Version 2 is an almost complete rewrite of Fileside that lays the foundation for all future development. It features a new thumbnail grid, a completely reworked layout management system, non-blocking file transfers, tons of new settings and much more.

I decided to change the format for release notes to keep them more compact and focused on just the changes. For a longer run-through in the 1.x style, see the Introducing Fileside 2 blog post.

New Features

Thumbnail grid view

• Adaptive display: Shows thumbnail previews for file types that support them and large icons for the rest. Folders that have size calculated display size info.
• Cover and Contain modes: Two different options for how thumbnails should be displayed.
• Custom item size: Thumbnail size can be configured per pane from the toolbar.
• Caching: Images are cached after initial load to make subsequent browsing snappy.
• Performance tuning: Power user settings Max concurrent thumbnail requests and Thumbnail fetch scroll stop delay for finetuning scroll performance.

Reworked layout management system

• Dirty/clean: Modified layout states are automatically remembered and show a dirty indicator.
• Current layout: Currently loaded layout is always visually indicated.
• Save: Turns the current dirty state into the new saved clean state.
• Save As: Duplicates an existing layout under a new name.
• Revert: Restores the last clean state (also invokable via double or Alt-click).
• Custom colour: Assign a custom colour to each layout, and optionally tint the window’s title bar with it. Tint intensity can be controlled with a new setting in the Settings screen.
• Expanded layout bar: The left-hand layout bar can be dragged wider to reveal more of the names and buttons.
• Layout creation presets: New layouts can be created with common setups like 1x1, 1x2, 2x2 etc.
• Add pane up/left: In addition to right/down from v1.
• Autosave option: Always saves to the clean state on every layout modification.
• Right-click option: Require right-clicking layout buttons to reveal their flyouts instead of revealing on hover.

Redesigned pane UI

• Context-sensitive toolbars: Each pane now has a classic toolbar that adapts based on whether it’s in table or grid view. No more floating toolbar getting in the way.
• Global pane management: Buttons for adding/removing panes now live permanently at the bottom of the layout bar.
• Favourite and search toggles: Dedicated buttons inlaid into each pane’s navigator.
• Dedicated status bar: No more combined status bar and scrollbar.

New window management system

• Fully independent state: Each window’s state is tracked, persisted and restored separately.
• Separate undo history: Each window has its own undo history.
• Separate dirty layout map: The same layout can have different dirty states across multiple windows.

Non-blocking file transfers

• Worker process: All transfers like copy, move, trash etc now run in their own process by default. Two new options in the Settings screen control use of the worker process.
• Independent progress windows: Listings in the main UI can continue to be browsed while a transfer is ongoing.
• Multiple concurrent transfers: Several simultaneous transfers are possible (albeit maybe not advisable).

Pane navigation history

Previously visited paths are remembered for each pane.

• Button controls: Buttons for moving back/forward in the pane’s location history sit next to the path navigator.
• Mouse control: Buttons 4 and 5 on feature mice can be used to navigate the history.

Expanded settings

The Settings screen has been completely redesigned and augmented to hold a lot more options.

• Context and guidance: Each option comes with additional guidance and an indication of its effect.
• Zoom level: Increases or decreases size of text and icons.
• Keyboard recorder: Assign new shortcuts by recording key presses instead of typing out shortcut strings.
• Drop action: Controls whether to display the popup menu or default to copy, move or link when dragging files around.
• Date format: Controls how dates are displayed in listings.
• Zebra stripes: Dial in a background tint for alternating rows in table view.
• Preview size: How large a portion of a pane the inline preview should take up.
• Custom terminal: Controls which terminal should open when you hit F7.
• File size standard: Whether to calculate file sizes using base-2 (JEDEC) or base-10 (SI).
• Storage section: Shows how much storage is taken up by the various caches.
• and more

Windows: Drag & drop from archives

Files can be dragged into Fileside from a zip file opened in Explorer.

Improvements

• Restructured application menu with more logical sections.
• Manual update check in app menu. (Also invoked when clicking on version number.)
• Active pane more prominently highlighted.
• When a pane has more width available than it needs, the Name column automatically grows to fill it.
• Tidier inline error overlay on renaming errors.
• New thumbnail column in table view.
• Expanded file/folder context menus with more entries, and a Pane submenu featuring all the actions pertaining to the pane rather than the selected file.
• Improved tooltips in the same theme as the rest of the application.
• A subtle pulse of the pane background when the listing refreshes. (Can be disabled in Settings.)
• More robust validation and migration logic for config files. Will save a copy of a file that failed to load instead of overwriting it.
• Windows: Column sorting support in This PC.

Bug fixes

• Fixed glitchy visual update after renaming a file.
• Fixed arrows scrolling instead of moving cursor after exiting rename.
• Fixed jump-to file by typing not closing after navigating down into another dir.
• Fixed closing search of inactive pane by clicking X without focusing it first.
• Fixed wrong layout name occasionally appearing in title bar.
• Fixed undo after modifying search result affecting search term.
• Fixed selection not staying put when toggling hidden files on/off.
• Fixed Esc not closing navigator path segment menu.
• Windows: Fixed drag & drop to external apps failing if dragged out too quickly.