Norton Commander (NC) is a discontinued prototypical

orthodox file manager A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to manage files and folders. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files include creating, opening (e.g. viewing, playing, editing or p ...

(OFM), written by

John Socha John Socha-Leialoha (born 1958) is a software developer best known for creating Norton Commander, the first orthodox file manager. The original Norton Commander was written for DOS. Over the years, Socha's design for file management has been ...

and released by

Peter Norton Computing Peter Norton Computing, Inc., was a software company founded by Peter Norton. The first and best known software package it produced was Norton Utilities. Another successful software package was Norton Commander, especially the DOS version. The com ...

(later acquired in 1990 by the

Symantec Symantec may refer to: * Gen Digital, an American consumer software company formerly known as Symantec * Symantec Security, a brand of enterprise security software purchased by Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational corporation, ...

corporation). NC provides a

text-based user interface In computing, text-based user interfaces (TUI) (alternately terminal user interfaces, to reflect a dependence upon the properties of computer terminals and not just text), is a retronym describing a type of user interface (UI) common as an ear ...

for managing files on top of

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

. It was officially produced between 1986 and 1998. The last MS-DOS version of Norton Commander, 5.51, was released on July 1, 1998. A related product, ''Norton Desktop'', a graphical

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

for MS-DOS and Windows, succeeded Norton Commander. It came in two variants, ''Norton Desktop for DOS'' and ''Norton Desktop for Windows''.

Background

John Socha started work on Norton Commander in 1984; at the time, he called it "Visual DOS" or "VDOS". Norton Commander was easy to use because it had a constant view of two file manipulation objects at once. After starting the program the user sees two panels with file lists. Each panel can be easily configured to show information about the other panel, a

directory tree In computing, a directory is a file system cataloging structure that contains references to other computer files, and possibly other directories. On many computers, directories are known as folders or drawers, analogous to a workbench or the tra ...

, or a number of other options. At the bottom of the screen, Norton Commander displays a list of commands that are extended on demand by the CTRL and

ALT Alt or ALT may refer to: Abbreviations for words * Alt account, an alternative online identity also known as a sock puppet account * Alternate character, in online gaming * Alternate route, type of highway designation * Alternating group, mathem ...

keys. Thus, without heavy use of the mouse (although mouse functionality was integrated around version 3.0), the user is able to perform many file manipulation actions quickly and efficiently. Additionally, it also includes a built-in text file viewer (invoked with F3 key) and text file editor (invoked with F4 key). Norton Commander was very popular during the DOS era and it has been extensively cloned. For example, the IntelliJ IDE used to include a "Commander" plugin that performed file manipulation using the same shortcut keys as Norton Commander but the plugin is now obsolete.

Long filenames

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

included a new graphical shell called

Windows Explorer File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application and default desktop environment that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user i ...

and supported

long filename Long filename (LFN) support is Microsoft's backward-compatible extension of the 8.3 filename (short filename) naming scheme used in MS-DOS. Long filenames can be more descriptive, including longer filename extensions such as .jpeg, .tiff, an ...

s (LFN). Symantec released Norton Commander 5.51 to support long filenames using the standard Windows APIs. In order to preserve LFNs while working in

real mode Real mode, also called real address mode, is an operating mode of all x86-compatible CPUs. The mode gets its name from the fact that addresses in real mode always correspond to real locations in memory. Real mode is characterized by a 20- bit s ...

, Norton Commander 5.51 required the use of a

terminate-and-stay-resident A terminate-and-stay-resident program (commonly TSR) is a computer program running under DOS that uses a system call to return control to DOS as though it has finished, but remains in computer memory so it can be reactivated later. This technique ...

(TSR) utility. Norton Commander did not have native support for LFNs in real mode and would truncate them.

End of life

According to former Peter Norton Group developer Mark Lawler, after Symantec had acquired Peter Norton Computing, Symantec had speculated Microsoft Windows would be a success, so the key PNC resources had been diverted, while new programmers for the Windows platform were hired.

Enrique Salem Enrique Salem (born 1965) was the president and CEO of software company Symantec from 2009 until 2012, and was a member of the U.S. President's Management Advisory Board. Prior to being CEO of Symantec he was the COO of Symantec. Biography Sa ...

(who eventually became Symantec's CEO) led the development of a Windows shell replacement for

Windows File Manager File Manager is a file manager program originally bundled with releases of OS/2 and Microsoft Windows between 1988 and 2000. It is a single-instance graphical interface, replacing the command-line interface of MS-DOS to manage files (copy, move, ...

and

Program Manager Program Manager is the shell of Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.x operating systems. This shell exposed a task-oriented graphical user interface (GUI), consisting of ''icons'' ( shortcuts for programs) arranged into ''program groups''. It replaced ...

released as Norton Desktop for Windows.

Norton Commander for Windows

Norton Commander for Windows was a Windows 95 variant of the classical DOS file manager.

1.0

Version 1.0 was first released in 1996. It supported both Windows 95 and

Windows NT Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...

. This version fully integrated with Windows features such as the

Recycle Bin A recycling bin (or recycle bin) is a container used to hold recyclables before they are taken to recycling centers. Recycling bins exist in various sizes for use inside and outside of homes, offices, and large public facilities. Separate conta ...

and Quick View. Quick View feature was supported via the included basic Quick View Plus. Version 1.02 added

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the second operating system in the 9x line, as the successor to Windows 95. It was Software ...

support.

