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Explorer Workbench - Backlog

Personal file management workbench.

Goal: Make working with files faster - not necessarily the filesystem itself.

Primary success metric: One happy customer. 😎

Core Principles

Windows remains the source of truth

Explorer Workbench may discover, index, display and organize Windows resources, but should not silently modify Windows configuration.

Example:

  • Removing Z: from Workbench removes the Workbench location and its index data.
  • It does not disconnect the Windows network drive.
  • Existing Windows resources should be discoverable/importable again.

Workbench owns the workflow

Specialized tools may provide execution capabilities.

Possible providers:

  • Robocopy - robust file transfers
  • 7-Zip - archive operations
  • FFmpeg - media conversion
  • Git - repository operations

Explorer Workbench provides:

  • UI
  • orchestration
  • metadata
  • index
  • profiles
  • queue
  • status
  • history

File Operations Queue is the execution engine

Whenever possible, features that modify files should create operations instead of modifying the filesystem directly.

Examples:

  • Copy
  • Move
  • Recycle
  • Delete
  • Rename
  • Extract
  • Compress
  • Convert
  • Sync
  • Reorganize

Analyze aggressively, modify conservatively

Analysis may be ambitious.

Filesystem modifications should be predictable, reviewable and safe.

Complex operations should preferably follow:

Analyze -> Preview -> Operation Plan -> Queue -> Execute

Configuration rule

If both behaviors are useful depending on the situation:

Make it an option.

Current Features

Navigation

  • Group locations into This PC, Network and Cloud
  • Optional grouping via Settings
  • Remove locations from Workbench
  • Remove associated index/database data
  • Do not modify Windows mappings when removing Workbench locations
  • Add network/cloud locations
  • Discover/import existing Windows network drives
  • Restore a previously removed Workbench location from Windows discovery

UI

  • Classic application menu
  • Icon-based toolbar
  • Settings dialog
  • Help menu with About and in-app Documentation
  • Expandable Settings architecture
  • Show Free Space next to Size where meaningful
  • Consistent capacity information for local/network/cloud providers
  • Organize folder (classify → preview → queue moves)

Search / Index

  • Central filesystem index
  • Fast indexed search
  • Search offline locations
  • Search archive contents
  • Store originating machine/location
  • Multi-PC search
  • Richer metadata indexing

Storage Analysis

  • Storage usage analysis
  • WinDirStat-style functionality
  • Duplicate detection
  • Duplicate classification
  • Distinguish intentional duplicates
  • Recognize Sync copies
  • Recognize Backup copies
  • Detect hardlinks

File Operations Queue

Implemented

  • Central File Operations Queue
  • Copy
  • Move
  • Move to Recycle Bin
  • Queue Rename
  • Queue Extract
  • Queue Compress
  • Sequential execution
  • Pause / Resume
  • Pause all
  • Progress display
  • Queue status
  • Reorder operations
  • Remove queued operations
  • Clear finished operations
  • Auto-clear when done
  • Compact queue status in main UI
  • Persist queue across Workbench restarts
  • Retry failed operations
  • Waiting for destination state
  • Resume automatically when destination becomes available
  • Handle temporarily unavailable network shares
  • Handle removable media (wait until reachable)
  • Detect file locks (Failed + Retry)
  • Operation history (append-only)

Planned

  • Conflict resolution
  • Undo last rename batch
  • Undo copy / move
  • Resource-aware scheduling

Resource-aware scheduling

Potential future behavior:

Instead of always running exactly one operation, allow concurrent operations when they do not compete for the same I/O resources.

Example:

C: -> D: and NAS -> USB may run simultaneously.

Two operations using the same physical source/target should normally remain serialized.

