For many users, Windows Explorer is a seriously flawed file manager with more drawbacks than benefits.

There are several applications that cover the gap left by Explorer and take advantage of its weaknesses. One of them, muCommander, is a file manager developed in Java that looks and acts like the classic MS-DOS directory browser, Norton Commander.

The muCommander interface is divided into two panels that allow you to navigate your file system. The bottom toolbar allows you to quickly perform operations such as viewing, editing, copying, moving, creating directories, deleting and updating.

Arguably the best thing about muCommander is the ability to explore the contents of ZIP, TAR, GZip, BZip2, ISO, NRG, AR, Deb and LST files without unpacking them. ZIPs can be changed on the fly without the need to recompress.