A file manager is a software application used to manage files and folders on a computer's storage system. It provides users with a graphical interface to navigate through files and directories, perform various operations such as copying, moving, deleting, renaming files, and organizing them into folders.

Key Features and Functionalities typically found in file managers

  • Navigation:
    Allows users to browse through the directory structure of the computer's storage system, including internal drives, external drives, network drives, and cloud storage if integrated.

  • File Operations:
    Enables users to perform basic file operations such as copy, move, paste, delete, rename, and create new files or folders.

  • Search:
    Provides a search functionality to quickly locate files or folders based on their names or content.

  • Sorting and Filtering:
    Provides options to sort files by name, size, type, or date modified, and filter files based on criteria such as file type or date range.

  • Compression and Decompression:
    Ability to create compressed archives (e.g., ZIP files) from selected files or folders, and extract files from existing archives.

  • File Preview:
    Some advanced file managers offer a preview pane where users can preview the contents of a file (like text files, images, documents) without opening them in separate applications.