Files and Folders (FnF)

Become a master of file management. I have been building file managers for myself since 2016 – first one that ran in the browser, now a real desktop app. FnF puts two folders side by side, lets you do everything with the keyboard and runs the slow work in the background while you go on. Copy, move, rename hundreds of files at once, find duplicates, look into archives and servers – without reaching for the mouse.

[!NOTE] Version 1.0.0 is available – packages for macOS, Windows and Linux on the GitHub releases page (see Installation). The automated tests run on Linux, macOS and Windows, but some platform specifics (the trash per drive on Windows, attributes, links) still need testing on real macOS and Windows machines. Back up what you care about – and tell me what breaks.

Main features

1. Two panels, tabs everywhere
2. Keyboard first – every function is one keystroke away
3. Find anything from the Command Palette
4. Jobs in the background
5. Safe by default
6. Multi rename with preview and undo
7. Search into a tab
8. Flat view
9. Duplicates and similar images
10. Disk usage
11. Archives as folders
12. FTP, FTPS and SFTP servers
13. Viewer and quick view
14. Compare files
15. Compare and synchronise folders
16. Group files and clean folders
17. Shell line
18. Starter menu
19. Colour schemes
20. And more

Shortcuts are written Windows/Linux · macOS. All of them can be changed.

Two panels, tabs everywhere

Source on the left, target on the right – the fastest way to move files around. Each side has a clickable path, favourites, a status line and as many tabs as you like. Drag tabs to reorder them or onto the other side, swap the panels, or make the target show the same folder as the source. Tabs, cursor, marks, sort order and column widths survive a restart; every tab even remembers its last 50 folders.

Tab switch side · Ctrl+T / Ctrl+W new / close tab · Ctrl+U swap panels · Ctrl+Alt+O target = source · macOS: Tab · ⌘⌥T / ⌘⌥W · ⌘U · ⌘⌥O

Keyboard first

Every function is an action with a name and a shortcut – type a few letters, press Enter. The Command Palette finds any action by name and shows its shortcut, so you learn the keys on the way. The Actions menu lists all of them in groups. The classic keys are where you expect them: F3 view, F5 copy, F6 move, F7 new folder, F8 delete. The button bar at the bottom changes with Shift, Alt and Ctrl.

Ctrl+Shift+P palette · Ctrl+F12 actions menu · Ctrl+Shift+K shortcuts · macOS: ⌘⇧P · ⌃K ⌃M · ⌘⇧K

Find anything from the Command Palette

Type invoice 2025 – files from all your folders, actions and folders in one list, and act on a hit at once. The palette searches a name index that is built in the background and kept up to date (only names, sizes and dates, only in memory – about 50 MB per million files), plus your tabs, favourites and recent folders directly. Every word must appear in the name or a folder above it; case and accents don't matter. Narrow it down with ext:pdf, in:Projects, size>10m, modified:2025 or is:dir; > lists only actions, ~/ completes a path. On a hit, the keys you know work: Enter opens, F3 shows a preview beside the list, F5/F6 open the copy/move dialog with the other side as target, Shift+F6 renames; Tab shows everything else – go to its location, find similar files, analyse the parent folder, show all hits in a result tab.

Ctrl+Shift+P palette · Tab actions on the hit · Insert mark several · macOS: ⌘⇧P · Tab · Insert

Jobs in the background

Start a big copy and keep working – the app never freezes. Copy, move, delete, pack and search run as jobs with progress, rate and remaining time. Pause them, resume them, cancel them; several jobs line up in a queue. Slow network drives and servers are handled the same way – the panels stay usable.

F5 copy · F6 move · Ctrl+F11 tasks · macOS: F5 · F6 · ⌃K F6

Safe by default

Delete goes to the trash, nothing is overwritten without asking. When a file already exists you see both versions with size and date and decide once – or for all further conflicts: overwrite, skip, overwrite if newer, or rename. Copies are written under a temporary name first, so there is never a half-written file under the real name. Renaming never overwrites, and dangerous targets (root, home, system folders) need a second confirmation.

F8 trash · Shift+F8 delete permanently · macOS: F8, ⌘⌫ · ⇧F8, ⌘⌥⌫

Multi rename with preview and undo

Rename hundreds of files in one go – and see every new name before you press the button. Build names from macros like [N] name, [E] extension, [C] counter, [D] date, use upper/lower case rules, search and replace with regular expressions, replace umlauts and risky characters. Errors (duplicate names, invalid characters) are shown in the preview. Save your patterns as presets – and if it was a mistake: undo.

Ctrl+M · macOS: ⌘F6

Search into a tab

Search results land in a tab you work with like a folder. Search by name (glob or regex), content, size, date and depth; results stream in while the search runs. Copy, move, delete, rename or view the hits directly, jump to the folder of a hit, run the search again. Keep your favourite searches as templates.

