Best Cross-Platform File & Archive Manager: PeaZip!

Both MS Windows and GNU/Linux desktops do come with file and archive managers of their own. Specially concerning Windows (since GNU/Linux has some excellent built in tools) if you're looking for a free & OpenSource yet one of the best file archive managers then PeaZip is an extremely impressive one!.

This is not just an archive manager actually but is also a file manager as well. But since Windows Explorer is pretty darn good, PeaZip won't be able to impress much here. But it lets you securely delete, encrypt or split your files as easy as just right clicking on them!.

Main features...

*. Can handle all the OpenSource fire archive formats such as:

7z[18],7z-SFX, FreeArc's ARC/WRC[19], bzip2: bz2, tar.bz2, tbz, tb2, gzip: gz, tar.gz, tgz, PAQ8F/JD/L/O,[20] LPAQ, ZPAQ, QUAD/BALZ, tar and WinRar and WinZip formats. Interestingly PeaZip has a file archive format of its own called "PEA" with all the modern features.

More than an archive manager...

*. Split and Join.

*. Add passwords.

*. Encrypt.

*. Hash check.

*. Create self extracting archives.

*. Has a portable version thus you can just put it into your USB drive or HDD and take it anywhere (it won't touch the Registry of the OS while running which is a standard feature for portable apps, I think).

*. Run MS Windows built in system tools directly from its file explorer, such as: Disk Defrag, Disk cleanup, System benchmark, task manager, etc.

*. Create "keyfiles" using random secure algorithms.

*. Open Command-prompt inside any folder (while using PeaZip as the file manager).

*. Integrate its feature into the "Sent To" sub-menu are just a few to mention.

As said before, as a file manager, it's not as impressive as the default one in the Windows but as an archive manager, it is super excellent! ;-). It has few built in themes (one in particular for the Win 7 users too).

So, if you're looking for an archive manager that can deals with almost all the popular archive (including e-mail handling) formats and few additional ones such as securely deleting files/folders and want all those features in a singe application which should also be free and opensource (oh cooome on! :P), then PeaZip is the one to go for without a doubt. Get it from this PeaZip Home page.

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How to Install PCMan File Manager in Ubuntu Linux?

PCMan is the default file management tool (manager) that comes with the LXDE desktop. Since the LXDE desktop environment is designed to use as little resources as possible + it's well known for its speed, so as the PCMan.

So if you feel like the Nautilus is a bit slow or just would like to have another alternative (just in case :D), then PCMan can be a handy little application. Both Nautilus (Gnome's tool) and Thunar (Xfce file manager) are both a lot similar in characteristics, but if you're a bit new to LXDE, then think of PCMan as the simplest version of both Nautilus and Thunar.


Main features...

*. According to the developer himself, it's designed as a replacement for Thunar (if you're looking to do that), so the general GUI and the look-n-feel as you can see is very much like it.

*. Drag-n-drop support.

*. Side pane view which shows favorite folders and mounted drives (including network drives, etc).

*. Copy/move/delete/rename, etc files (okay, I feel stupid after saying that :D).

*. 4 Different types of views (thumbnails, detailed, folders and compact).

*. Open a Terminal in a give location (also as the root user).

*. Bookmark support.

*. Tabbed view support.

*. A preference window that lets you configure things such as - Confirm file deleting, delete files without moving to Trash, disable thumbnail generation for a give file size, change icon size, mount volumes automatically, etc.

These are just a few to name. Although as said it's trying to be a Thunar replacement, please be aware of the fact that it does not have the ability to generate video thumbnails at the moment (well, it's been there for a while now :/).

Anyhow, you can install PCMan file manager in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install pcmanfm

So other than the video thingie :), if you're looking for a file management tool that loads fast, low on your PC system resources ... then PCMan is a pretty handy application nonetheless.

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How to Remove Nautilus Thumbnail Cache Folder in GNU/Linux (Gnome)?

Nautilus is default file manager of the GTK written GNU desktop, Gnome. Although this is not the only file manager for GNU/Linux yet, it's simple, easy to use and a pretty "decent" application nonetheless.

Nautilus is actually inspired by Apple's Mac OS's file manager without a doubt and if you want even more simpler "versions" of Nautilus then other file managers such as Thunar and Elementary are quite good too. Even the Unity desktop still uses the Nautilus as the primary file manager in its desktop as well.

