The BEST File Manager for Windows


Works with and greatly enhances:

Windows 11, 10

Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP

Servers 2003 and later


Starting at just $50 for home use and $69 for a business license (and a business two-pack for just $99!)

What's New / What's Up

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Version 4: the future

Major new tools, significant upgrades to current components and faster folder listings.


  • Find and rename problem files: bad paths, illegal characters, Linux & iOS (Mac) characters.
  • Check files and folders for compliance with different file systems e.g., NTFS, Fat-16, Fat-32, eFat, CDs, iOS, Linux and custom.
    Know if the files are right before you copy.
  • Delete files no matter their length or how they are named.
  • Powerful renaming with RegEx e.g. change 'Romeo Smith' into 'Smith, Romeo' and much more.
  • Lightening fast directory listing no matter how large the folder.
  • Detailed reports for copy errors.
  • Variable text size for views and dialogs.
  • and many more improvements and fixes..

 

See the V4 preview here.

Update May 2017

A May 2017 Microsft security update for Windows 10 conflicted with a major routine in FileBoss resulting in FileBoss not starting on some Windows 10 systems.

Versions V3.101 and later, fix the problem. You can read more about this at the page
Windows Creators Conflict.

 

Copy Files
with Directory Structure

Quick and easy way to copy files with their directory structure

Copying only specified files while still retaining their original folder structure is really easy using FileBoss. In fact the ability to do just that is built right into almost every copy files type of routine such a Copy To, Backup if Newer, Copying to multiple folders and more.

The simplest way to accomplish this is:

  1. Select the folder that contains the files to be copied
  2. Open one of the copy dialogs such as the Copy To dialog
  3. Specify the file patterns (and even full filename you want copied
  4. Click OK to start copying.

FileBoss will then search through the selected folder and all folders below it and copy every file that matches the given file patterns to the appropriate directory on the destination drive.
Note that if a required destination directory doesn't exist FileBoss will create it even if it needs to create multiple folders above it to match the structure of the source path.

More control using Structured File Copy

For complete control over which files are copied while retaining their place in the directory structure is to perform a search for the files you want to copy which will put the results in a Virtual Folder. Using the Virtual folder select all the files (or further narrow the files you want to copy by only selecting some of them) and they use structured copying to to copy with precise accuracy. (And the virtual folder can be saved and used over and over again.)

For more about this advance copy method see Structured Copying.

 

How to: Copy specific files keeping their directory structure

(For this example we will use the Backup if Newer routine but it works the same in most other copy dialogs.)

  • Select the files and/or folders you want to copy
  • Menu for Backing up filesSelect the copy routine you want to use, typically either the Actions > Backup if Newer... or Actions > Copy To... command from the main menu.
  • Tell FileBoss the destination directories(s) for the selected items.
  • Optionally specify any particular conditions or actions in the Copy dialog.
  • Click OK

 

Dialog that controls backing up files that are new or newer

Enter files to be copied (or even files not to be copied)

  • To copy all files leave the Patterns field blank or enter and asterisk (*).
  • Separate multiple patterns with semi-colons, commas or bar characters ( ; , | ) and precede patterns to be excluded with a minus sign (-).
    If no patterns are entered all is assumed (i.e. leaving the field blank is the same as entering a * or the traditional *.*).
  • To prevent certain files from being copied enter their pattern(s) preceding each with a minus sign, e.g. -*.bak : -*.tmp : -~*.
  • You can even combine files to copy and files to exclude, e.g. *.htm : *.html : *.css : -~* (note that order in which the file patterns are listed is not significant - excluding files will always take precedence or specifically including them.
  • Click the OK button and FileBoss will start the copying and display a progress window.

 

Advanced file & folder patterns

 

Enter the names or name patterns of files and folders you want included in the search.

Leaving the field empty is the same as specifying a single asterisk '*' or the traditional '*.*' meaning include all files.

Multiple File Patterns

Separate multiple patterns with the bar character '|'.

Wildcards in File Patterns

The common wildcard characters '*' and '?' can be used when specifying groups of file to be included.

The entry *.tmp | *.bak | ~* will find all files with the extension tmp and bak as well as all files beginning with the tilde character '~'.

Excluding Files and Groups of Files

Specific files and groups of files can be excluded from the search by preceding the files with a minus sign, '-'. If the name actually begins with a minus sign, simply put another in front of it, e.g. "--notations.txt".

To create a File Set that includes all files except temporary and backup files you could enter
      -*.tmp | -*.bak | -~*

(Note that there is no *.* or just * in the beginning. Remember that if there is no include specification then *.* (all) is assumed.

For example the these two patterns are equivalent: -*.zip and *.* | -*.zip (include all files except those with the zip extension).

User Defined & Default Patterns

While the drop down list box will remember the most recently used patterns, even when FileBoss is closed, you can use predefined

Predefined Patterns

Menu of default file patters

Displays a pop up menu of predefined file patterns that can be quickly added to the 'Patterns' field to the left.

You can edit this drop down menu to include the file patterns you use the most (use the 'Edit Menu' option at the bottom.)

The patterns fly out can hold up to a maximum of twenty entries.

Edit

Allows you to edit the contents of the Patterns: drop-down list box.

General features and options of available when copying Files

  • Retry option on file errors
  • Flexible overwrite options
  • Copy files only if target exists
  • Specify new file attributes & times
  • Automatically clear read-only bits from read-only media
  • Multi-folder copying
  • Complete logging
  • Configurable warnings

Directory versus folder

Technically Windows considers a directory to hold file system objects such as files and other directories. Folders can be directories but they can also hold non-file system objects such as list of printers or be virtual such as the Recycle Bin. Over the years the use of folder has become so common to refer to directories too that we don't make a strict distinction between a directory and a folder in the documentation.s

Or click here for more details about copy and move operations.