Add essential options to File Explorer
What you need: Stexbar; Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 10 Time required: 20 minutes nutes
Stexbar is a brilliant free tool that makes Windows/file Explorer easier to use. Even though it’s been around for a while, it’s only recently been updated to work with Windows 10 PCS (it doesn’t support Windows XP anymore). The tool
adds a bar with several buttons at the top of Windows/file Explorer. orer. Using them, you can copy file names and file paths, and moveve and rename files with just a few ew clicks. You can even add buttons ns to open programs you use often.en.
STEP 1
To install the latest version of Stexbar, go to www.snipca. com/24465 and click the Download link at the top. Open the downloaded setup file, click Next, tick the box to accept the terms and conditions, click Next twice, Install, Yes, then Finish. Now open Windows/file Explorer on your PC, click the View tab 1 , the Options dropdown menu 2 , then click Stexbar 3 . You’ll see a new bar within Windows/file Explorer with different buttons 4 . If you don’t see this, then close and reopen Windows/file Explorer.
STEP 2
Click ‘Show system files’ 1 if you want to see any hidden system files within the folder you’re in. Similarly, clicking ‘Show extensions’ 2 displays all your file extensions within that folder. Clicking Console 3 and Powershell 4 gives you one-click access to those items on your PC. The other (longer) way to access these items is to search for them on your PC, then click to select the correct option.
STEP3
To copy the names of multiple files in one go, keep the Ctrl key pressed, click to select the file names that you want to copy 1 , then click Copy Names 2 . Now, open the program or website you want to copy these file names to (for example, email, Word or Notepad), then press Ctrl+v to paste the file names there. Similarly, you can copy the location path of multiple files within a folder by selecting those files, clicking Copy Paths 3 , then pasting this into the relevant website or program.
STEP4
The program also lets you replace text within file names in one go (similar to Word’s ‘Find and Replace’ feature). To do that, go to the folder whose file names you want to replace, press Ctrl, click to select the files you want to rename 1 , then click Rename 2 . In the Match column, type the text you want to replace 3 . Now type the text you want to replace that with in the Replace field 4 . You’ll see what your original and replaced files names will look like 5 . When you’re happy with it, click Rename at the bottom.
STEP5
Another useful Stexbar feature is the option to create a subfolder within the folder you’ve navigated to, then move multiple files to it. Open the folder and select the files you want to move 1 . Next, click the ‘Move to subfolder’ button 2 . In the pop-up window that appears, name the subfolder whatever you want 3 , then click OK 4 . Stexbar will automatically create that subfolder and move your selected files to it.
STEP6
You can also add to Stexbar programs you use often as buttons. We’ll show you how to add a button for Google Chrome, but you can use the same method to add other programs. First, click the Options button 1 . Now click the Add button 2 in the Settings window. Name the new button whatever you want 3 , click the three dots beside Command 4 , then navigate to the program’s setup file on your PC (usually in the Program Files folder on your C Drive). In the Hotkey box 5 , press the keys you want to use to open Google Chrome whenever you’re using Windows/file Explorer (optional). Finally, click OK twice.
STEP7
Stexbar is highly customisable, so you can rearrange its buttons or remove any you don’t use. First, click the Options button 1 to open the Settings window. Here, you’ll see keyboard shortcuts (‘Hotkeys’) for some of the buttons within the Stexbar panel in File Explorer 2 . To change or add a shortcut, click to select the option you want, click Edit 3 , click inside the Hotkey box, press the key combination you want to use, then click OK. You can rearrange a button within the toolbar by selecting it, then clicking Up or Down 4 . Alternatively, select an item, then click Add or Remove 5 to add/remove its button on Stexbar’s toolbar. ●