v1.3.0 is the current stable release. It brings Space Quick Look, quick text notes, compact media and 3D previews, highlighting of newly added items, clearer creation dialogs with Ctrl+N and Ctrl+D, REAPER Save options and quiet update checks that install only when you click. Archive browsing, the shelf and the copy-path button are optional and start off; enable each in Settings.

v1.3.1-beta.2 is available for testing. Browser Show in folder selects and centres the exact file at a readable size, including in large folders. It also adds optional retained folder tabs, a search-query builder and spatial map filtering. Beta notes · Testing guide.

In folders already read, newly added files and folders pulse yellow twice when they become visible on the nested canvas. Offscreen, hidden, filtered or too-small entries wait. Existing contents do not flash on first opening, and the feedback keeps your selection and camera unchanged. v1.3.0 release notes and validation limits.

You remember roughly where something lives: a project inside a client folder, an export beside its source, a reference tucked several levels down. UltraExplorer makes that structure visible. Every drive is a root; folders and files sit inside their parents. Opening a folder moves the camera into it.

The address bar, navigation pane, file operations and Windows Shell menus remain familiar. The canvas gives you another way to find and move your files.

Hover over files for content previews. Select a file and tap Space, or choose Quick Look, to open the compact full view: PDF pages, interactive F3D models, mpv playback and a text/code editor with search, syntax highlighting and explicit saving. Hold Space and move the pointer to pan immediately. Text notes save when you close the preview; Open and Open with launch the full application. Preview formats and controls.

Same folder, two views

Navigation	Windows Explorer	UltraExplorer
Move through a hierarchy	Enter directories as the current folder view changes.	Fly into nested folders on one map.
Keep your bearings	Breadcrumbs, Back/Forward and the navigation pane.	The same path navigation, plus the surrounding folder structure.
Return to a project	Pinned locations in the navigation pane.	Favorites, color Tags and visual marks on the canvas.

GIF version

Left: native Windows Explorer's Details view, already in the destination folder. Right: UltraExplorer flying from the overview to that same folder, then to Library and back. The destination is 12 directory levels below the generated workspace. Both apps can open a pasted path. This compares the views, with no artificial disk delay or timing race.

See it in action

These 30 fps animated PNG demos were captured from the running app with Windows Graphics Capture, using the CPU fallback and a preloaded, generated workspace. Playback follows elapsed frame timestamps. GIF alternatives are linked under each clip.

Go deep without losing the bigger picture

Double-click a folder to fly into it. Zoom back out to see its siblings and parents, or paste a path to jump straight there. Directory contents load as they become visible. Cold directories and network paths depend on filesystem response time.

GIF version

Search, then land on the result

Press Ctrl+F to search across drives. Results in and below your current folder come first. Select a result to reveal its place on the map; Ctrl+Enter opens it in its default application.

Everything is recommended for indexed global search. UltraExplorer talks to the running application directly, with no SDK DLL to install. Without Everything it walks directories in the background, and results arrive as that walk progresses. Index coverage and disk access determine what can be found.

GIF version

The search recording uses a background directory walk scoped to the demo workspace.

Remember folders by color

Give a folder a color and it appears in Tags, below Network in the navigation pane. Use the compact list when you know the color, or find the same mark on the canvas. Click a tag to go to its folder.

Right-click a tag for Change color or Unpin. Unpin removes its color and sidebar entry while keeping its note. Shift+F10 and the Menu key work too. Colors and notes belong to paths and are shared between app windows.

GIF version

Work in two places at once

Split the canvas side by side or top to bottom. Each pane keeps its own camera, selection, filter and history. Drag a file onto a folder in the other pane, or use Shift+F5 to copy and Shift+F6 to move the selection there.

GIF version

What you can do

Feature	How it helps
Nested canvas	See folders inside folders, with each drive as a root. Switch to a tree canvas in Settings → View.
Native GPU rendering	A C#/.NET 10 Windows app: WPF for the shell, Direct3D 11 for the nested canvas, with a CPU fallback.
Familiar file operations	Open, copy, cut, paste, rename, duplicate, delete, recycle, properties and drag-and-drop.
Windows context menus	Use installed Shell actions and extensions for files and folders. Mixed-parent selections use the app's menu.
Selection and sorting	Marquee, Ctrl/Shift selection, shared canvas/list selection, and per-folder Name, Date modified, Type or Size order.
Visual landmarks	Colors, notes and pins; canvas beacons help locate marks outside the current view.
Local name filter	Highlight names and wildcard matches in loaded branches without rearranging the map.
Layers	Hide files, icons, details or marks to focus on the structure you need.
Optional features	Independently enable archive folders, the drop shelf or hover copy-path buttons in Settings. All start off. See how to try them.

The map shows directory structure, not storage usage: sibling folder cells have equal sizes. It is useful for navigating a hierarchy, rather than judging which folder occupies the most bytes.

Download

The current stable-channel release is v1.3.0 for Windows x64. Get the assets from the latest release:

• Installer — UltraExplorer-Setup-x64.exe: installs into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\UltraExplorer, adds a Start menu entry and an uninstaller.
• Portable — UltraExplorer-win-x64.zip: extract it and run UltraExplorer.exe.