Protected Windows Filesystem Locations

Visibility

  • Hidden file support
  • Setting: Show protected system locations
  • Detect FileAttributes.Hidden
  • Detect FileAttributes.System
  • Classify known protected Windows locations
  • Distinguish Access denied from empty folders

Known examples:

  • System Volume Information
  • $RECYCLE.BIN
  • Recovery
  • pagefile.sys
  • hiberfil.sys

Size calculation

Never display:

0 B

when the actual state is:

Unknown because access was denied

Possible states:

  • Calculated
  • Partial
  • Unknown
  • Access denied

Elevated scan

  • Detect when elevation would provide additional information
  • Optional elevated/deep scan
  • Never silently elevate
  • Keep normal Workbench operation non-elevated

Recycle Bin

  • Classify $RECYCLE.BIN specially
  • Do not expose it merely as a normal filesystem folder
  • Show logical Recycle Bin information
  • Number of deleted items
  • Used space
  • Open Recycle Bin
  • Empty Recycle Bin

Folder Sync

Goal: Replace the relevant AllSync workflows.

Sync modes

  • Copy / Update
  • Mirror
  • Two-way sync
  • Versioned backup

Two-way sync should be implemented later because it requires proper conflict and deletion tracking.

Integration

  • Analyze differences
  • Generate operation plan
  • Submit operations to File Operations Queue
  • Preview before execution
  • Conflict detection
  • Sync history

Offline / removable locations

  • Detect target availability
  • Wait when target is offline
  • Automatically continue when target returns
  • Identify removable media using stable volume identity
  • Do not depend only on drive letters
  • Trigger sync when known media is connected

Example:

When PhotosBackup becomes available -> run Photos Sync

Duplicate awareness

Files intentionally created by Folder Sync should be marked as intentional duplicates.

Possible classification:

  • Accidental
  • Synchronized
  • Backup
  • Unknown

The Duplicate Finder hides intentional duplicates by default. Sync and backup tags are written when those operations exist.

Batch Rename

Goal: Replace FileRenamer workflows.

Rename rules

  • Search / Replace
  • Regex
  • Prefix
  • Suffix
  • Counter
  • Counter padding
  • Case conversion
  • Extension handling
  • Metadata placeholders

Potential placeholders:

  • {CreatedDate}
  • {TakenDate}
  • {ModifiedDate}
  • {Counter}
  • {Width}
  • {Height}
  • {Artist}
  • {Title}
  • {Project} (Git repo folder, else parent)
  • {Extension}

Workflow

Select -> Configure -> Preview -> Validate -> Queue

  • Preview all resulting names
  • Detect collisions
  • Detect invalid filenames
  • Add Rename operations to File Operations Queue
  • Store OldPath -> NewPath
  • Support Undo for completed rename batches
  • Tags from filename
  • Filename from tags
  • Tag editor (Artist, Title, Album, Track, Year, Genre)
  • Queue tag writes
  • Saved name patterns
  • EXIF Date Taken on photos
  • {Project} from Git repo / parent folder

Move to

Patterned move with per-file destination folders (Plex-style movie folders, dated backups, and similar).

  • Destination pattern popup
  • %filename% %filename_noext% %ext% %year% %month% %parent% %source_drive%
  • Create missing destination folders
  • History / saved patterns
  • Preview and queue through File Operations Queue

File Operation Profiles

Reusable workflows built from Workbench operations.

Core

  • Create profile
  • Edit profile
  • Delete profile
  • Duplicate profile
  • Run profile
  • Preview operation plan
  • Add resulting operations to queue

Example: Archive Project

  1. Verify Git status
  2. Require clean working tree
  3. Exclude .git, bin, obj, .vs
  4. Compress using 7-Zip
  5. Generate SHA-256
  6. Copy archive to NAS
  7. Verify destination
  8. Recycle source only if all previous steps succeeded

Example: Phone Videos

  1. Find matching videos
  2. Convert to configured format
  3. Preserve timestamps
  4. Copy converted files to Media
  5. Archive originals
  6. Queue cleanup

Example: Clean Downloads

Classify files and propose:

  • Installers -> Software
  • Images -> Pictures
  • Video -> Media
  • Archives -> Archive
  • Git repositories -> Development
  • Unknown -> Leave untouched

Available as Tools → Organize folder… and Organize this folder… on a directory. Suggestions only; nothing moves until Queue.

