^[1]Metro Commander is a Modern UI file manager that performs almost all basic operations with files. With the launch of Windows 8 many touch users would have definitely felt the necessity for a file manager app with Modern UI, something which Windows 8 should have by default. It performs all basic file operations and also allows you to sync your files with your SkyDrive account.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

Metro Commander is a file manager app which performs all basic operations and allows you to sync your files with your SkyDrive account.

Pros

• Brilliant use of the Modern UI
• SkyDrive access
• Dual Pane Interface

Cons

• Option to select view all Drives and Folders in one pane
• Few advanced options
• Cannot be a complete replacement for Explorer

Discussion

This app brilliantly uses the Modern UI. The interface to begin with is basic cyan and blue. It open directories in two different panes. This makes transferring of files a breeze. There is a setting bar on the top and bottom which provides various basic operations to perform. Also you have an option to change the background. You can choose your own background or choose to use Bing Backgrounds.

The app asks for permission to link with your SkyDrive account right in the beginning. You can easily transfer files to SkyDrive and then you can also open the SkyDrive files easily courtesy the dual pane interface.

One of the main problems of the app would have been the frequent shifting to and fro to access different files and folders. With the normal Desktop we would just open two different windows, but this isn’t possible in Modern UI. The Dual Pane interface is an innovative feature which solves this problem to quite an extent.

But the app doesn’t have an option to choose the whole computer as a folder, so that you can access all the folders at one place. This option is really required for people like me who have all their files and folders fragmented over different drives.

Also when you open a file, it opens in the default app. There is no way to choose a program of your choice to open a file.  Options like scanning the file or folder for viruses is not possible. Lack of advanced options like this makes you long for explorer.

Conclusion and download link

In conclusion, this app is beautifully crafted. It uses the Modern UI to the maximum extent and brings in quite a few innovative features. Users who use touch interface will love this completely as using the old explorer is a little difficult. But for power users this definitely cannot be a replacement. Rather it will supplement and work hand in hand with explorer. Anyway, this is one app you must have on your Windows 8 machine.

Price: Free

Supported OS: Windows 8, Windows RT

Supported architectures: x86, x64, ARM

Metro Commander on Windows Store ^[2]