Switching from Windows
Enter opens, Backspace goes up, Delete removes, and the side mouse buttons handle Back/Forward. The address bar is exactly where you expect it — no need to retrain your muscle memory.
Your shortcuts. Your apps. Your explorer.
Windows Explorer for macOS. A file manager for devs.
F2, Enter and Delete work just like on Windows, and you get the terminal, Git and RegExp filters in a single window. Native, fast and private, with no telemetry.
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Mac Explorer — My Computer
The comfort of Windows Explorer. The performance of a Mac.
Mac Explorer doesn't try to reinvent files. It lets you handle them quickly, predictably and your own way — no matter where you're coming from.
Developers and power users
The terminal starts in the current folder, the Git section shows the branch and changes, the filter supports RegExp, and the list shows MIME, chmod and owner. Add your own scripts without rebuilding the app.
Anyone who wants simplicity
No trying to be an IDE, an FTP client and an admin panel all at once. One clear view, two presentation modes and the set of operations you actually use every day.
A bug Apple truly loves #015
Finder forgets how you set up the window.
You stretch the window to fill the screen. You close it. You open a new one — and it's small again, in a random spot. You stretch it once more. You close it. You open it. Wrong again. Finder saves the window state somewhere, but apparently on a sticky note that keeps getting blown away by the wind.
We happen to remember little things like that. Mac Explorer opens exactly where and at the size you left it — because respecting your window layout isn't a premium feature, it's the bare minimum.
- since ~2001Finder forgets window size — untouched for ~25 years
- 184 yearsof human life a day spent rearranging windows
- 40 hthat's all it would take Apple to fix it
100% native. 0% Electron.
No HTML, JS or CSS underneath — just native Swift and system frameworks. That's why it launches in a fraction of a second and doesn't eat memory when you have dozens of windows open.
284 ms
to first window
median across 10 launches
< 100 MB
RAM usage
+ a small thumbnail cache
100–300
FPS with 1000+ files
smooth scrolling
< 10 MB
on disk
the entire app bundle
// benchmark: Apple M4 Max · macOS 26.5.2 · 36 GB RAM · local build
Start screen
“My Computer,” just as you remember it.
Favorites, all your drives, their usage and recent files — without digging through hidden sections. A disconnected drive in Favorites doesn't disappear: it stays dimmed and unlocks itself once remounted.
Mac Explorer — My Computer
Favorites with custom icons
Internal and external drives with a usage bar
Mounted network drives — with auto-unlock
Recently modified files at your fingertips
Everything you need, in a single window.
Not just another folder viewer. The tools a developer uses every day — available without reaching for the mouse.
Name and RegExp filters
Type .*View.* and see only what you're looking for. Real-time filtering, even in directories with thousands of files.
Inspector
Preview, dimensions, color profile and full metadata — always in the side panel.
Views and columns
Icons or a detailed list with MIME, chmod, owner and dates.
Undo any operation
Copy, move, rename and delete with full history. ⌘Zworks exactly the way you'd expect.
⌘Z
Drives and devices
Favorites, devices and free space on a single “My Computer” start screen.
- Macintosh HD107 GB free
- Backup144 GB free
- Elements SE1.76 TB free
Navigation that takes no thinking.
Start typing to jump to a file. Filter as you type. And when you need precision — turn on full regular expressions. All without indexing the disk and without leaving the directory.
Type-ahead
Type global to select the first matching item. Repeat the phrase to jump to the next hit.
Filter and RegExp
⌘F is a plain name filter, ⇧⌘F switches to regular-expression mode. Results update as you type.
Three sort modes
Last modified, name A–Z or creation date — without a multi-level settings panel.
See a file before you open it.
Know exactly what you're dealing with without launching a single app. Hit Space for a full preview or glance at the inspector — so you spot the right file in seconds and keep moving, even in folders packed with thousands of items.
Quick Look with Space
Space opens the full system preview of the selected file — it works for multiple files at once too.
Inspector with metadata
One glance gives you a big preview and every detail that matters for the selected file — right there in the sidebar, always a step ahead of you.
