LAN Commander

   LAN Commander

A modern, keyboard-driven, dual-panel Text User Interface (TUI) file manager for Windows, inspired by the classic Norton Commander and Far Manager.

LAN Commander is a lightweight, portable, and high-performance file manager designed for developers, system administrators, and power users who appreciate the speed and efficiency of terminal-based navigation. Built natively in C++ using the Windows Console API, it combines the classic dual-panel layout with modern integration features, active network scanning, and a built-in text/hex editor.

   Key Features

   📁 Dual-Panel Navigation & UI

    • Classic Layout: Toggle between Short View (compact columns) and Full View (detailed file info) with persistent settings.

    • Smart Drive Selection: Quick drive menu (Alt+F1 / Alt+F2) displaying drive letters, types, and capacities. The application automatically remembers and restores your last visited directory for each drive.

    • Quick Filter (Ctrl+I): Dynamically filter the active panel using wildcards (*, ?) or substrings to instantly find what you need.

    • Folder History (Alt+F12): Access a persistent list of up to 15 recently visited directories to jump back to your work instantly.

    • Mouse & Drag-and-Drop Support: Full support for mouse clicks, double-clicks, scrolling, and drag-and-drop with real-time visual feedback.

🛠️ Advanced File & Directory Management

    • Multi-Rename Tool (Ctrl+R): Rename multiple selected files with smart counter padding (automatically calculates padding based on the file count, e.g., 001 to 800). Features transactional safety: pre-checks for name conflicts to prevent data loss and performs a safe rollback if an error occurs.

    • Folder Size Calculation (Ctrl+Space): Asynchronously calculate directory sizes in the background with a real-time Scanning.. status, keeping the UI responsive.

    • Attributes & Timestamps (Ctrl+T): Modify Read-only, Archive, Hidden, and System flags, and edit Creation/Write/Access dates with timezone correction.

    • Group Selection (+ / -): Mark or unmark files using interactive wildcard masks.

🌐 Active LAN Scanner & Network Integration

    • High-Performance Scanner: Entering net:// triggers a multi-threaded active LAN scanner that scans your local subnet in parallel on ports 445 (SMB) and 139 (NetBIOS/Samba) in under 0.2 seconds.

    • Secure Credentials Prompting: If a network resource is password-protected, LAN Commander securely prompts for a username and password (masked with *) to establish the connection.

📦 Archive Virtual File System (VFS)

    • Native Archive Browsing: Enter .zip, .7z, and .rar archives as if they were regular folders.

    • Modification Support: Add or delete files directly inside .zip archives. Modifying .7z and .rar is safely blocked to prevent archive corruption.

📝 Built-in Text & Hex Editor (F4)

    • Smart Binary Detection: Automatically detects binary files (.exe, .dll, .png, etc.) and opens them in HEX mode by default.

    • Hexadecimal Mode (F8): View raw binary data and edit individual bytes (nibbles) safely.

    • Advanced Navigation: Full support for PageUp / PageDown and mouse wheel scrolling, with the cursor automatically kept within the visible area.

    • Multi-Buffer Queue (F9): Open multiple files sequentially and cycle through active buffers.

    • Clipboard Integration: Full support for standard Windows Clipboard operations (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V).

    • Undo/Redo (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+R): Full history of modifications per buffer.

    • Suspend Session (F12): Temporarily return to the panels while preserving all open files, cursor coordinates, and undo/redo histories.

   Quick Hotkey Reference

Hotkey Action

F3 Open Internal File Viewer

F4 Open selected file in Editor / Hex Editor

F5 / F6 Copy / Move selected items

F7 Create a new directory

F8 Delete selected items (Send to Recycle Bin or permanently)

F9 Open Top Dropdown Menu

F10 / Esc Exit LAN Commander / Close active dialog

Ctrl + R Open Multi-Rename Tool

Ctrl + I Filter active panel

Ctrl + H Toggle hidden and system files

Ctrl + Q Toggle Quick View (Folder Statistics)

Ctrl + L Toggle Info View on the opposite panel

Ctrl + \ Jump to the root directory of the active drive

Alt + F7 Search for files recursively (supports text search inside files)

Alt + F8 Open Command History Dialog

Alt + F12 Open Folder History Dialog

   System Requirements & Portability

    • OS: Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit)

    • Terminal: Windows Console Host (conhost) or Windows Terminal

    • Portability: 100% portable. No installation required, no registry modifications. Settings are saved locally in settings.json.