Alt+F7 find · Ctrl+Shift+F7 search again · Alt+F10 find folder · macOS: ⌥F7 · ⌘⇧F7 · ⌥F10

Flat view

Every file below a folder in one list. Like Total Commander's flat view: all files of all subfolders in the same tab, with a Path column. Sort them, mark them, copy or delete them, rename them – across all subfolders at once. The same key brings the normal view back.

Ctrl+B · macOS: ⌘B

Duplicates and similar images

Free space without fear: rules decide which copy stays. Find files with the same content (SHA-256, optionally byte by byte), similar images (another size, quality or format) or similar comics. Rules like keep the oldest, the shortest path, the higher resolution or not the one named "copy" mark the rest; hard links are recognised as the same file. Check each group with thumbnails, then delete to the trash, permanently or into a folder – every copy is compared again right before.

Alt+Shift+F7 · Alt+↓ / Alt+↑ next / previous group · macOS: ⌥⇧F7 · ⌥↓ / ⌥↑

Disk usage

See at a glance what eats your disk. Scan the marked folders, the folder under the cursor or the whole drive. The list shows sizes with share bars, the other panel draws rings or tiles. Go into folders with Enter, list the largest files, collect what can go across all folders and remove it with F8.

Ctrl+Shift+D · macOS: ⌘⇧D

Archives as folders

Open ZIP, TAR, 7z and RAR like any other folder. Press Enter on an archive and browse it; view (F3) and open files inside, copy them out. Pack to ZIP, 7z, TAR or TAR.GZ and unpack, with passwords (ZIP AES/ZipCrypto, 7z, RAR) that are only kept in memory. Archives from elsewhere are treated as hostile: no zip-slip, no zip-bombs. ZIP, TAR and TAR.GZ can be changed: copy or move files into them (F5/F6, drag and drop), delete entries (F8) and create folders (F7). The archive is rewritten into a temporary file and replaced only when that is complete – untouched entries stay bit for bit the same, a cancel leaves the original as it was. 7z and RAR stay read-only.

Enter open · Alt+F5 pack · Alt+F9 unpack · F5/F6/F8/F7 into or inside a ZIP/TAR · macOS: Enter · ⌥F5 · ⌥F9

FTP, FTPS and SFTP servers

Your web space as a folder in the panel. Connect to FTP, FTPS and SFTP servers and work with them like with a local folder: tabs, history, copy and move in both directions as jobs, delete, rename, view. Passwords and key passphrases are kept only in your system keychain (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, Secret Service). SSH host keys and FTPS certificates are checked; plain FTP is marked as unencrypted.

Ctrl+K · macOS: ⌘K

Viewer and quick view

Look into files without opening another program. F3 shows text (with search and encoding detection), hex and images. The quick view shows the file under the cursor in the other panel while you move through the list. Properties show times, permissions and owner.

F3 view · Ctrl+Q quick view · Alt+Enter properties · macOS: F3 · ⌃Q · ⌘I

Compare files

Two files side by side, differences in colour. Line numbers, changed, added and removed lines; ignore white space or case; whole file or only the changes, F7 jumps to the next one. Binary files are compared byte by byte – or hand both files to FileMerge, WinMerge or Meld.

Mark two files – in one panel, or one on each side – then File ▸ Compare files…

Compare and synchronise folders

Which files differ – and make both sides equal. Shift+F2 marks what is missing or newer on the other side (top level, like Total Commander). File ▸ Synchronise folders… (Ctrl+Shift+S / ⌘⇧S) compares both folders with all subfolders – size and date with a tolerance (FAT/SMB: 2 s, optionally ignoring 1-hour offsets), optionally byte by byte – and suggests an action per row: copy →, copy ←, delete, nothing. Change them with the arrow keys, Del and Space, check the summary, start. Copies use temporary files, deletes go to the trash, and nothing that changed since the comparison is overwritten. Names in NFC and NFD (macOS) and – where the system ignores case – A.txt and a.txt are recognised as the same file.

Group files and clean folders

Bring order into a messy folder in one step. Group files moves or copies files into folders built from their names (the name before a running number, the first word, the text before a dash, the first letters) – with a preview. Clean folders removes empty folders and leftovers like .DS_Store, Thumbs.db or *.bak (to the trash by default). Create folders makes many folders from a template. Group series by season collects the episodes of one or more marked series folders – also from release sub-folders – and copies (or moves) them into S01, S02 … on the other side, in the series folder itself or in a folder named like the series, recognising S01E01, 1x01 and the like; samples and .nfo files are left out, and after a move the emptied release folders can go to the trash.

