Unwieldy to Customize

[FreshSoftware4]

I love the concept, and I plan to be using this more often, but the amount of time I have spent just to get it the way I like it (enough that I'm satisfied anyway) is prohibitively high for most of the potential user base.

Oh, this is how I got it setup currently, and I like this format, but it took me a long time (several hours of obsessive tinkering at least) to even get here:

It's still far from perfect by my standards though, especially since there is a lack of any sort of addon or feature that would allow me to change the order that the various elements (buttons primarily) are shown in. I should also mention that many of the icons seem misaligned next to each other and are far from uniform in their appearance. I would suggest going through the icons for each plugin and making sure they are all given about the same level of padding for each and look neat when scaled at the same size and lined up side-by-side.

I would suggest taking note of what the developer of Explorer++ has come up with. It's also not perfect, but in terms of ease of use and provided functionality it comes out way ahead. Mainly, their method allows the user to manually move ui elements like buttons and address bars around, changing their order and organization, and it's enabled by a locking/unlocking feature so it's less likely to be messed up by accident.

On that note, I don't see any reason not to become better acquainted with that project and the developer of it given the similar end goals you both have in mind, especially since from what I've seen progress has been fairly limited on that front. For example, Explorer++ is intended to have plugin functionality but for the most part I haven't seen much of it, and it's been a very long time since there has been an officially released/stable update.

Interest does not sustain itself in isolation, and really what needs to happen is a bit more collaboration, friendly competition, and interaction amongst like minds with shared interests in this area, because connecting creativity drives innovation.

If this sounds good, and you're feeling ambitious, I also suggest bringing PeaZip and the PeaZip developers into the dynamic. PeaZip is mainly an archive extraction/viewing/creating software, but I really like their file explorer interface, which also happens to have tab functionality, as well as a UI that demonstrates peak aesthetics.

Oh, unrelated note: I think the add-ons would be easier for users to handle as a whole if they were more consolidated into packs based on the general functionality they fall into. I noticed 600 addons is a lot for me to juggle, and I tend to be fairly good at juggling things like that. There were a lot of plugins that imo made more sense provided together than separate. For example, with the split screen plugin, it makes more sense to have all options in one, with an option in the addon settings to enable/disable each.

Also, I had a fair number of crashes and error warnings. Would be convenient if there was an optional addon that automatically reports script or program conflicts, errors, and crashes to you or/and anyone else responsible for maintaining the project. That way these could be resolved more quickly and easily.

I hope this helps, and I look forward to hearing your response and perspective on these matters, thanks.

[ccfs]

1. Change the order of elements - see Options Add-ons

2. Icons seem misaligned
   Could you please show me how to produce the problem? I cannot find this on the screen capture.

3. Crashes and error warnings
   Could you please show me how to produce the problems?

Please also copy and paste your TE info (Help > About Tablacus Explorer) into your reply for diagnosis.

[FreshSoftware4]

@ccfs Sorry for the late reply.

1. Yeah. That was helpful, and it worked for me, though I would still say it is unwieldy to customize in its current state. An addon could be made to help with that and also the general lack of layout design/structure/segmentation if it displayed a customizable drag & drop menu/button toolbar panel with a toggle on the side of it to lock/unlock drag-and-drop organization mode. Essentially an imbedded window that takes the buttons and puts them in a specified arrangement according to the order that they were arranged, which is either A) Independent of the order they're loaded in or B) Automatically changes the order that addons are loaded according to changes made in positions. With that, there could be options to put things like dividers or blank placeholders for layout customization. I know the tabs and files do drag-and-drop, so it doesn't feel outside of the scope of possibility.

2. The icons themselves, not the buttons. As in, the problem is the image files and not the program misaligning them. I changed a lot of icons to ones which were far more fitting and looked neater in the layout. I found many that feel cleaner and more explanatory compared to the current defaults, which I would suggest using by default. When I follow up on this later, I will go over which ones I used for which buttons.

