The FlexTk file management toolkit is integrated around a unique file navigator providing file type coloring,
a customizable detailed view, a thumbnail view, user-selectable tool panes, file system location bookmarks
and advanced file filters. The FlexTk's built-in file navigator allows one to execute any required operation
in a single mouse click. Just select one or more files, directories or disks and press a command button on
the main toolbar to start the file classification, storage utilization analysis, data migration or duplicate
files identification process.
The FlexTk's built-in file navigator provides the following file view modes: the list view mode, the icon view mode,
the detailed view mode and the thumbnail view mode. In the thumbnail view mode, FlexTk supports the following image
formats: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, PBM, PGM, PPM, XBM, and XPM.
In the detailed view mode, FlexTk allows one to customize columns, define user-specific file types and edit the display
style for each of them. For example, files having the extension 'EXE' may be displayed as 'Programs' using a bold font
on the yellow background. All customizations are saved in the user configuration file and may be exported for backup
purposes or transferred to another computer by using the FlexTk's configuration export/import capabilities.
In addition, the detailed view mode provides the user with the ability to sort files by the file name, type, size,
creation time, last modification time or last access time. In order to sort files, just click on an appropriate
column header. When the user clicks on a column header for the first time, all the files are sorted in the ascending order.
To sort files in the descending order, click on the same column header for the second time.
Web Search
The FlexTk's built-in file navigator provides a 'Web Search' capability allowing one to query
additional information about a file from the most popular Internet search engines, FTP search engines
and online file databases.
In order to use this feature, select the required file, click the right
mouse button and select the search engine you want to query information from. FlexTk will automatically
format an appropriate search query, open your default web browser and display the search results.
Wiping Sensitive Data
The lifespan of a modern hard drive is about 2-3 years. Old disks are replaced with new larger and faster
drives requiring the user to move all the valuable data from the old disk to the new one. The simplest way
to replace an old disk is to connect it to the computer as a second drive, install an Operating System on
the new disk and to copy all the required information from the old disk to the new one. But what will happen
with all the sensitive personal or business information that is located on the old disk after you will throw it out?
When we are deleting files using the Windows Explorer, files are deleted but the information on the disk is not
altered until the physical sectors used to store the deleted files are not overwritten by other information.
All deleted files may be relatively easily recovered using widely available recovery tools. It is highly
recommended to physically wipe all the sensitive information from an old disk before you will throw it out.
FlexTk allows one to physically wipe any information located on a local hard disk, external USB disk or
network drive. It is really simple – just select the 'Wipe' option on the delete dialog.
User-Selectable Tool Panes
The bottom part of the FlexTk's main GUI application includes two user-selectable tool panes. Each of them may be selected
to display bookmarks, file filters, user-defined commands, the local disks status view or the system status view.
File Filters
More and more files are stored in modern computers. A simple Windows-based computer with a number
of software products may include 50,000 - 100,000 files. More advanced computer users and professionals
may have as much as 100,000 - 200,000 files in their personal computers. Almost everyone has tried to
find a file in a directory that contains a couple of thousand files. Although it is possible to search
for a file by pressing on the key representing the first letter in the file name, sometimes it is still
difficult to find the required file in a file-crowded directory.
Another issue that bothers advanced computer users is how to perform various file management operations
on a number of files in a directory selected according to a specific criteria. Using the current version
of the Windows Explorer the user will need to select all the required files manually, which may be a really
tedious task if you need to deal with hundreds of files.
To help users to deal with large amounts of files in directories, FlexTk introduces advanced files filtering
capabilities. For each opened directory, FlexTk analyzes existing files and automatically builds a list of
filters allowing one to select a specific file type to be displayed. The filters view is located in the
bottom-right corner of the FlexTk main GUI application. For each file type in the current directory,
FlexTk displays the number of files and the total storage space consumed by all files related to the file type.
In order to see files related to a specific file type, just select the required filter in the filter view.
To reset the current view and to see all files in the current directory, select the 'Show All' item in the filter view.
File System Bookmarks
Overtime disks are getting larger and larger and we are storing more and more files,
documents, songs and movies. Some computers are equipped with multiple hard drives and
many regular computer users are beginning to use network drives to share files between
computers on the home network. Business needs are much more demanding requiring computer
professionals to design complex file hierarchies and directory structures for specific
business needs. We have are now in a situation where we need to remember much information
about the location of various programs, documents, reports, songs, videos, etc.
The FlexTk's built-in file navigator includes a simple and flexible solution allowing one
to save an unlimited number of file system locations in a dedicated bookmarks view and to
switch between them in a single mouse click.
To add a new file system bookmark, browse to the required directory and press the 'Bookmark'
button on the main GUI toolbar. On the add bookmark dialog specify a unique bookmark
name and press the 'Ok' button.
The bookmarks view is located in the bottom-left corner of the FlexTk main GUI application.
During installation, FlexTk automatically adds bookmarks for 'Computer Home', 'My Documents' and
all local hard drives installed in the computer. To jump to a previously bookmarked directory,
just select a bookmark name in the bookmark view.
Local Disks Status
The local disks status view lists all the local disks as defined in the OS configuration.
For each disk FlexTk displays the drive letter, the total disk size and the amount of free
storage space. Click on a disk item to see more detailed information about the disk.
System Status View
The system status view shows a summary system status including the current CPU usage,
the system memory status and the system disk status.