Alt+G group · Alt+Shift+G series by season · Ctrl+Alt+R clean · Ctrl+F7 many folders · macOS: ⌥G · ⌥⇧G · ⌘⌥R · ⌘F7

Shell line

A command line below the panels – in the folder you are looking at. Type a command, press Enter; the output streams in below, the history remembers your commands. Ctrl+Shift+Enter inserts the marked names, quoted for your shell. For interactive programs, Open terminal here starts your real terminal.

Shift+F11 · macOS: ⇧F11

Starter menu

Your own launcher for programs, scripts and folders. Build a menu with submenus and give entries their own shortcuts. Parameters work like in Total Commander: %P%N the file under the cursor, %S all marked files, %T the folder of the other side. Programs are started directly – never through a shell.

Alt+S · macOS: ⌥S

Colour schemes

Norton blue? Paper white? Dark? Your choice – or your own. Eleven built-in schemes: the eight classic designs of the earlier versions (Light, Paper, Bitbucket, Cypress, Blackboard, Coffee, Combat, Norton) plus modern light, dark and Crimson. Follow the system switches between a light and a dark one. The live editor checks every colour pair for WCAG contrast; schemes can be exported and imported.

Tools ▸ Colour schemes… · Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T next scheme · macOS: ⌘⌃⌥T

All eleven schemes:

And more

Small things that save time every day:

• Quick filter per tab – type *.jpg -thumb and the list shows only what matches (Ctrl+Alt+F · ⌘⌥F); hidden files on and off (Ctrl+H · ⌘⇧.)
• Folder sizes – Space on a folder marks it and calculates its size, Alt+Shift+Enter does it for all marked folders (cancellable, symbolic links are not followed)
• Folder menu ▾ – drives with file system and free space, servers, favourites (Ctrl+D · ⌘D) and recently visited folders in one menu (Alt+F1 / Alt+F2)
• History per tab – back and forward with cursor and scroll position (Alt+← / Alt+→ · ⌘[ / ⌘], also mouse buttons 4/5)
• Mark by pattern – Enhance / Reduce Selection with wildcards or regex and one-click presets per file type (images, movies, documents …; Num+ / Num−)
• Select if… – conditional selection by companion files in the same folder (e.g. all movies and their cover images when a cover exists, movies without cover, RAW without JPEG), comparison with the other panel, size, date/age and name rules, with live preview and saved templates (Ctrl+Alt+S · ⌘⌥S)
• Clipboard – names or full paths of the marked entries, also as JSON (Ctrl+Alt+N / Ctrl+Alt+C · ⌘⌥N / ⌘⌥C)
• Context menu that fits the selection (Shift+F10), a menu bar with every action – native on macOS
• New files and nested folders – Shift+F4 creates a file, F7 takes a/b/c, and after S01, S02 it suggests S03
• Private – no account, no telemetry, nothing phones home; server passwords live in your system keychain, archive passwords only in memory
• Built with accessibility in mind – every dialog, menu and list works with the keyboard alone; ARIA roles and announcements are in place, but the app has not been tested with a screen reader yet

And the bigger helpers:

• Change attributes – permissions (octal or per bit), Windows attributes, macOS hidden, times; for many entries at once and optionally for folder contents (Ctrl+Shift+F2 · ⌘⇧F2)
• Checksums – create and verify SHA-256/SHA-512/SHA-1/MD5 lists (sha256sum-compatible)
• Drag & drop between panels, from and to Finder/Explorer/your file manager; with Ctrl+Shift (⌘⌥) symbolic links
• Auto refresh – changes by other programs appear in under a second
• External tools and Open terminal here / Show in Finder/Explorer – started without a shell
• Configurable button bar, file types, shortcuts per OS; settings dialog with search, export and import
• Import from the previous version (files-and-folders-mr): shortcuts, buttons, colour schemes, tools …
• English and German, switchable at runtime
• Responsive with slow and network drives (listing cache, nothing blocks the window)

The complete list with all details (in German) is in docs/features.md.

Installation

Version 1.0.0 is available on the GitHub releases page; you can also build the app yourself (see Development):

OS	Minimum	Package
macOS	12 Monterey (Apple Silicon and Intel)	.dmg (universal)
Windows	10 / 11 (x64)	-setup.exe (no admin needed) or .msi
Linux	WebKitGTK 4.1 – Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, Fedora 36+	.deb, .rpm, .AppImage

The packages are not signed yet: on macOS right-click the app → Open; on Windows SmartScreen choose More info → Run anyway.

Keyboard shortcuts (selection)

All shortcuts can be changed in Keyboard shortcuts… (Ctrl+Shift+K / ⌘⇧K); the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / ⌘⇧P) lists every action.

