Requirements:

• A Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 system, either 32 or 64 bit.

Program details:

• With Nico's Commander you can do file management the way you did it with Norton Commander. However, Nico's Commander adds a number of very useful features:
• Ten or twenty application buttons you can configure to start your favorite application with one mouse click, and feed the application a file you selected.
• User configurable function keys.
• File search (with wildcards) and search for strings inside files.
• Zip and unzip with a few clicks of your mouse.
• Also support for RAR, CAB, TAR, GZIP and TZ archives.
• Directory compare.
• File compare.
• Explorer-like context menus.
• Supports FAT32 and NTFS.
• Show the current date and time in the title bar of the active window.
• Built-in editor without Notepads limitations.
• Built-in hex editor.
• Built-in viewer for text files and for a number of popular graphical file formats: JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PCX. Reach icons on your desktop with one mouse click, even if your desktop is cluttered with windows.
• Reach your Control Panel applets with one click of the mouse.
• Use FTP sites as local disks, with proxy/firewall support.
• Print ASCII files one page on a sheet (portrait) or two pages on a sheet (landscape).
• Optional command prompt with command history.
• Minimize by right clicking on empty space in Nico's Commander's main window.
• Esc key can instantly activate your Screen Saver.
• Shutdown your PC with one mouse click.
• And of course help and tooltips everywhere.

 
Version history:

Version 5.63:

• Fixed problems in sorting and comparing directories.

Version 5.62:

• Changed sort order in file windows. Each block of consecutive digits is now treated as a number and sorted as such, so that File10.txt comes after File2.txt.

Version 5.61:

• Dialog window for local file operations now shows progress bar.

Version 5.60:

• Nico's Commander is now ready for Microsoft Vista.
• Viewer (F3) will now fit images to the viewer window. No need to scroll anymore.

Version 5.59:

• Copy and Cut commands are now grayed out in file context menu, because they have no meaning.

Version 5.58:

• Fixed bug which caused memory leaks while copying files.
• Fixed bug which caused not all context menu items to be shown.
• Fixed another bug which caused Nico's Commander to ask for its registration number again after every daylight saving change.

Version 5.57:

• Fixed bug which caused program crash when trying to unpack RAR archive with very long pathnames in it.

Version 5.56:

• Fixed bug which caused program crash after right mouse click with a very large number of files selected.
• Fixed bug which caused unexpected results when trying to delete directory with very long name.

Version 5.55:

• Fixed bug which caused saving directory or directory tree to fail when saving to a file with one or more spaces in its path.

Version 5.54:

• Nico's Commander now supports both English and Dutch. During installation you can choose what language to use.

Version 5.53:

• Fixed bug which caused Nico's Commander to ask for its registration number again after every daylight saving change.

Version 5.52:

• Fixed bug in handling drag operations after switching left and right mouse buttons.
• Fixed bug in showing file and directory sizes over 4 Gb.

Version 5.51:

• Fixed yet another bug in handling RAR archives.

Version 5.49:

• Fixed another bug in handling RAR archives.

Version 5.48:

• Fixed bug in Dutch version which caused hang when zipping with a password.
• Fixed bug in handling RAR archives.

Version 5.47:

• Fixed bug which blocked extracting files with brackets in their name from Zip archives.
• Fixed aesthetical bug in main screen.
• Fixed bug in showing very long filenames in tooltips.

Version 5.46:

• Added 'Disk - Eject' menu command, to programmatically open the door of CD/DVD-drives (only on Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista).
• FTP passive mode is now possible.
• File size of very large files is now shown correctly.

Version 5.45:

• Bug fixed: dates are now always displayed in correct format, according to the user settings.
• Fixed bug which stopped copying files prematurely in some situations.

Version 5.44:

• Added ability to search for quoted string, containing multiple words, separated with blanks.
• Bug fixed: program crashed while handling very long drive/share names.
• Bug fixed: added tooltips for 'Back' buttons.

Version 5.43:

• Directory synchronization can now be done recursively.
• Added "automatic" FTP file transfer mode.
• FTP file transfer to an FTP site can now be done recursively.

Version 5.42:

• Added 'Back' button for both file windows to ease directory navigation.
• Added menu command for directory synchronization.
• Fixed bug which caused crash when opening certain non standard disk drives.
• Command prompt 'Run' button now uses 'ComSpec' environment variable to find command processor, to accomodate 4DOS users.

Version 5.41:

• Added capability to password protect ZIP files.
• Added capability to unzip password protected ZIP files.
• Added option to keep an FTP connection alive even after longer periods of inactivity.
• You can now specify another FTP port than the standard port 21.

Version 5.39:

• Bug fixed: Some Zip-files were wrongly marked as "invalid".
• Bug fixed: Directory listing coming from some FTP-sites in MS-DOS format weren't handled correctly. The result was that no info at all on directories and files was shown.

Version 5.38:

• Bug fixed: directory changes sometimes resulted in very fast, repetitive updates of one of the file windows, which made it impossible to use the program.

Version 5.37:

• The file compare window now jumps automatically to the first found difference.

Version 5.36:

• Bug fixed: starting drag operation from right to left window failed when the mousepointer was put on the leftmost few pixels of the filename.
• FTP login directory changed from an edit box to a combobox with history of earlier login directories.
• Directory size now reported correctly, even is this size is larger than 4 Gb.
• Correct font is now used in editor and viewer for ASCII files.