3. It happens occasionally and isn't too much of a problem. The warnings stopped popping up for script errors when I enabled the edge webview addon, but it still freezes up and/or crashes occasionally.

Also, I discovered a new problem. When I select a group of things, and then right click to open the context menu options for said group of things, the selection disappears except for the one of them, making it really painful trying to do anything with large groups of files. Have been looking for why it does this and haven't come across it yet.

@tablacus First point is suggestion for an addon that would be quite helpful. Would like to know also if either of you knows anything about the problem with the selection disappearing.

Using the information provided, I have improved my layout significantly. The layout now looks like this:

Also, I haven't said all that I was going to say yet, but I need to get some sleep and will follow up later. Feel free to reply to what has been said.

[ccfs]

2. You can also consider updating an existing icon pack or creating a new icon pack to include your changes. However, most add-ons let you specify your icons through the Icon tabs on Options pages, but NOT through an icon pack without any program change (usually at AddEvent "Layout" in script.js).

4. Selection disappearing problem
Please check:
(a) whether you have incorrectly ticked "Single selection" on "Options > List > Style".
(b) whether you have added any problematic record to Mouse add-on, where the code is 2.
Please post some screen captures showing the problem, together with your TE info from "Help > About Tablacus Explorer" for diagnosis.

[FreshSoftware4]

A) Was about the first thing I checked, and it was off.

B) (Note that the context menu did not show up in the recording - I assume that's a side effect of the built-in recording software hiding its own window in the recording)