Unlike with MS Windows where it save the thumbnails of files it generates within the each folder itself, Nautilus on the other hand stores all the generated thumbnails of videos, pictures, etc in a single folder. Now in comparison with the Microsoft Windows... both these "methods" have their own good and bad aspects about which I won't be talking, since it's out of the scope of this post.

The "decent" Nautilus :)...

Anyway, why is it important to clear this Nautilus Thumbnail cache?

Well, depending on the occasion, this can come in real handy. For instance, say that after installing Ubuntu Linux for the first time, you entered into a folder which contains nothing but video files.

Say that you haven't installed the proprietary codecs, then Nautilus will fail to generate any video thumbnails and "mark" them as "failed" thumbnails. As a result, even after you install all those proprietary codecs, and whenever you enter that "failed thumbnails" folder afterwards, Nautilus, still, will not generate and display thumbnails because it now has an entry which says that it's impossible for that folder.

In that case our solution is to manually delete that cache which would resolve the matter (obviously).

So, how the heck can I do that Gayan?

Simple actually. By default Nautilus stores all those cached/thumbnail details in a folder called "thumbnails" in your "Home" folder.

So after open your "Home" folder and simply press "Ctrl" + "H" keys on your keyboard to make nautilus show hidden files... then scroll down until you see a folder called ".thumbnails" as shown in the below screenshot.

Inside that folder you'll see other 3 folders named "fail", "large", "normal". Now as you can guess, simply go inside of the "fail" folder and there will be another folder called "gnome-thumbnail-factory". Go inside that as well and simply press "Ctrl" + "A" keys and delete them all.

Now close the window and enter the folder/location which Nautilus refused to generate any thumbnails... now when you enter it... it should give you those beautiful looking picture previews, at last :D. Enjoy it!.

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How To Install Thunar File Manager In Ubuntu?

A file manager or the default file management utility is one of the most important aspects of a modern desktop environment. From things like running your entire desktop screen to managing files/folders... by having a well equipped and a stable file manager is certainly a necessity. Although I'm drifted towards GTK written applications but I certainly am not a huge fan of the default fm in Gnome called Nautilus.

For me it's too simple and I find it hard to "control". But still if you have an old GNU/Linux installed PC/Laptop then you might actually like applications that are "simple" because most of the time they have a tendency of being a bit merciful at your hardware resources (though, not always true). And with start of Gnome3, GNU/Linux distributions such as Fedora Core 15 is now asking for you to have at least 768MB of RAM.

So what I'm trying to say is that, if you love or "okay" (like me) with your Gnome 2+ desktop... but looking for a way to reduce some "weight" from the system as far as possible, then you could give a try another excellent file manager called Thunar!.

Thunar is actually the default fm for another more lightweight (that Gnome) desktop called XFCE. Since the goal of XFCE is try to use as low system resources as possible, the fm Thunar is especially written to help in achieving that. Although it may not make a huge difference concerting Nautilus, still it certainly uses lower amounts of resources nonetheless.

As you can see, Thunar has a very similar GUI to the Nautilus... in fact, they both actually are trying to "emulate" Mac OSX file manager. Anyhow, to be short and precise, almost anything that Nautilus can do, Thunar can do them as well...

... from deleting/creating folders to navigating using different views, expanding features via installing new plugins and generating previews of certain file types, etc ... it certainly is very powerful.

If you want to install Thunar in Ubuntu then open your Terminal and issue the below command.

sudo apt-get install thunar

Although this won't replace your Nautilus file manager and whenever you double click on any folder, it won't be opened using Thunar. If you want to replace Nautilus with it then,

1. Create a text file called = defaultthunar

and enter the below text into it and save it in your "Home" folder.

#!/bin/bash

## Originally written by aysiu from the Ubuntu Forums
## This is GPL'ed code
## So improve it and re-release it

## Define portion to make Thunar the default if that appears to be the appropriate action
makethunardefault()
{
## I went with --no-install-recommends because
## I didn't want to bring in a whole lot of junk,
## and Jaunty installs recommended packages by default.
echo -e "\nMaking sure Thunar is installed\n"
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install thunar --no-install-recommends

## Does it make sense to change to the directory?
## Or should all the individual commands just reference the full path?
echo -e "\nChanging to application launcher directory\n"
cd /usr/share/applications
echo -e "\nMaking backup directory\n"

