Folderite

Middle-click in a file manager or Open/Save dialog to pop up a folder menu: favorites, folders open in other windows, recent folders (frecency-ranked), and the folder on the clipboard. Picking one sends that window there.

Supported: Windows Explorer (incl. Win11 tabs), common file dialogs, Directory Opus, Total Commander, XYplorer, Blender's file browser window, and the desktop (opens a new Explorer window).

Install

1. Install the .NET 10 Desktop Runtime (x64) if you don't have it.
2. Download Folderite-<version>-win-x64.zip from the latest release, unzip it to a folder of your choice, and run Folderite.exe.

To upgrade, quit Folderite from the tray and unzip the new release over the old folder. Your settings are kept.

Requires Windows 10 1903 or later; Windows 11 recommended.

Build from source

Needs the .NET 10 SDK.

dotnet build
dotnet test
src\Folderite\bin\Debug\net10.0-windows\win-x64\Folderite.exe

Usage

Runs in the tray. Right-click the tray icon for Settings, Pause, Start with Windows, Edit config, and Exit. Left-click opens the folder menu; picking a folder there opens a new Explorer window.

You can also open the menu with a keyboard shortcut: set one under Settings → General → Keyboard shortcut. It opens the menu for the window in front; if that isn't a supported window, picking a folder opens a new Explorer window.

Middle-click inside Explorer and pick a favorite or a recent folder:

In an Open or Save dialog, the file name you typed is kept:

Settings

Settings… (tray menu, or the bottom of the folder menu) opens an editor for everything below: favorites (drag to reorder or nest, drop folders from Explorer), actions, menu sections, exclusions, start folders for Open/Save dialogs, your folder history, Start with Windows / Pause, and the keyboard shortcut. Changes save as you make them and the running app picks them up immediately. Preview menu shows the real menu with the current settings.

Settings rewrites config.json when it saves, so // comments in it are not kept. If the file has an error, Settings stops saving until it is fixed.

Config

%APPDATA%\Folderite\config.json by default. Settings → General → Change location… moves it, with history.json, to another folder (remembered in HKCU\Software\Folderite\ConfigDirectory); Use default moves it back. Choosing Folderite's own folder makes it portable: a config.json next to the exe always wins, so the settings travel with the folder. The file reloads automatically when saved. // comments and trailing commas are allowed.

{
  "favorites": [
    { "name": "&Projects", "path": "D:\\Projects", "showSubfolders": true },   // its subfolders in a submenu ("sortSubfolders": "newest" for newest first)
    { "name": "-" },                                   // separator
    { "name": "Work", "items": [                       // submenu
      { "name": "Specs", "path": "%USERPROFILE%\\Work\\Specs" }
    ]}
  ],
  "recentCount": 15,
  "historyExclude": ["C:\\Windows\\*", "*\\node_modules\\*"],
  "actions": [
    { "name": "Open &terminal here", "command": "wt.exe", "args": "-d \"{path}\"" },
    { "name": "Open in &VS Code",    "command": "code",   "args": "\"{path}\"" }
  ],
  "disabledProcesses": ["someapp"],   // exe names without .exe
  "showOpenWindows": true,
  "showClipboard": true,
  "enableOnDesktop": true,
  "showDrives": false,                // a Drives submenu with free space
  "hotkey": "Win+Shift+F",            // keyboard shortcut for the menu; "" = none
  "dialogLastFolder": false,          // open file dialogs in the folder last used in that app
  "dialogFolders": [                  // fixed start folders for one app's file dialogs
    { "app": "notepad", "path": "D:\\Notes" }
  ]
}

& marks the accelerator key in names. History lives in history.json, and errors are logged to folderite.log, both in the same folder.

Recent folders are ranked by how often and how recently you used them, with a boost for folders used in the app the menu is opened over.

How it works

Piece	File
Global middle-click hook (own thread, swallows down+up)	Hooks/MouseHook.cs
Window → adapter resolution	Targets/TargetRegistry.cs
Explorer: Shell.Application COM, active Win11 tab via ShellTabWindowClass	Targets/ExplorerAdapter.cs
File dialogs: breadcrumb caption to read; filename box + OK to navigate (address bar for folder pickers)	Targets/FileDialogAdapter.cs
Opus (dopusrt), TC (WM_COPYDATA "CD"), XYplorer (WM_COPYDATA ::goto)	Targets/ThirdParty/
Blender "File View" window: synthesized Ctrl+F, Shift+Tab, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+V, Enter into the path field (clipboard and cursor restored); current folder can't be read	Targets/ThirdParty/BlenderAdapter.cs
History from WinEvent name/foreground changes, zoxide-style frecency	History/
Menu model → owner-drawn native popup (dark mode, shell icons)	Menu/
Settings window (Folderite.exe --settings, WPF + Fluent), separate process	Settings/
Settings ↔ tray app: pause and history over WM_COPYDATA	Interop/Ipc.cs

Manual test checklist

• Explorer: menu shows; favorite navigates; with several tabs, the active tab navigates
• Explorer (Win11): middle-click on a tab still closes it (tab row is exempt)
• Open/Save dialog (Notepad, Office, browser): navigates; typed filename is kept
• Folder picker dialog: navigates instead of accepting the folder
• Directory Opus dual pane: clicked side navigates
• Total Commander: left/right panel, non-ASCII path (untested so far)
• XYplorer: ::goto with spaces (untested so far)
• Blender 5.x File View (Open, Import with options panel, folder picker): navigates from a click on the bookmarks and on the file list; clipboard (text and image) comes back; typed filename is kept
• Middle-click elsewhere (browser tab, editor) still works normally
• Elevated Explorer/dialog: fails gracefully unless Folderite runs elevated
• Keyboard shortcut: opens the menu for Explorer (active tab), a file dialog, Directory Opus (focused side) and the desktop; elsewhere picking a folder opens a new Explorer window; does nothing while paused; a shortcut that's taken shows a warning in Settings
• Favorite with subfolders: submenu lists subfolders (by name / newest first); the folder itself is the bold top item; a disconnected network folder doesn't freeze the menu
• Recent folders: folders used in the current app rank higher there
• Dialog start folder: off by default; when on, a new Open/Save dialog moves to the app's last folder and keeps the typed file name; a per-app folder wins; folder pickers work
• Drives submenu (when enabled): lists drives with free space; a disconnected network drive doesn't hang the menu

Screenshots

Every screenshot and animation in docs/ exists in a light and a dark version (<name>-light.*, <name>-dark.*); the README and the website pick one by the viewer's theme. To retake them, switch Windows to light mode and run pwsh tools\screenshots\capture.ps1, then switch to dark mode and run it again. It drives a demo setup with made-up folders on a temporary X: drive and takes over the mouse for about a minute.

Releasing

Push a version tag; the Release workflow tests, publishes, and attaches Folderite-<version>-win-x64.zip to a draft release with that tag. Edit the notes and publish it.

git tag v0.3.0
git push origin v0.3.0

The version comes from the tag, not Folderite.csproj. A tag with a suffix (v0.3.0-beta.1) makes a pre-release. If a release for the tag already exists, the zip is added to it instead.

Inspiration

Folderite is mainly inspired by Direct Folders, which first offered a middle-click folder menu for Explorer and file dialogs. Later on, Listary also shaped it, especially in how it jumps between open folders and recent folders.

License

MIT