Tablacus.-.Tablacus.Explorer.2025-01-28.12-28-19.mp4

TE64 25.1.16 Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 22H2 (10.0.19045) Dark WebView2/132.0.2957.127 JS/Chakra.dll en_us 96 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10GHz Windows Defender
asyncscript 1.01,mouse 1.33,externalscript 1.01,multithread 1.29,key 1.26,font 1.25,iconlabelplus 1.03,segoeicons 1.04,spi 1.26,spiplus 1.03,t7zip 1.11,grabbutton 1.10,folderbutton 1.11,grabbar 1.12,mainmenubutton 1.17,tabplus 1.97,tabs 1.27,tabdesign 1.16,tabcolorplus 1.07,newtabonforward 1.00,tabdrivename 1.05,selecttab 1.01,favoritesnewtab 1.02,lockedtabstop 1.08,closewhendeleting 1.03,closeonback 1.00,undoclosetab 1.18,sorttabs 1.04,tabposition 1.10,tabgroups 1.45,protecttabs 1.07,fixedtabname 1.00,tabname 1.09,tabcolor 1.09,recentlyusedtabs 1.02,rotatepane 1.03,framebutton 1.04,hidetitlebar 1.10,split 1.26,split3 1.12,split6 1.10,split8 1.04,split9 1.04,split12 1.00,layout 1.02,filterbar 1.39,mainmenu 1.16,titlebar 1.09,remember 1.42,addonswitcher 1.03,cal 1.14,darkmode 1.19,download 1.08,drivebar 1.19,extract 1.15,forcerefresh 1.11,notepadalternative 1.03,thumbplus 1.22,tooltippreview 1.28,wcx 1.16,stripeslite 1.09,cbcopy 1.06,movecontentup 1.02,iconchanger 1.09,folderlargeicon 1.04,folderimage 1.09,underline 1.02,replaceslowcolumns 1.03,smallthumbs 1.01,dlldirectory 1.02,autorestart 1.02,autosave 1.03,fullrowselectex 1.01,hotkey 1.01,disableclassicdrag 1.02,dragtop 1.03,savecustcolors 1.02,fixselectionrename 1.03,autoupdate 1.03,foldermenusettings 1.02,sizebarchart 1.02,navigationsound 1.02,framepane 1.02,archiveimage 1.04,spacefree 1.02,explorerbrowserfilter 1.01,netscapebookmarks 1.06,renamedialogbox 1.05,wildcardselect 1.05,selectplus 1.04,xfinder 1.31,labelgroups 1.03,extensioncolor 1.06,createdatecolor 1.05,accessdatecolor 1.05,filtercolor 1.02,extensionicon 1.17,filtericon 1.11,confirmdrop 1.02,run 1.07,properties 1.06,resetcolumns 1.05,duplicatecopy 1.11,drivebutton 1.11,switchhidden 1.05,infosearch 1.03,findfiles 1.19,retouch 1.15,wlx 1.14,syncselect 1.03,tabgroupsbutton 1.02,listwidth 1.05,fixselection 1.16,multipleexecutions 1.09,branchbar 1.04,selectedtotop 1.00,supressautoarrange 1.01,rightkeynext 1.05,downkeynext 1.00,labelsqlite3 1.08,foldericon 1.04,everything 1.46,clipboard 1.09,commandinaddress 1.01,folderfilter 1.00,dragdrop 1.03,filterbutton 1.10,appicon 1.03,betweenfilesfolders 1.01,tasktray 1.15,refresh 1.10,itemscount 1.02,shiftkeyselect 1.01,wfx 1.27,emptyrecyclebin 1.06,countbar 1.12,innersearchbar 1.13,innerfilterbar 1.34,inneraddressbar 1.35,innerback 1.14,innerforward 1.16,innerup 1.10,innerrefresh 1.07,innernewfolder 1.06,statusbar 1.19,systemfolders 1.12,controlpanelbutton 1.10,escape 1.07,cut 1.05,copy 1.05,switchhiddenfilter 1.03,usercss 1.08,addonsupdater 1.10,searchbysize 1.04,searchbymodified 1.04,clipboardhistory 1.08,menuimage 1.02,attributes 1.10,switchpane 1.05,switchprevpane 1.03,longpress 1.03,touch 1.12,touchex 1.10,virtualrecyclebin 1.05,dataurischeme 1.05,regexpincsearch 1.09,menuitemfilter 1.06,renametoggle 1.00,foldersettings 1.39,copyfoldersettings 1.02,virtualname 1.07,hotbutton 1.13,menuimageplus 1.04,replacecommand 1.09,runonexit 1.02,startup 1.11,runatsetup 1.04,fastcopy 1.23,synchronize 1.06,rememberselection 1.04,foldermenufilter 1.04,pathcolumn 1.02,label 1.45,badge 1.24,history 1.20,aboutremember 1.07,enteredhistory 1.05,thumbnailengine 1.09,extensiontooltip 1.06,segmdl2 1.02,sethome 1.04,gohome 1.04,sizestatus 1.27,fastlistmode 1.04,bgimage 1.09,pathicon 1.21,attributescolor 1.07,jumplist 1.05,tablist 1.04,saveselection 1.07,clipfolder 1.28,labelsqliteodbc 1.08,quicklook 1.11,showhash 1.01,stripes 1.13,paste 1.07,pasteaslink 1.06,innersyncselect 1.01,gohomeauto 1.00,colorlabelsort 1.00,dragdropmenu 1.04,colorlabels 1.12,iconoverlay 1.12,renamedialogplus 1.09,windowalpha 1.04,bgpreview 1.12,clipboardimage 1.01,overlaylabel 1.01,dropfiles 1.03,emulatedrop 1.02,singleclickactivate 1.03,autodisableime 1.03,autobackup 1.03,labelbutton 1.15,addtabs2fav 1.06,addfavorites 1.07,favorites 1.06,importexplorer 1.12,delete 1.07,closeduplicatetabs 1.07,newtab 1.08,favbar 1.28,recentlyclosedtabs 1.11,restart 1.09,vbsinputbox 1.02,gflsdk 1.08,minimizebutton 1.08,maximizebutton 1.09,closebutton 1.06

Hope this helps.