## Does it make sense to create an entire backup directory?
## Should each file just be backed up in place?
sudo mkdir nonautilusplease
echo -e "\nModifying folder handler launcher\n"
sudo cp nautilus-folder-handler.desktop nonautilusplease/

## Here I'm using two separate sed commands
## Is there a way to string them together to have one
## sed command make two replacements in a single file?
sudo sed -i -n 's/nautilus --no-desktop/thunar/g' nautilus-folder-handler.desktop
sudo sed -i -n 's/TryExec=nautilus/TryExec=thunar/g' nautilus-folder-handler.desktop
echo -e "\nModifying browser launcher\n"
sudo cp nautilus-browser.desktop nonautilusplease/
sudo sed -i -n 's/nautilus --no-desktop --browser/thunar/g' nautilus-browser.desktop
sudo sed -i -n 's/TryExec=nautilus/TryExec=thunar/g' nautilus-browser.desktop
echo -e "\nModifying computer icon launcher\n"
sudo cp nautilus-computer.desktop nonautilusplease/
sudo sed -i -n 's/nautilus --no-desktop/thunar/g' nautilus-computer.desktop
sudo sed -i -n 's/TryExec=nautilus/TryExec=thunar/g' nautilus-computer.desktop
echo -e "\nModifying home icon launcher\n"
sudo cp nautilus-home.desktop nonautilusplease/
sudo sed -i -n 's/nautilus --no-desktop/thunar/g' nautilus-home.desktop
sudo sed -i -n 's/TryExec=nautilus/TryExec=thunar/g' nautilus-home.desktop
echo -e "\nModifying general Nautilus launcher\n"
sudo cp nautilus.desktop nonautilusplease/
sudo sed -i -n 's/Exec=nautilus/Exec=thunar/g' nautilus.desktop

## This last bit I'm not sure should be included
## See, the only thing that doesn't change to the
## new Thunar default is clicking the files on the desktop,
## because Nautilus is managing the desktop (so technically
## it's not launching a new process when you double-click
## an icon there).
## So this kills the desktop management of icons completely
## Making the desktop pretty useless... would it be better
## to keep Nautilus there instead of nothing? Or go so far
## as to have Xfce manage the desktop in Gnome?
echo -e "\nChanging base Nautilus launcher\n"
sudo dpkg-divert --divert /usr/bin/nautilus.old --rename /usr/bin/nautilus && sudo ln -s /usr/bin/thunar /usr/bin/nautilus
echo -e "\nRemoving Nautilus as desktop manager\n"
killall nautilus
echo -e "\nThunar is now the default file manager. To return Nautilus to the default, run this script again.\n"
}

restorenautilusdefault()
{
echo -e "\nChanging to application launcher directory\n"
cd /usr/share/applications
echo -e "\nRestoring backup files\n"
sudo cp nonautilusplease/nautilus-folder-handler.desktop .
sudo cp nonautilusplease/nautilus-browser.desktop .
sudo cp nonautilusplease/nautilus-computer.desktop .
sudo cp nonautilusplease/nautilus-home.desktop .
sudo cp nonautilusplease/nautilus.desktop .
echo -e "\nRemoving backup folder\n"
sudo rm -r nonautilusplease
echo -e "\nRestoring Nautilus launcher\n"
sudo rm /usr/bin/nautilus && sudo dpkg-divert --rename --remove /usr/bin/nautilus
echo -e "\nMaking Nautilus manage the desktop again\n"
nautilus --no-default-window &

## The only change that isn't undone is the installation of Thunar
## Should Thunar be removed? Or just kept in?
## Don't want to load the script with too many questions?
}



## Make sure that we exit if any commands do not complete successfully.
## Thanks to nanotube for this little snippet of code from the early
## versions of UbuntuZilla
set -o errexit
trap 'echo "Previous command did not complete successfully. Exiting."' ERR


## This is the main code
## Is it necessary to put an elseif in here? Or is
## redundant, since the directory pretty much
## either exists or it doesn't?
## Is there a better way to keep track of whether
## the script has been run before?
if [[ -e /usr/share/applications/nonautilusplease ]]; then

restorenautilusdefault

else

makethunardefault

fi;

2. Then open your Terminal and enter the below command.

chmod +x defaultthunar
./defaultthunar

But remember, unlike with Nautilus, you could run into few "issues" while trying to preview/thumbnails on videos for instance (there could be a separate plug for that) in Thunar. In that case, if you want to restore Nautilus back, then use the below command. Good luck.

./defaultthunar 

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