Profile triggers

  • Manual
  • Context menu: Run Profile
  • Drag files onto profile
  • When location becomes available
  • When removable media is connected
  • Scheduled
  • Folder watcher

Archives

Supported concepts

  • ZIP
  • 7z
  • RAR
  • Additional archive formats through providers

Indexing

  • Scan archive contents without extraction
  • Add archive entries to search index
  • Search inside archives
  • Display archive path as virtual hierarchy

Example search result:

\\NAS\Archive\2019-backup.7z\Projects\Explorer\README.md

even when the NAS is currently offline.

Operations

  • Extract
  • Compress
  • Add to archive
  • Verify archive
  • Queue archive operations

Potential provider:

7-Zip

File Classification

Goal: Understand what files and folders represent rather than relying only on extensions.

Initial categories

  • Media (Photos / Video / Audio)
  • Photos
  • Video
  • Audio
  • Documents
  • Code repositories
  • Installers
  • Backups (classified; left in place)
  • Archives
  • System data
  • Unknown

Detection signals

  • File extension
  • MIME/content signature (light idle magic-byte; never hydrates)
  • Folder structure
  • Git metadata
  • Media metadata
  • Known application structures (node_modules, bin, obj, .vs)
  • File age (old installers flagged in preview)
  • File relationships
  • Index metadata

Reorganization / Consolidation

Use file classification and metadata to propose better organization.

Concepts

  • Analyze directory
  • Classify contents
  • Detect misplaced files
  • Detect redundant files
  • Detect old installers
  • Detect old build output
  • Detect archived projects
  • Generate reorganization proposal
  • Preview proposed operations
  • Submit approved operations to queue

Important:

Never automatically reorganize based only on classification.

Always prefer:

Analyze -> Suggest -> Review -> Queue

Multi-PC

Goal: Search and manage the user's complete file environment rather than only the current PC.

Machines

  • Register Workbench machine
  • Assign machine identity
  • Store machine name with indexed files
  • Track last-seen timestamp
  • Track online/offline state

Search

Example:

Search: wallet.dat

Results:

  • Desktop-PC -> D:\Backup\wallet.dat
  • Laptop -> C:\Archive\wallet.dat
  • NAS -> backup-2019.7z\Crypto\wallet.dat

Offline behavior

  • Keep index searchable while machine is offline
  • Show last known location
  • Show last indexed timestamp
  • Queue operations requiring offline machine
  • Resume when machine becomes available

Future

  • Transfer files between Workbench machines
  • Remote filesystem browsing
  • Remote indexing
  • Shared operation queue / agent model

Secure Storage

Concepts

  • CryptDrive/Vault integration
  • Secure Storage location category
  • Detect mounted/unmounted state
  • Index policy for encrypted locations
  • Optional metadata-only index
  • Security-sensitive search behavior

Workbench should preferably integrate existing encryption technology rather than implement cryptography itself.

Conversion

Conversions should be represented as File Operations.

Media

Potential provider:

FFmpeg

Possible operations:

  • Video conversion
  • Audio conversion
  • Codec conversion
  • Resolution conversion
  • Extract audio
  • Generate thumbnails

Images

  • HEIC -> JPEG
  • PNG -> JPEG
  • Resize
  • Rotate
  • Metadata preservation/removal

Workflow

Conversions should support:

Input -> Conversion Profile -> Preview -> Queue

and be usable inside File Operation Profiles.

V1: Convert… dialog and an operation-profile Convert toggle. Jobs run on the host through the File Operations Queue. FFmpeg is discovered, not bundled.

Git Integration

Workbench should recognize repositories but not reimplement Git.

Potential provider:

git

Repository detection

  • Detect Git repositories
  • Show current branch
  • Show modified count
  • Show untracked count
  • Show ahead/behind state

Example:

Explorer-Workbench main 3 modified 1 untracked

Actions

  • Status
  • View Changes
  • Diff
  • Commit
  • Stage / Unstage / Discard
  • Merge (ours / theirs / continue / abort)
  • Pull
  • Push
  • Fetch
  • Open terminal here
  • Open in Cursor

Profiles

Git state may be used as a profile condition.

Example:

Archive Project

requires:

Working tree clean

before archive operations continue.

