I love Double Commander (DC) as a two-pane file manager and have already written about its basic features, how to add 7z support and some svn woes.

But DC has got some advanced features which you maybe wouldn’t expect.

• Under Files-Multi Rename it has got a tool with which you can do a rule-based rename of many files easily. Very useful e.g. to rename songs downloaded from wherever.
• You can create symbolic and hard filesystem links. (Files-…)
• Under Files-Compare by Content you’ll find a diff tool. But you could also configure DC to use the diff tool you prefer.
• You can use DC as a FTP-client. When using this feature the first time, do this:
  1. Select Commands-Open VFS List.
  2. One of the panes then will show the entries FTP and Network.
  3. Double-click on FTP, then it will show Add connection and Quick connection.
  4. Double click one of them to add a connection.

DC is extremely configurable and extensible. Some examples.

• The toolbar is fully configurable:
  1. Go to Configuration-Options-Toolbar.
  2. Click Insert new button.
  3. Select an internal command from the combobox or create an external command. You can use anything you want as a command and you can pass parameters like the currently selected file or path to it.
  4. Add a tooltip, icon and hotkey as you like.
• You can connect file extensions with commands and hotkeys. For example, I as a software developer often need to know the version of a certain dll.
  So I connected the F3 key with a viewer for the dll version like this:
  1. Open Options dialog, select node File associations.
  2. Under File types select Add and add file type dll.
  3. Under Extensions select Add and type in dll.
  4. Under Actions select Add and then click the + and select View. This relates to the View command or cm_View in the DC.
  5. Under Commad select the + on the right and there Run in terminal (as my version reading program is a command line tool). Then select full path under the +. Resulting is a command like {!SHELL} version.exe %p

  Now, when a dll is highlighted and I hit F3, its complete version info is shown. Much easier and faster than right-click-properties-details.

• You can color files according to their types: Configuration-Options-Colors-File types
• All hotkeys are configurable: Configuration-Options-Keys-Hot keys