listed in the table below).
In addition files with these names can be stored on Windows computer systemss, NAS systems and other storage media that can be accessed by both Windows and other computer systems creating a real headache for System Administrators and Windows users who will see strange characters (typically a dot or a question mark) for every character Windows considers illegal.
Characters that are legal in other systems but not in Windows
The following characters are not legal for filenames in Windows:
" * ? \ / < > |
In addition the space and period characters can be at the end of a name on the other systems but not in Windows.
Versions of Windows supported
Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 and later. That includes Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 and 10. Both 32- and 64-bit versions of those operating systems are supported.
NAS and other storage media support
Most Network Attached Storage devices and other modern storage devices support the extended character set for filenames. If the device supports the names so will FileBoss when running under an appropriate version of Windows (listed above).
Application Support for Special Filenames
Most modern, significant applications can open and save documents that have iOS/nix characters in the filenames (though you won't be able to save to a new file with Mac Characters in the filename nor easily change the current name from within the application.
Microsoft Office, Adobe products and many more will support these names. Older software and some smaller or specialty software may not. If your software can not open a file with due to illegal characters in the filename use FileBoss to fix the filename and then open it.
Meta-names for Special Characters
Table of Meta-names
In the table below the Meta-names can be used in FileBoss to specify the special
characters. For example if you want to search for filenames that contain the Backslash
character you might enter *<\>* as one of the search patterns. Or if you wanted - for some really crazy reason - to end a file name with a few spaces and a question mark while editing a filename inline you might enter:
Romeo_And_Juliet II.III <?>.html
If you simply entered
Romeo_And_Juliet II.III ?.html
an error would be generated because in Windows the plain ? is not allowed in a filename.
|
Name |
Meta |
Char |
Description (used by Windows for) |
|
Backslash |
<\> |
\ |
Used by Windows to separate path elements |
|
Slash |
</> |
/ |
Reserved, can be used in some places as a backslash |
|
Asterisk |
<*> |
* |
Wild-card to match any string in searches |
|
Question Mark |
<?> |
? |
Wild-card to match any single character in searches |
|
L. Chevron |
<<> |
< |
Used internally and by DOS subsystem |
|
R. Chevron |
<>> |
> |
Used internally and by DOS subsystem |
|
Dbl. Quote |
<"> |
" |
Used to enclose parameters that contain spaces |
|
Bar |
<|> |
| |
Used internally and by DOS subsystem |
|
Trailing period |
<.> |
. |
In Windows, filenames can not end with a period |
Illegal spaces |
<is> |
illegal space |
In Windows, filenames can not begin or end with a space |
What do you need to do today?