Action	Windows / Linux	macOS
View	F3	F3
Edit (tool edit)	F4	F4
Copy / Move	F5 / F6	F5 / F6
Create folder	F7	F7
Delete (trash) / delete permanently	F8 / Shift+F8	F8, ⌘⌫ / ⌘⌥⌫
Rename in list / dialog	F2 / Shift+F6	F2 / ⇧F6
Multi rename	Ctrl+M	⌘F6
Command palette – actions, folders and files	Ctrl+Shift+P	⌘⇧P
Find	Alt+F7	⌥F7
Find folder (change dir)	Alt+F10	⌥F10
Compare folders (mark) / synchronise folders	Shift+F2 / Ctrl+Shift+S	⇧F2 / ⌘⇧S
Flat view (all files below)	Ctrl+B	⌘B
Mark / unmark	Space, Insert	Space
Select if… (conditional selection)	Ctrl+Alt+S	⌘⌥S
Switch panel	Tab	Tab
New tab / close tab	Ctrl+T / Ctrl+W	⌘⌥T / ⌘⌥W
Swap panels (with all tabs)	Ctrl+U (Ctrl+Shift+U)	⌘U (⌘⇧U)

The full table is in docs/features.md.

Customization

Everything is stored as JSON in the app's config folder and can be edited from within the app:

• Colours – Colour schemes… dialog with live preview; schemes can be exported as <name>.theme.json and imported again (the old --fnf-* format of the previous versions is understood as well).

• Shortcuts – per OS (macos, windows, linux), overrides in keymap.json. An action can have several shortcuts, chords like ⌃K F6 are possible.

• External tools – tools.json: program + args array with placeholders such as {file}, {files}, {dir}, {targetDir}; optional shortcut. Example:

  { "id": "edit", "label": "Edit", "program": "code", "args": ["{files}"] }
  

• Starter menu – menu Start, the Start ▴ button next to Actions ▴ or Alt+S: your own quick launch entries (programs, scripts, folders, submenus), edited with Change starter menu… and kept in starter.json. Parameters as in Total Commander – %P%N file under the cursor, %N name, %O/%E name without/only the extension, %P/%T folder of the active/other side, %S all marked entries; every word is one argument, nothing runs through a shell. Each entry can have its own shortcut.

• Buttons – Button configuration… (menu Tools): per modifier set (none, Shift, Ctrl/⌘, Alt) the actions of the bottom bar; changed sets are kept in buttons.json.

• File types – File types…: categories with extensions, icon and colour; they drive the file icons and the presets of Mark by pattern (filetypes.json, the old [{label, extensions}] format is read as well).

• Settings – settings.json (sizes, date format, row height, trash, start folder, language, own search templates …); the whole configuration can be exported and imported as one file.

• Coming from the previous version – (menu , ) reads the folder of (the repository folder is enough), shows per area what would be imported, what conflicts and what cannot be transferred, and keeps a of every file it changes.

Development

Requirements: Node.js ^22.22.3 / ^24.15.0 / >=26, pnpm 10 (corepack enable), Rust stable ≥ 1.90 and the Tauri prerequisites for your OS (macOS: Xcode command line tools; Windows: C++ build tools + WebView2; Linux: libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev and friends).

git clone https://github.com/krocon/files-and-folders-tauri.git
cd files-and-folders-tauri
pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev        # Angular dev server (port 1420) + desktop window

Task	Command
All checks (format, lint, tests, build, Rust)	pnpm check
Frontend tests (Vitest)	pnpm test
Rust tests / clippy	pnpm rust:test / pnpm rust:lint
Release build (packages per OS)	pnpm tauri build
Screenshots of every colour scheme × every dialog	pnpm screenshots (docs/screenshots.md)
The pictures of this README	pnpm screenshots:readme

Architecture and rules: docs/architecture.md and CLAUDE.md; release process: docs/release.md; what is done and what comes next: docs/roadmap.md and docs/feature-parity.md.

Tech stack

• Tauri 2 – small native shell, narrow validated commands, strict CSP, no broad file-system or shell plugins
• Rust – listing, file operations, job engine, search, archives, watcher, platform code
• Angular 22 – standalone components, signals, zoneless, plain CSS with design tokens
• GuiExpert Table – the file list and all preview grids
• Font Awesome 4.5 – icons

History

FnF started in 2016 as my playground for web technologies: a file manager that ran in the browser, with a Node.js server doing the file work. In 2025 I rebuilt it with NestJS and Angular, and in 2026 it became a real desktop app – one small native program, no local web server, no browser tab.

Year	Project	Stack
2016	files-and-folders	Node.js, Socket.IO, AngularJS – runs in the browser
2025	files-and-folders-mr	NestJS, Angular 20 – runs in the browser
2026	files-and-folders-tauri (this repo)	Tauri 2, Rust, Angular 22 – native desktop app

Contributing

Issues and ideas are welcome on GitHub. Since the app is still moving fast, please open an issue before starting a larger pull request.

License

MIT © Marc Kronberg

Third-party licenses: THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt (full texts, shipped with the app), overview in docs/licenses.md.