A file manager for Windows 11 that shows what is inside your files — CAD models and drawings, 3D printing jobs, Illustrator and CorelDRAW artwork, e-books, music and photos — without the programs that made them. On top of that: collections over your folders, a terminal tab, a built-in torrent client, folder backups and a proper two-pane mode for those who grew up on Total Commander.
It is built on Files by Files Community. I chose Files because it already is a good modern file manager — tabs, panes, a preview pane, a clean Windows 11 interface. Everything listed under "What is added" below is my work on top of it; the rest belongs to the Files authors.
I am a mechanical designer, and this project started from what my own work kept needing. The program is free and open. This is an early version: it works, but rough edges are still there, and reports about them are welcome.
Download a ready build · Full review, scenario by scenario · Русская версия — README.ru.md
A folder of parts from several CAD systems. None of those systems is installed.
Drawings and models. Shown in the preview pane without starting a CAD system, and without having one installed:
- DWG and DXF — the drawing itself is redrawn, outlines and lines;
- Inventor — parts, assemblies, drawings, presentations;
- SolidWorks, KOMPAS-3D, Autodesk Fusion, Siemens NX, CATIA, Rhino, FreeCAD — the part appears as a model that can be turned with the mouse; where the format is closed and the geometry cannot be reached, the picture the program itself saved inside the file is shown instead;
- STEP and IGES — exchange formats, tessellated by the Open CASCADE engine.
An Inventor assembly opens like a folder. Inside are the parts and subassemblies it uses; the parts stay ordinary files on disk, and references that cannot be found are shown as missing.
Artwork. Illustrator (.ai, saved PDF-compatible, which is the default) and CorelDRAW (.cdr, old and new versions) are shown by the picture stored inside the file. Neither program is started, and nothing inside the file is run.
Columns carry the properties that matter: part code, material, mass, and the version of the program the file was last saved in. The same properties can be filtered on.
3D printing. G-code (.gcode, .gco, .g), PrusaSlicer's binary .bgcode, FlashPrint's .gx and sliced .gcode.3mf projects from Flash Studio, OrcaSlicer, Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer and Cura:
- in a folder every job shows the thumbnail its slicer saved; a job without one is drawn from its toolpath;
- the preview pane draws the toolpath in an isometric view, coloured from the bed to the top layer, and lists the print time, filament (weight, type, length), layer height, number of layers, nozzle, printer and slicer;
- the details view gets a Print time column next to material, mass and version, so a folder of jobs can be sorted by how long they take or how much plastic they use.
Only the head and the tail of a G-code file are read, so a folder of large jobs stays quick.
Collections. Libraries built on top of folders — books, pictures, music, drawings. Files stay where they are; only an index is built. Indexing shows its progress and the folder it is working through. Duplicates are found by sampling file contents, not by name alone. Items in a collection are worked with as in a folder: select them by click, Ctrl, Shift, Ctrl+A or a tick in the corner of a tile; copy, cut, delete, open, show in the folder or copy the path from the buttons above the list, the context menu or the keyboard; drag them out into any folder. The information pane shows the selected item large, with its details.
Books. Covers and details from FB2, EPUB, PDF and DjVu. An OPDS client for other people's catalogues, and an OPDS server for your own collection, which any reader app on a phone can open.
A terminal in a tab. A real Windows console inside the window, next to the folders.
Torrents. Downloads run inside the program, with their own section: a list, filters, files, peers and trackers. Magnet links and .torrent files can be opened straight into it.
Synchronisation and backups. Comparison of two folders, copying of the differences, and backup plans with a preview of exactly what will be copied and what will be deleted.
Control from other programs. The window can be driven by commands from outside: open a folder in a chosen pane, split the window into two panes, open the terminal or the downloads, make a collection or a backup plan, start a download. It is off by default and is switched on under Settings → Advanced. See the description of the control channel.
Two looks. By default the window is dressed like the macOS Finder: round window buttons on the left, Safari-style tabs, striped rows. Settings → Appearance → Visual style switches it to the ordinary Windows 11 look: caption buttons on the right, stock tabs, system colours. The change takes effect after a restart, and a Restart button appears right there.
Two panes. Files already has two panes; here they get a header with drives and free space, swapping sides, moving through folders in step, copying or moving straight to the other pane, and comparing the two open folders.
Unpack the archive anywhere and run Files.exe. No installation, no administrator rights.
Everything the program keeps — settings, collection indexes, thumbnails — lives in a data folder next to it. Nothing is written to the Windows registry or to your profile: delete the folder and nothing of it remains.
What the system needs: Windows 11, or Windows 10 version 1809 or newer. Nothing has to be installed alongside; every library ships in the folder. The one exception is the terminal, which needs the WebView2 component: Windows 11 always has it, Windows 10 may not.
What the portable build does not do: replace File Explorer on Win+E, show Windows notifications, or update itself through the Store. Updating means replacing the folder — keep your data folder, your settings are in it.
Visual Studio 2022 or newer with the Windows development workload, and the .NET 10 SDK.
build\consysto\Build-ConsystoPortable.ps1The script builds the portable version and puts the folder and a .zip into artifacts\ConsystoFiles. For an installable package there is build\consysto\Build-ConsystoFiles.ps1, which needs a signing certificate.
A separate build switch (-p:ConsystoDemo=true) produces a variant where the names of the
drives and of the computer are replaced by plain ones — "System (C:)", "Work (D:)",
"Archive (Z:)". Nothing else changes: the files, the folders and their properties stay real.
This is meant for screenshots and for showing the program: one can see how it works with real files without seeing how the owner's drives are named. The code is left out of ordinary builds.
Model preview. A SolidWorks part opened as real geometry — it can be turned and looked at from the other side.
Drawings for cutting. DXF flat patterns are visible in the folder itself, without opening each one.
3D printing jobs. Sliced projects shown by their slicer thumbnails; the preview pane lists print time, filament, layer height, nozzle, printer and slicer.
A collection of drawings. An index over several folders: 543 drawings with previews, materials and filters. The files stay where they are.
Two panes. A header with drives above each one, swapping sides, moving through folders together.
A terminal tab. A real console next to the folders.
The foundation is Files by Files Community, under MPL-2.0 (see LICENSE-MPL); some parts are under MIT (LICENSE-MIT). My changes are released under the same licences.
This project is not affiliated with Files Community and is not supported by them. Every rough edge in this build is mine, not theirs. The name and the icon of this fork are its own; the Files name and logo are not used.
Thanks to the authors of Files and of the libraries everything rests on: ACadSharp, MonoTorrent, OpenMcdf, Win2D, CommunityToolkit.
The geometry of SolidWorks parts is read by cadmpeg under the Apache-2.0 licence. It sits as a separate program in the CadHelpers folder next to Files and runs only while a file is being read; its licence is there too.
The program is free and will stay that way. If it saved you time and you would like to say thanks:
- CloudTips — Russian cards and transfers, no account needed.
- Boosty
- lava.top — cards issued outside Russia, from 95+ countries.
There is no GitHub Sponsors button and there will not be one: it does not work from Russia.
Found a bug — please open an issue, or write to consysto@gmail.com. It helps a lot to attach data\Local\debug.log, or, in the installed version, the report that Settings → About → "Save an error report" puts on your desktop.