[FreshSoftware4]

Okay, I managed to fix it. I enabled some addons, changed some settings, and whatever else. I don't remember everything I did but this is what it looks like now in case you want to try to figure that out:

TE64 25.1.16 Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 22H2 (10.0.19045) Dark WebView2/132.0.2957.127 JS/Chakra.dll en_us 96 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10GHz Windows Defender
asyncscript 1.01,mouse 1.33,externalscript 1.01,multithread 1.29,key 1.26,font 1.25,iconlabelplus 1.03,segoeicons 1.04,spi 1.26,spiplus 1.03,t7zip 1.11,grabbutton 1.10,folderbutton 1.11,grabbar 1.12,mainmenubutton 1.17,tabplus 1.97,tabs 1.27,tabdesign 1.16,tabcolorplus 1.07,newtabonforward 1.00,tabdrivename 1.05,selecttab 1.01,favoritesnewtab 1.02,lockedtabstop 1.08,closewhendeleting 1.03,closeonback 1.00,undoclosetab 1.18,sorttabs 1.04,tabposition 1.10,tabgroups 1.45,protecttabs 1.07,fixedtabname 1.00,tabname 1.09,tabcolor 1.09,recentlyusedtabs 1.02,rotatepane 1.03,framebutton 1.04,hidetitlebar 1.10,split 1.26,split3 1.12,split6 1.10,split8 1.04,split9 1.04,split12 1.00,layout 1.02,filterbar 1.39,mainmenu 1.16,titlebar 1.09,remember 1.42,addonswitcher 1.03,cal 1.14,darkmode 1.19,download 1.08,drivebar 1.19,extract 1.15,forcerefresh 1.11,notepadalternative 1.03,thumbplus 1.22,tooltippreview 1.28,wcx 1.16,stripeslite 1.09,cbcopy 1.06,movecontentup 1.02,iconchanger 1.09,folderlargeicon 1.04,folderimage 1.09,underline 1.02,replaceslowcolumns 1.03,takeoverfoldersettings 1.08,smallthumbs 1.01,dlldirectory 1.02,autorestart 1.02,autosave 1.03,fullrowselectex 1.01,hotkey 1.01,nonexistentoverlay 1.02,disableclassicdrag 1.02,dragtop 1.03,savecustcolors 1.02,fixselectionrename 1.03,autoupdate 1.03,foldermenusettings 1.02,sizebarchart 1.02,navigationsound 1.02,framepane 1.02,archiveimage 1.04,spacefree 1.02,explorerbrowserfilter 1.01,netscapebookmarks 1.06,renamedialogbox 1.05,wildcardselect 1.05,selectnonexistent 1.03,selectplus 1.04,xfinder 1.31,labelgroups 1.03,extensioncolor 1.06,createdatecolor 1.05,accessdatecolor 1.05,filtercolor 1.02,extensionicon 1.17,filtericon 1.11,confirmdrop 1.02,run 1.07,properties 1.06,resetcolumns 1.05,duplicatecopy 1.11,drivebutton 1.11,switchhidden 1.05,infosearch 1.03,findfiles 1.19,retouch 1.15,wlx 1.14,mixedsort 1.13,syncselect 1.03,tabgroupsbutton 1.02,listwidth 1.05,fixselection 1.16,multipleexecutions 1.09,branchbar 1.04,selectedtotop 1.00,supressautoarrange 1.01,rightkeynext 1.05,downkeynext 1.00,labelsqlite3 1.08,foldericon 1.04,everything 1.46,clipboard 1.09,commandinaddress 1.01,folderfilter 1.00,dragdrop 1.03,filterbutton 1.10,clearfilterwithup 1.04,appicon 1.03,betweenfilesfolders 1.01,tasktray 1.15,refresh 1.10,itemscount 1.02,shiftkeyselect 1.01,wfx 1.27,emptyrecyclebin 1.06,countbar 1.12,innersearchbar 1.13,innerfilterbar 1.34,inneraddressbar 1.35,innerback 1.14,innerforward 1.16,innerup 1.10,innerrefresh 1.07,innernewfolder 1.06,statusbar 1.19,systemfolders 1.12,controlpanelbutton 1.10,escape 1.07,cut 1.05,copy 1.05,switchhiddenfilter 1.03,usercss 1.08,addonsupdater 1.10,searchbysize 1.04,searchbymodified 1.04,clipboardhistory 1.08,menuimage 1.02,attributes 1.10,switchpane 1.05,switchprevpane 1.03,longpress 1.03,touch 1.12,touchex 1.10,virtualrecyclebin 1.05,dataurischeme 1.05,regexpincsearch 1.09,menuitemfilter 1.06,renametoggle 1.00,quickmenu 1.17,foldersettings 1.39,copyfoldersettings 1.02,virtualname 1.07,hotbutton 1.13,menuimageplus 1.04,replacecommand 1.09,runonexit 1.02,startup 1.11,runatsetup 1.04,multiprocess 1.37,fastcopy 1.23,ffc 1.16,teracopy 1.13,synchronize 1.06,rememberselection 1.04,foldermenufilter 1.04,pathcolumn 1.02,label 1.45,badge 1.24,history 1.20,aboutremember 1.07,enteredhistory 1.05,thumbnailengine 1.09,fixwin11prev 1.06,extensiontooltip 1.06,segmdl2 1.02,sethome 1.04,gohome 1.04,sizestatus 1.27,fastlistmode 1.04,bgimage 1.09,pathicon 1.21,attributescolor 1.07,jumplist 1.05,tablist 1.04,saveselection 1.07,clipfolder 1.28,labelsqliteodbc 1.08,quicklook 1.11,showhash 1.01,stripes 1.13,paste 1.07,pasteaslink 1.06,quicknotes 1.02,innersyncselect 1.01,gohomeauto 1.00,colorlabelsort 1.00,dragdropmenu 1.04,colorlabels 1.12,iconoverlay 1.12,renamedialogplus 1.09,windowalpha 1.04,bgpreview 1.12,clipboardimage 1.01,overlaylabel 1.01,dropfiles 1.03,emulatedrop 1.02,singleclickactivate 1.03,autodisableime 1.03,autobackup 1.03,labelbutton 1.15,addtabs2fav 1.06,addfavorites 1.07,favorites 1.06,importexplorer 1.12,delete 1.07,closeduplicatetabs 1.07,newtab 1.08,favbar 1.28,recentlyclosedtabs 1.11,restart 1.09,vbsinputbox 1.02,gflsdk 1.08,minimizebutton 1.08,maximizebutton 1.09,closebutton 1.06

