FreeCommander + SuperCopier2

As fun as file systems are, you really don’t want to be spending longer than you have to when it comes to copying / moving / viewing files and navigating folders. I was saved years of grief fumbling about with Windows Explorer thanks to a mate’s advice to switch to TotalCommander back in 2003 (I still remember his look of horror when when I said ‘Total-what?’). When it comes to speed and efficiently, the keyboard is king, and TotalCommander and all the other *commander variants take advantage of that.

Last year I switched to FreeCommander, and am very happy. The main benefits for me are:

  • a more modern / nicer UI
  • ‘type to navigate’
  • plenty of customisation options
  • it’s free 🙂

Unfortunately there are some serious drawbacks:

  • The file-copy/move dialog is the Windows built-in one (which is down-right horrible)
  • The file-delete dialog is the Windows built-in one, and it’s modal to the application
  • The FTP client has a terrible time-out issue and is generally buggy

I’d like to solve all three of these, but I’m starting with the first.

Luckily, FreeCommander allows you to use an external copy/move program via an INI setting. I tried the free TeraCopy for a while, but when I discovered SuperCopier 2, it was perfect! It really is lightning quick at what it does, it doesn’t get in your way, and has all the options you need (pause, error handling etc.). The only problem is, as of v2.2, the copy interception code was re-written, and it could no longer be fully integrated with FreeCommander. To solve this problem, I have written a small executable in C++ called SC2Integration.exe that uses the API provided by SuperCopier 2 (available on their sourceforge site) to re-unite FreeCommander with this excellent file-copy replacement.

Simply drop SC2Integration.exe into your FreeCommander installation folder (or anywhere else you would like to store it) and add the following two lines under the [Form] section of your FreeCommander.ini file:


FileCopyPrg=%FcSrcPath%\SC2Integration.exe Copy "%ActivSelAsFile%" "%InactivDir%"
FileMovePrg=%FcSrcPath%\SC2Integration.exe Move "%ActivSelAsFile%" "%InactivDir%"

If you didn’t copy SC2Integration.exe into your FreeCommander installation directory, replace %FcSrcPath% with the full correct path (no quotes). On Windows 7 your FreeCommander.ini file is here by default:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\FreeCommander\FreeCommander.ini

Download the SC2Integration utility for free here.

UPDATE: If you get an error ‘Parsing arguments…’, make sure you add double quotes around %ActivSelAsFile% and %InactivDir% in your FreeCommander.ini.

28 thoughts on “FreeCommander + SuperCopier2”

  1. Karol Kulka says:

    Hello,
    Does SC2Integration need any library to work because I’ve only get a message like system cannot execute a file or the configuration in not correct
    Thanks
    Karol

  4. Eduard says:

    I’m trying it as a button in Total Commander with the following switch:
    Copy “”%ActivSelAsFile%” “”%InactivDir%”

    I get the following error:
    Super Copier 2 Integration has stopped workin.

    I’m using Win7 64bit.
    Please Advise

  7. Eduard says:

    Spoke to soon. When copying a folder it copies the contents of the folder to the destination, not the folder itself. Move gives error: Cannot read fiel: Cannot reaf form the source file or disk.

    Grrrr will crack it yet.

    • This is due to Total Commander adding a backslash to the end of directory names, which confuses SuperCopier. I have updated SC2Integration to remove this – fixed in 1.40.

  8. Eduard says:

    The working command for TeraCopy is Copy *”%L” “%T”
    What would the SuperCopier equivalent be?

    • There is no command line for SuperCopier. In fact that was why this program exists – SuperCopier runs as a single-instance application (in the background) and intercepts Windows copy/move functions. It also has an API that this program uses to communicate.

  10. Eduard says:

    Aw well, will wait for SuperCopier to better their proggie to handle
    command line parameters.
    Thanx for all the help sofar.

  11. Eduard says:

    Just found out about a big thing.
    I use a lot of virtual drives, courtesy of vsubst from http://home.datacomm.ch/t.bigler/utils.html.
    I find it easier to go to my most often used folders because I only use TC.
    Your proggie works perfect on real partitions/drives but not on virtual/substituded drives.
    The button with command Copy %L %T works like a charm on all “real” drives. Will now
    play around with Move %L %T.
    The error I get on a vsubt’d drive is:
    Failed to parse…… “Copy c:\temp\CMD8E63.tmp S:\1_Working” (one of my vsub’st drives”
    (My temp folder is c:\temp. Easier for me to find and clean.)
    I must say that supercopier itself has no problems with my vsubst’d drivers using drag and drop.
    We are getting somewhere……

    • For others using subst/vsubst, both SuperCopier and FreeCommander do not support such drives. The work-around is the map a network drive to a share on your local hdd.

  12. 88pisem says:

    hello! where is”API provided by SuperCopier 2″ and where source code of your SC2Integration.exe?

    • The SuperCopier 2 API source is linked to from the article, and the source of SC2Integration.exe can be found in my SVN repo via the About page on this site.

  14. Serg says:

    Dear author! I beg you to add to your program “SC2Integration” support for “Directory Opus”. Please!

  16. Gallind says:

    Add setup progress for WIN 7 64b and total commander please.
    When I used SC2Integration.exe copy “E:\MOJ.BAR” “H:\!\” command (in prompt) mouse cursor changed to waiting state for a moment, and nothing happens.
    Installation path for original dll c:\Program Files (x86)\SuperCopier2\
    SuperCopier Works fine using drag and drop operation in win explorer

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