- MIME type
- Size and chmod
- Owner and group
- Creation and modification dates
- Images: dimensions, DPI, color profile
- EXIF
- PDF: pages, title, author
- DOCX / XLSX / PPTX without Spotlight
Sizes at a glance
Just like on Windows. The status bar sums up your selection — files, folders, total size and free space — and a quick hover reveals a file's size and details. Perfect for tracking down whatever is eating your disk.
Every everyday operation. No surprises.
Creating, renaming, permissions and file info — in small, fast dialogs that don't cover the whole window.
Get Info
A quick look at size, dates, MIME, chmod and owner — or the system dialog.
Owner and permissions
Edit owner, group and chmod in an owner / group / others grid.
New file
Enter any path, nested too — existing or new — and the missing folders create themselves. The file can have any extension, or none at all.
New folder
Create an entire, arbitrarily nested directory structure with a single confirmation — no clicking folder by folder.
Rename
F2 selects just the name stem without the extension by default, so you don't change it by accident. A simple ⌘A selects everything and lets you change the extension too — exactly like on Windows.
Copy, move, drag
⌘C / ⌘X / ⌘V with the system clipboard, drag & drop across apps too. Shift forces a move instead of a copy.
Undo and redo
⌘Z undoes, ⇧⌘Z or ⌘Y redoes. History covers creating, copying, moving, pasting, cutting and deleting.
Safe deletion
Delete and ⌘Backspace move to the system Trash. A destructive undo or redo always shows a warning.
A context menu you configure yourself.
Add your own actions, apps and scripts straight into the right-click menu — exactly where you need them. You can't do that in Finder: everything ends up in the hidden Services menu. Here you arrange the menu around your workflow, and system Services, Quick Actions and Automator still work with no configuration.
Context menu
The full set of operations on a file, folder, multiple items or empty space. Unavailable actions are dimmed, not hidden — the interface doesn't “jump.”
Open With…
The apps macOS reports as compatible with the file type — with real icons. “Other app…” opens the system app picker.
Services and Quick Actions
Automator workflows and compatible Quick Actions filtered for the current file — like PeaZip or “Open in Mac Explorer.”
~/PROJECTS/MacOS-Explorer
Terminal and Git right where your files are.
No more jumping between windows. Open a terminal in the current directory with one shortcut and check your repository status without leaving the explorer.
Built-in terminal
It opens right in the folder you're looking at — ⌥F12 shows and hides the panel.
Git awareness
The current branch and the number of changed files right in the side panel.
Switch branches in two clicks
Click the branch name, pick another from the list and you're on it — no typing git checkout.
Extensions without limits
Custom integrations, without limits.
Attach any actions to files and folders — grouped into tidy menus with sub-items. Launch the apps you open with, your own scripts and ready-made toolsets from the context menu or a shortcut, and switch off anything you don't use. Plenty of ready-made menus come in the box:
Scripts
Run npm scripts with your favorite package manager, or any script in the folder using the shell you choose.
Git
Initialize a repository, pull (fast-forward or rebase), push and generate a .gitignore file.
JSON
Format a JSON file or create a minified version of it with a single click.
Organize
Batch rename, flatten directories, remove empty folders and auto-sort by extension or date.
ZIP
Create and extract ZIP and TAR.GZ archives without leaving the explorer.
Images
Convert formats and resize images — all in a single menu.
AI
Send files as context to ChatGPT, Codex, Claude and Perplexity.
Hash
Compute SHA-256 and other digests, or create checksum files.
Locked files
Lock, unlock or force-quit the apps using the selected files. That way you'll never run into a file-access problem again.
Path
Copy the path, file name or File URL, or open the file in Finder.
Quick custom actions connect Mac Explorer with the tools you already use.
VS Code · WebStorm · Warp · CotEditor · Notepad++ · iTerm2 · and any other you add yourself
config.jsonc → Settings
Total control
Configurable to the core, GUI or JSONC.
The sidebar, the order and icons of toolbar buttons, custom actions — all in one convenient JSONC file (JSON with comments), documented right in the comments. Changes load automatically, with no restart, and a broken file doesn't destroy your last valid configuration.