Anyway, something in there fixed it. Now I have a different issue though:

The color theme is set to dark, so this should not happen. Also, after navigating to one of these views, once I click out of it, it reverts my explorer panes back to the custom Tablacus panes instead of the default File Explorer panes.

[ccfs]

File list coloring (and other appearance customizations) is not supported by Explorer browser. The options (except "Content") should be kept cleared unless necessary, and "Explorer browser filter" add-on is also usually unnecessary.

Some add-ons use different ways to work on the same thing. Such add-ons may conflict with each other, and should not be enabled at the same time, such as:

• Tab plus / Tabs
• Multi thread / Multi process
• Segoe Fluent Icons / Segoe UI MDL2 Assets

See this PDF to understand the add-ons, and enable only those necessary.

[garry-ut99]

FreshSoftware4 : Unwieldy to Customize

I agree, TE is powerful in terms of functionality, but on the other hand is cumbersome and time consuming to configure and stylise. TE is ugly (LINK) and dysfunctional after default installation, and thus definately is not an "install and go" solution, as it requires downloading and configuring XX separate add-ons to make TE usable and looking good, it requires several days of obsessive tinkering at least, including expert CSS knowledge, to get all things together. Options are scattered throughout the add-ons and an user needs to jump between XX add-on dialogs to find and change some options. Not to mention TE has tens of other small glitches here and there, even with the patched version, it's like TE is still more like a Beta rather than a RTM release.