Sharing

Basic sharing

  • Share file
  • Share folder
  • Copy share link
  • Temporary shares
  • Expiration
  • Password protection
  • Read-only permissions

Providers

Potential integrations:

  • Nextcloud
  • Network shares
  • Other cloud providers

Package for Sharing

Example profile:

  1. Exclude unnecessary files
  2. Clean temporary data
  3. Compress
  4. Encrypt
  5. Upload
  6. Create expiring share link
  7. Copy link to clipboard
  8. Queue temporary archive cleanup

External Tool / Provider Integration

Robocopy

Status:

Documentation review / knowledge transfer pending. 😏

Potential uses:

  • Restartable copies
  • Network transfers
  • Retry handling
  • Backup-mode access
  • Mirror operations
  • Metadata/ACL preservation

Possible architecture:

RobocopyTransferProvider

Workbench retains ownership of:

  • Queue
  • Progress
  • State
  • UI
  • Retry policy
  • History

Robocopy performs selected low-level transfers.

7-Zip

SevenZipArchiveExecutor (IArchiveExecutor)

Discovery: Settings path, then Program Files, then PATH. Missing 7-Zip fails the queued job with an install hint. 7-Zip is not bundled.

FFmpeg

FfmpegConversionExecutor (IMediaConversionProvider)

Discovery: Settings path, then Program Files, then PATH. Missing FFmpeg fails the queued job with an install hint. FFmpeg is not bundled. V1: H.264 MP4, extract AAC/M4A, HEIC→JPEG. Preview first. Online-only cloud files are not hydrated.

Git

WindowsGitStatusProvider (IGitStatusProvider, IGitCommandProvider)

Discovery: Settings path, then Program Files, then PATH. Missing git.exe means no badge. Git is not bundled. Status / View Changes lists porcelain paths. Diff is unified git diff. Commit stages checked files then git commit --only. Stage / unstage / discard, ours / theirs / mark resolved, continue / abort wrap git.exe. Fetch / fast-forward pull / merge pull / push use GIT_TERMINAL_PROMPT=0. No mergetool, stash, branch UI, or credential dialog. Failed fast-forward pull offers merge pull or a terminal.

Future Intelligence

File relationships

Workbench should eventually understand relationships between files.

Examples:

  • Duplicate
  • Sync copy
  • Backup copy
  • Converted version
  • Archived version
  • Renamed version
  • Source/output relationship

This allows questions such as:

Which duplicates are accidental?

instead of merely:

Which files have the same hash?

Forgotten Files

Potential analysis:

  • Files not modified for many years
  • Files not accessed for many years
  • Old backups
  • Forgotten projects
  • Large unused files
  • Old installers
  • Historical archives

Possible feature name:

Forgotten Files

Architectural Direction

Long-term conceptual model:

Filesystems / Providers
         |
         v
      Scanner
         |
         v
    Metadata Index
         |
         v
  Intelligence Layer
         |
   +-----+-----+
   |           |
   v           v
Workbench    Profiles
   |           |
   +-----+-----+
         |
         v
File Operations Queue
         |
         v
 Execution Providers

The Workbench should increasingly understand:

  • What is this?
  • Where is it?
  • Which machine has it?
  • Is it currently available?
  • Is there another copy?
  • Why does another copy exist?
  • Is it part of a sync or backup?
  • How much space does it consume?
  • What operations are safe?
  • What does the user want to do with it?

Replaced / Potentially Replaced Tools

Tool Workbench capability
Windows Explorer Navigation / file management
WinDirStat Storage analysis
WhereIsIt? Indexed catalog / offline search
AllSync Folder synchronization
FileRenamer Batch rename
Archive tools Archive workflows
Conversion tools Profile-driven conversion
Various sharing workflows Integrated sharing

The goal is not necessarily to completely replace every specialized tool.

The goal is to make Explorer Workbench the central working environment from which those capabilities are orchestrated.

Definition of Done

Explorer Workbench is never truly finished.

A feature is useful when it improves the actual workflow of the primary user.

A release is successful when:

Domi realizes he has not voluntarily opened Windows Explorer all week.

😎

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