And if you'd rather click — you can now change those same settings in a convenient menu, with changes saved live.
~/.macos-explorer/config.jsonc
Custom sidebar
Pin the folders, drives and shortcuts you actually open. Set your favorites once.
Columns and views
Icons, a list, or details with MIME, chmod and owner. Choose what stays visible.
Hot-reload settings
Save the file and changes load instantly — no app restart. Tweak it and see the effect right away.
Your own apps
Set any apps you use to open files and folders. You decide what launches from where.
⌘, opens the configuration anytime
Ready in minutes
Set it once. It works your way.
A short guided setup gets you going in just a few minutes. Pick your editor, terminal and IDEs, and Mac Explorer wires up quick actions for the tools you already use — so from the very first launch it feels like yours, not like something you have to learn.
For those who switched from Windows
Your fingers already know this.
F2 renames, Enter opens. Instead of relearning macOS from scratch, you just work.
Full support for keyboard, mouse and trackpad gestures — work comfortably, no matter what your setup is.
- F2
- Rename
- Enter
- Open file or folder
- Delete
- Move to trashnot just Cmd+Backspace
- ⌘F
- Name filter
- Backspace
- Back
- Space
- Quick Look
- ⌥F12
- Show / hide terminal
System integration
Open it from anywhere.
Mac Explorer fits neatly into your system and the apps you already use — from Finder to a global shortcut like Win+E.
“Open in Mac Explorer” in Finder
The installed Quick Action opens a file or folder from anywhere. For a file, it opens the parent directory and selects the item.
A global shortcut via Raycast
Assign e.g. ⌘E as a hotkey to summon Mac Explorer exactly like Win+E on Windows.
Mac Explorer — Tips & tricks
Your files stay yours.
The app is cut off from the internet. No data — not even anonymous or telemetry data — reaches our servers. The only network connections are checking for updates and verifying a license. Nothing more.
Zero telemetry
We send absolutely no data to our servers — not even anonymous data, not even usage stats. No analytics module, no background measurement.
Cut off from the internet
The app makes a network connection in only two situations: checking for update availability and verifying a license or trial period. Nothing beyond that.
Safe scripts
Custom scripts receive their arguments as a plain array, never as an interpolated shell command that could be exploited.
Run the numbers on yourself
How much time do you get back over a year?
Every navigation, open and rename is seconds. With hundreds of actions a day, those seconds turn into working days. Plug in your own numbers — the calculator updates live.
120
1
$65/h
// assumption: 3.5 s saved per action, 21 working days / month
7 min
per day, per person
72.5 h
per month, per person
2.4529 h
per year, across the team
29.400000000000002$1,911
value of time per year
1911.0000000000002Frequently asked questions.
Does Mac Explorer completely replace Finder?
It can be your main tool for everyday browsing and file handling. macOS still uses Finder in some system places, e.g. in some file-picker windows — Mac Explorer doesn't replace the system process.
Is it similar to Total Commander?
No. Mac Explorer deliberately uses a single pane and a model closer to Windows Explorer. It doesn't force dual-pane work, but it gives you fast copying, moving, history and advanced actions.
Is it native?
Yes. It's a Swift 6 + AppKit app, with no Electron, no browser and no third-party UI frameworks.
Which systems does it support?
The current build is prepared for Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or later.
Does it support network drives?
Yes, if they're mounted in macOS. You can add them to Favorites — when a share is disconnected, the entry stays visible and activates automatically once remounted.
Does it show hidden files and thumbnails?
Yes. Hidden files are always visible, but slightly dimmed. Thumbnails come from the system Quick Look, so they look exactly like everywhere else in macOS.
Can I add my own terminal or editor?
Yes. You can add any .app, program or script to the context menu and toolbar via config.jsonc.
Does the configuration require a restart?
No. Changes in the JSONC file are loaded automatically while the app is running — and it's the same when you edit those settings in the GUI.
Does the app send file names or contents anywhere?
No. The core has no network module, no account and no telemetry. Your own user scripts are separate code that you deliberately add.