Rant about the looks

[Zom-B]

I've been using Total Commander since 1998(ish) and still use it today, even on Linux. None of the alternatives (like Krusader) even come close to the rich feature set and the smooth workflow of TC.

However...

When at work, and I'm working together with a coworker behind his PC, and he's awkwardly trying to achieve certain tasks, like editing a file inside a zip or renaming files, I always bring up and praise Total Commander. But some of my coworkers (one of which always seem to be present) badtalks TC, saying that it looks like Windows 95 and will therefore not use it.

[Usher]

They aren't right. TC may look like DOS, Norton Commander or Novell Netware ;-P
They simple don't know how to change the look. And if they talk about Linux, they should blame their desktop environment or WINE rather than TC.

[petermad]

it looks like Windows 95

To me that is a quality

[Stiltzkin]

i think a decent set of icons help a lot to make a totalcmd installation look more modern.
but its not that trivial and requires some time/work.

default: https://i.imgur.com/zDIK1Dt.png (doesn't really fit into a "modern" win10 ecosystem)
custom: https://i.imgur.com/inTTQnK.png

i certainly would welcome a more comprehensive skin/theme support which would include colors/fonts and icons.


edit:
win xp silver
https://www.ghisler.com/screenshots/de/

[Zom-B]

They aren't right. TC may look like DOS, Norton Commander or Novell Netware ;-P
They simple don't know how to change the look. And if they talk about Linux, they should blame their desktop environment or WINE rather than TC.

They haven't even tried it. They just go by screenshots they've seen a couple of years ago.

And when one person in the vicinity doesn't like it, then no one likes it (they all follow him). I guess it's part of the blunt Dutch mentality.

[j7n]

The developer already updated the icons recently. They have no border strokes and often blend with the background color. The readability of them trumps fashionable design. Most of your icons are better. But money was paid for the previous update, and it was a waste.

[petermad]

Meanwhile I try to make my TC look as much the same under Windows 10, Windows 7 and Windows XP

I like whe a button looks like a button not like a text field - etc.

[Usher]

2petermad
You should use wcmicon2.dll for Win7+ Windows 8+.

[petermad]

2Usher

You should use wcmicon2.dll for Win7+

I find them too flat.

[Horst.Epp]

The developer already updated the icons recently. They have no border strokes and often blend with the background color. The readability of them trumps fashionable design. Most of your icons are better. But money was paid for the previous update, and it was a waste.

For what update did you pay ?

[Usher]

2Usher

You should use wcmicon2.dll for Win7+

I find them too flat.

Read Windows 8+ instead - they use flat UI with similar color palette.

[petermad]

Except for Window titles being in the middle I find the look of Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 very similar

[j7n]

For what update did you pay ?

I personally did not, as I'm an old user of TC6-8. But I believe the price paid to the professional graphic designer trickles down to everyone, similarly to planed obsolescence in other products, which also include psychological manipulation through design changes.

[petermad]

I personally like StickyNomad's icons (wcmicons.dll) better than the new ones (wcmicon2.dll), and I think StickyNomad's icons were free.

[wanderer]

The icons look old-style. They should be "upgraded" to modern Windows 10 style (two colors, black-and-white).

(This is a joke, Christian, don't you dare!)