Version 5.35:

• Removed dependence on particular SHELL32.DLL version, that is only present on particular combinations of versions of Windows and Internet Explorer.

Version 5.34:

• Bug fixed: specifying an executable name longer than 8.3 characters in application button parameters resulted in command line parameters for that button being processed incorrectly.
• Bug fixed: saving graphics image in EPS format sometimes resulted in distorted image being saved.
• Bug fixed: sorting file window on filename or filesize was not possible if default sort order was set to date/time.
• Enhanced file save dialog from graphics viewer window.

Version 5.33:

• File compare dialog box is now resizable.
• Bug fixed: use of disk commands (format, copy) on some systems resulted in wrong executables being launched.

Version 5.32:

• FTP passwords as saved in registry are now encrypted.
• Symbol in column headers indicating sort order now adheres to standard set by MS products.
• Easier way of changing drives from the keyboard: pressing Alt+F1 (or Alt+F2 for right file window) followed by drive letter is enough. Just like it was in the old Norton Commander...
• While comparing files dialog box, showing top of file or end of file is reached, now is modal, which reduces confusion.
• Bug fixed: While comparing files the & character no longer is shown as underscore for next character.
• Bug fixed: When viewing or editing README.TXT file from ZIP-file contents dialog no path was given, so sometimes README.TXT file from directory where Nico's Commander was installed was shown.
• Bug fixed: When renaming using context menu a decent error message is shown when file or directory already exists.
• Bug fixed: First keyboard action after starting up Nico's Commander sometimes related to wrong (inactive) file window.
• Bug fixed: Removable drives weren't always released after being accessed by Nico's Commander, which made it impossible to use them from another application without first stopping Nico's Commander.
• Bug fixed: In file overwrite dialog box clicking Yes To All not always resulted in copy without further interaction.

Version 5.31:

• Bug fixed: while navigating subdirectories NC now recalls position in parent directory.

Version 5.30:

• Improved file search facility.
• Function key F10 can now be programmed.
• Extra warning while trying to delete system or read-only file.
• Better error messages in Windows 95/98 while copying files (I/O error, disk full).
• Bug fixed: when specifying document as program name in application button definition, associated application was openen with blank document.
• Bug fixed: sort on extension sometimes resulted in unexpected sort order.
• Bug fixed: click on column header didn't make that file window the active window.

Version 5.20:

• New menu items: Save current directory to file, and Save directory tree to file.
• Bug fixed: after failing copy or move action (because of floppy full, write error, etc) partially written output file will now be erased.
• Bug fixed: some TAR archives with path structure didn't unpack correctly.
• Bug fixed: unpacking GZ archives sometimes ended in program crash.

Version 5.10c:

• Bug fixed: print directory or print directory tree always printed directory from left window, even when right window was active.
• Bug fixed: zip action, followed by unzip action sometimes resulted in crash.

Version 5.10b:

• Bug fixed: pressing F3 (Find Next) in newly opened internal editor window now defaults to case insensitive search.
• Defaul button in FTP Sites dialog window is now "Connect".

Version 5.10a:

• Bug fixed: directory print only appeared on paper after second print command on some systems.
• Bug fixed: print directory failed on directories with space character in their name
• Bug fixed: drive selection box covered text underneath it on some screen settings
• Bug fixed: context menu on FTP directory failed
• Bug fixed: incorrect creation date/time in attributes dialog box for directory.

Version 5.10:

• Added hex editor.
• Graphical viewer now scrolls large images.
• Application buttons and command prompt can now handle multiple selected files/directories.
• Added new symbolic parameter (&af) for application button definition.
• You can select font to be used for text in main window.
• New menu item: Directory - History (Ctrl+H).
• All menu items can now be assigned to function keys.
• You can now specify the external viewer to be used.
• Case insensitive file compare is now possible.
• New menu item: File - Create shortcut.
• When selecting files by typing the first character of the name the found file will now be the first one in the file window, in stead of the last one.
• Added Browse button in Copy and Rename/Move dialog boxes.
• You can now choose your own colors in the editor and viewer windows.
• New menu item: Settings - Adjust column widths (Ctrl+Shift+Num+) to adjust the width of the columns in the active file window to fit their largest visible item.

Version 5.02:

• Fixed bug which caused error message "invalid archive" while reading Zip files made on removable media.
• Fixed bug which caused "Yes to all" button in overwrite dialog to be disabled while zipping directories.
• Viewer now works as expected on Zip file contents.
• Doubleclick on divider in column header caused columns to collapse; doubleclick will now adjust column width to fit largest string.

Version 5.01:

• Fixed bug which sometimes caused error message "a device attached to system is not functioning" when clicking on the Control Panel icon in the system tray.
• Fixed bug which sometimes caused error message "system cannot find the path specified" and NC being inaccessible when changing removable media.
• Graphical viewer now accepts graphic files with non standard file name extensions.
• "Yes to all" button wasn't enabled in overwrite dialog while zipping.
• "Yes to all" reply is now possible while deleting non empty directories.

Version 5.0:

• Viewer for text files and a number of graphical formats.
• Support for RAR, CAB, TAR, GZIP and TZ archives.
• Proxy server and firewall support for FTP.
• Inproved progress bar when copying two or more files to or from an FTP site.
• FTP sites are administered under their name, not their address.
• Specify a login directory for FTP sites.
• Right click to configure function keys.
• Swap the two file windows.
• New menu choice: change directory (useful for FTP sites).
• Newly created directory wil have input focus.