File Labs

A free, dual-pane file manager for Windows 11, with a copy engine that shows what it is doing.

• Two panes, with tabs — browser-style tabs in each pane, Tab to switch panes, Ctrl+U to swap them, drag and drop between panes and to/from Explorer (the wheel scrolls the list under a drag).
• Transfers you can watch — copy and move run through the Ferry engine: one scan up front (totals and every conflict at once), one conflict decision per job, pause and cancel, a live speed chart, one queue per destination drive. Same-drive moves are renames.
• Optional verification — reads source and copy back and compares xxHash3 digests; on a move, a source whose copy doesn't match is kept.
• Quick View — Space previews images, video, audio, PDF and text without opening anything.
• Stash and Backup Labs backups (.stash, .bkl, and their older .zip names) — the preview shows what is inside without restoring anything: apps, profiles and mail folders with their message counts, or files, size and where they came from. Enter opens one in its app when that is installed (Stash 2.1+, Backup Labs 1.3.0+).
• Films from Reel — with Reel (1.13.0+) installed, a video in its library gets a line above the preview: poster, title and year (or series and episode), watched or not, and a link to Reel.
• Folder sizes in the list, file versions for .exe/.dll, and a recency tint on dates.
• Views — Details, List and three icon sizes with Explorer's own thumbnails (Ctrl+Shift+1…5). Shortcuts to folders can be sorted with the folders (Settings → Files).
• The real right-click menu when you want it — Send to, Open with, 7-Zip and other shell extensions, with a View submenu on the folder's own menu — or a compact one that matches the app. Paste on a folder, or on a shortcut to one, puts the files in it.
• Default file manager (optional) — folders, drives and Win+E open in File Labs. Switching it off (or uninstalling) hands them back to whatever had them before. "Win+E opens File Labs" can be switched off on its own, to keep Win+E for File Explorer.
• Acrylic, tint or solid backdrop, with an opacity floor so text stays readable.

No account, no telemetry, nothing it talks to online.

Keys

Building

Needs the .NET 8 SDK; the installer needs Inno Setup 6.

.\build.ps1                 # dist\FileLabs-<version>-setup.exe
.\build.ps1 -SkipInstaller  # self-contained app in dist\app

FileLabs.exe --selftest runs the copy engine on real files in a temp folder; exit code 0 = pass.

The version lives only in FileExplorer.csproj.

Licence

MIT. Made by Protagonist Labs.

More from Protagonist Labs

• Backup Labs: scheduled, versioned folder backups, free.
• SpaceScan: shows what takes the space on a drive, free.
• All apps: Windows apps that each do one job properly.