Total Commander
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 19 file managers by recommenders
Fast dual-pane file manager with tabs, plugins and built-in tools that people have used for decades; one-time purchase with free updates. Main caveat: it is Windows-only, and Wine support is shaky.
Fast dual-pane file manager with tabs, plugins and built-in tools that people have used for decades; one-time purchase with free updates. Main caveat: it is Windows-only, and Wine support is shaky.
29 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 28
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 97%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 30 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 28 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 28 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast and lightweight
“I, for one, can't see any speed difference between a program written in Pascal (Total Commander, which I use every day)”
Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Google fixed more Chrome bugs in June than over the past two years, thanks to AI” “I've showed them Total commander and some advanced features, panes and overall speed”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Firefox Enterprise” “Tons of features packed into 1 small integrated, very fast completely bugless tool”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Firefox Enterprise” - Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Cook: A simple CLI for orchestrating Claude Code”
- Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux”
Many built-in features and plugins
“Editing a file in an archive within another archive directly, doing quick file comparisons of 2 files, syncing different dirs”
Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders” “Tons of features packed into 1 small integrated, very fast completely bugless tool”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Firefox Enterprise” “do stuff simply impossible otherwise, has tons of plugins etc.”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account” - Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “O&O ShutUp10 – The antispy tool for Windows 10 and 11”
Pay once, free updates
“If one bought Total Commander 30 years ago they can still download (from authors site) and use the latest version”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users” “since I already paid for TC the only reason for me to use it is that there's a Linux version, which is nice.”
Comment from 17 Oct 2026 in “The history of development of Norton Commander (2011)” “Total Commander is pay once, free updates forever.”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “The Future of Flipper Zero Development” - Comment from 28 Mar 2026 in “People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account”
Boosts daily productivity
“saves me tons of time every day, easily 30-60 mins compared to other colleagues”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Microsoft's "Fix" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating” “Total Commander has been a go-to tool to navigate filesystem”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Holos Commander – a Commander for power users” “huge productivity gap between TC and those 2”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Microsoft's "Fix" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating” - Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Norton Neo Browser”
Other file managers people recommend
The four most recommended other file managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dolphin file manager | 77 | 19 | 80% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Finder (macOS) | 61 | 172 | 26% | 9 | 15 yrs22 owners | — |
| Windows Explorer | 36 | 141 | 20% | 11 | 2 yrs4 owners | — |
| Midnight Commander | 34 | 5 | 87% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Total CommanderThis page | 28 | 1 | 97% | 9 | 30 yrs3 owners | Approved |
What people said
39 of the 43 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I still use that same button bar today, 30 years later.”
“since I already paid for TC the only reason for me to use it is that there's a Linux version, which is nice.”
“immediately made NC on Windows obsolete”
“Total Commander for Android is a thing.”
“It's one of the few applications I actually paid for, it's that critical for my daily computer usage.”
“Tons of features packed into 1 small integrated, very fast completely bugless tool”
“I've showed them Total commander and some advanced features, panes and overall speed”
“Total Commander for Android has a WebDAV plugin.”
“Total Commander has been a go-to tool to navigate filesystem”
“the UI feels dated by damn am I fast with it”
“No, Total Commander does not run smooth under Wine, at least on Linux Mint.”
“The folder tabs overlay the path to the current dir and the window can just be full screen.”
“I personally used a heavy TC setup under Wine and it was indistinguishable even 15 years ago”
“it's perfect including plugins”
“it's still worse than Total Commander which just used what the UI framework already provides, for the most part”
“Examples of good CLI integration I regularly use”
“with the likes of total commander or any other file browser”
“I, for one, can't see any speed difference between a program written in Pascal (Total Commander, which I use every day)”
“Total Commander is pay once, free updates forever.”
“it would still run in latest updated Win11”
“my license from like 20 years ago is still valid”
“TC is probably one of the reasons I don't care that much about problems in newer versions of Windows”
“I don't know about Total Commander because that appears to be Windows-only”
“do stuff simply impossible otherwise, has tons of plugins etc.”
“multimonitor PC with TotalCommander and Visual Studio where I use all the shortcuts subconsciously”
“huge productivity gap between TC and those 2”
“saves me tons of time every day, easily 30-60 mins compared to other colleagues”
“adopt improvements from Total Commander”
“As a bonus, you'll be spared the useless UI and usability changes inflicted upon you with every new Windows version.”
“very lightweight and responsive”
“On Windows the solution is Total Commander”
“they asked for too much information at the time”
“superior to anything on any OS”
“Total Commander, with its side-by-side view of the world, is n excellent trampoline into BeyondCompare”
“I usually use Total Commander and don't have to interact with it”
“If one bought Total Commander 30 years ago they can still download (from authors site) and use the latest version”
“even Total commander's built in text editor is more powerful”
“Editing a file in an archive within another archive directly, doing quick file comparisons of 2 files, syncing different dirs”
“If it comes down to FOSS/freeware stuff I am actually quite fond of Windows ecosystem.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.