Both include the .NET runtime. Settings, favorites, colors and notes are stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\UltraExplorer.

Windows 11, x64. For earlier and newer builds, see all releases.

Release notes and validation limits.

What changed in v1.3.0

Select a file and tap Space to look inside it: images, PDFs, text you can edit and save, audio, video and 3D models. Newly added files and folders pulse yellow once they come into view. Ctrl+N creates a folder and Ctrl+D duplicates the selection. Other programs' Save dialogs keep their own options. Updates download quietly and install only when you click Install update. A full code review fixed the issues it found before the release. Release notes · Review.

What changed in v1.2.1

Lost a selected file after zooming out? Press F to smoothly fly back to its large centered card. Sorting, live updates and resizing keep that flight aimed at the same file; your selection and history stay intact.

The review also tightened script drops, transfer outcomes, closing-window navigation, refreshed-node consumers and package-safe updates. Review and exact qualification.

What changed in v1.2.0

This release integrates all 18 saved review work packages and additional cross-file corrections. The focus is predictable navigation and file actions:

• Safer drag-and-drop handoffs and selection when a folder disappears outside the app.
• Earlier folder-window restoration, guarded Explorer handoffs and steadier arrow-key navigation.
• Shared Tags and notes, camera continuity through renames, and filters that follow visibility changes.
• Independent split-pane transfers, stale-row interaction guards and prompts that disable only their owner.
• Background file-command preparation, streamed search-row reuse and cached visual landmarks.

The release-channel label does not mean every review finding or regression check is closed. The notes record the tested scope and remaining failures.

A few keys to get started

Action	Shortcut
Zoom toward the pointer	Ctrl+wheel
Pan	Middle/right drag, Space+drag, wheel / Shift+wheel
Enter a folder / open a file	Double-click
Fit the whole map / selected item	Shift+1 / Shift+2
Smoothly zoom tightly to the focused selected file or folder	F
Create a folder in the selected folder	Ctrl+N or Ctrl+Shift+N
Duplicate the selected file beside it	Ctrl+D or Ctrl+Shift+D
Type or paste a path	Ctrl+L or Alt+D
Search across drives	Ctrl+F
Reveal / open a search result	Enter / Ctrl+Enter
Filter loaded names	Ctrl+Shift+F
Split side by side / stacked	Ctrl+\ / Ctrl+Shift+\
Switch panes	F6
Copy / move to the other pane	Shift+F5 / Shift+F6
Settings	Ctrl+,

Standard Explorer keys such as Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V, F2, Delete, Alt+Left and Alt+Up work too.

Optional Windows integration

Start with UltraExplorer as a standalone file manager. In Settings you can enable folder-opening integration, supported Open/Save/folder dialogs, and the separate Win+E preference. Fresh installations leave these off.

Unsupported virtual locations, inaccessible dialogs and custom controls can remain with Windows. The dialog footer offers Use the Windows dialog this time; Settings provides Restore and pause.

See Explorer integration, dialog integration and the picker API for coverage, recovery and application integration.

Current limits

• View select is reserved and disabled; View all is implemented.
• The name filter covers loaded branches. Use global search for an unvisited path.
• Large directories can use capped canvas listings. The canvas is not a complete disk index.
• Open/Save integration does not support every application or Shell namespace.
• Windows Shell can reject a recursive folder duplicate whose destination tree is too long. The app reports a clear error; shorten names or move the tree closer to a drive root.
• The tree canvas rebuilds node objects on refresh. A concurrent reveal's returned reference can become stale after an ancestor refresh; its exact return-time validity remains under investigation.
• GPU presentation still waits for completion on the shared UI thread. A nonblocking presentation pipeline remains a separate renderer task.

Build and contribute

On Windows x64 with the .NET 10 SDK:

git clone https://github.com/So2K/UltraExplorer.git
cd UltraExplorer
./scripts/setup-preview-tools.ps1
./scripts/setup-archive-tools.ps1
dotnet build UltraExplorer.sln -c Release
dotnet run --project src/UltraExplorer/UltraExplorer.csproj -c Release

BUILD.md covers publishing, the smoke harnesses, GPU checks and reproducible canvas benchmarks. The rendering review explains the renderer and its measured checks. Performance depends on the machine, directory contents and cache state; recorded demos are examples, not benchmarks.

Useful contributions include keyboard and accessibility polish, reproducible edge cases, documentation and translations. For a first contribution, choose one focused issue: name the exact interaction, describe the expected result, and include a small reproduction. Look for good first issues, or open an issue to discuss it.

Development priorities:

• Make navigation, selection and file operations predictable across keyboard, mouse, DPI settings and large directories.
• Broaden real-world coverage for removable drives, offline paths and Windows integration.
• Improve search feedback and discoverability of visual landmarks.
• Define View select before implementing its interaction model.

If the idea is useful to you, star the repository and share a workflow or a problem it should solve. Specific feedback helps shape the next release.

License

MIT. Third-party components and references are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.