2.0

Version 2.0 was released in 2000. It supports

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...

and functions under

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

, and

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

. Installer included Network Utilities, Norton Commander Scheduler, and the Norton Commander. Network Utilities allows for viewing devices and systems on network, connecting to remote systems, mapping

network drive Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

s, network monitoring, and more. Norton Commander is little changed from previous versions, and includes

file compression In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compressio ...

/de-compression of various formats, network utilities access, disk cleanup, files and folder compare,

FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and dat ...

connection management, and more. The last Windows version of Norton Commander was 2.01.

Norton Commander for OS/2

Version 1.0 was released in December 1992. It supports

OS/2 OS/2 is a Proprietary software, proprietary computer operating system for x86 and PowerPC based personal computers. It was created and initially developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft, under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci, ...

2.0 with HPFS or

FAT In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specif ...

file system. It does not include the

command prompt A command-line interface (CLI) is a means of interacting with software via commands each formatted as a line of text. Command-line interfaces emerged in the mid-1960s, on computer terminals, as an interactive and more user-friendly alternativ ...

found in other versions of Norton Commander. In June 1993, Symantec lowered the price of Norton Commander for OS/2 to $49, and soon ceased sales.

Reception

InfoWorld ''InfoWorld'' (''IW'') is an American information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a Web-only publication. Its parent company is International Data Group, and its sister pu ...

'' in January 1988 noted that Norton Commander version 1.0 had not changed since its introduction but was still "way ahead of the pack". The magazine cited its speed, small memory use, ability to compare two directories at once, and intuitive user interface without a

. ''

BYTE The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...

'' in January 1989 listed Norton Commander 2.0 for DOS as among the "Distinction" winners of the BYTE Awards, stating that "navigating through a crowded hard disk is a breeze".

Norton Commander-inspired software

There are many programs that follow the style of Norton Commander as created by John Socha. Examples are: * ACE Archiver for DOS in the first versions had a NC-inspired interactive interface * Altap Salamander for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

*BeFAR for

BeOS BeOS is a discontinued operating system for personal computers that was developed by Be Inc. It was conceived for the company's BeBox personal computer which was released in 1995. BeOS was designed for multitasking, multithreading, and a graph ...

* Commander One for

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

Demos Commander Demos Commander (deco) is an orthodox file manager for Unix-like systems and a clone of Norton Commander. The project started by Sergey Vakulenko in 1989 while working at the DEMOS ISP (thus the name Demos Commander: ''deco'') and is considered ...

for

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

and

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

Directory Opus Directory Opus (or "DOpus" as its users tend to call it) is a file manager program, originally written for the Amiga computer system in the early to mid-1990s. Commercial development on the version for the Amiga ceased in 1997. Directory Opus is ...

for

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

(1990) and Windows (2001) *DOS Command Center (DCC) DOS and Win95 versions *

DOS Navigator DOS Navigator (DN) is an orthodox file manager for DOS, OS/2, and Windows. Influence DOS Navigator is an influential early implementation of orthodox file manager (OFM). By implementing three additional types of virtual file systems (VFS): XTr ...

for

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

Double Commander Double Commander is a dual-pane file manager. It is a piece of free and open-source software licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It is designed to be operated by a keyboard, a mouse, or by both at the same time. It has ...

for Windows and Linux *

FAR Manager Far Manager (short for ''File and ARchive Manager'') is an orthodox file manager for Microsoft Windows and is a clone of Norton Commander. Far Manager uses the Win32 console and has a keyboard-oriented user interface (although limited mouse o ...

for

, OSX and

*fman for Windows, Mac and Linux *Ghost Commander for

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

systems *

GNOME Commander GNOME Commander is a 'two panel' graphical file manager for GNOME. It is built using the GTK+ toolkit and GVfs. Features * GNOME MIME types * Network support through FTP, SFTP, SAMBA and WebDAV * Context menu with bound the right click of ...

for

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X, *nix or *NIX) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Uni ...

systems *HiFile for Windows, Mac and Linux *

Krusader Krusader is an advanced orthodox file manager for KDE and other desktops in the Unix world. It is similar to the console-based GNU Midnight Commander, GNOME Commander for the GNOME desktop environment, or Total Commander for Windows, all of ...

for Unix-like systems *

Midnight Commander GNU Midnight Commander (also known as mc, the command used to start it, and as mouseless commander in older versions) is a free cross-platform orthodox file manager. It was started by Miguel de Icaza in 1994 as a clone of the then-popular Nort ...

for Unix-like systems (including

) and Windows *

muCommander muCommander is an open-source, cross-platform file manager that runs on operating systems supporting Java 11 or later. It has a Norton Commander style, and a dual-pane interface to allow manipulation of files via keyboard shortcuts. Pre-compiled ...

for

Java platform Java is a set of computer software and specifications that provides a software platform for developing application software and deploying it in a cross-platform computing environment. Java is used in a wide variety of computing platforms fr ...

* Music on Console for Unix-like systems; actually a music player *PowerDesk by

Avanquest BVRP Software SA is a Paris-based software company that has purchased American software companies. A 2007 acquisition placed it, according to one report, as then being the sixth largest publisher of consumer software in the United States. Histor ...

, of which an evaluation version of Version 4 is included in Microsoft's

Windows NT 4.0 Windows NT 4.0 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the data server and personal workstation markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 3.51, and was released to manufacturing on July 3 ...

Resource Kit Resource Kit is a term used by Microsoft for a set of software resources and documentation released for their software products, but which is not part of that product. Resource kits offer supplementary resources such as technical guidance, compatibi ...

s *Stereo Shell for DOS *The DOS Controller by Søren Kragh *

Total Commander __NOTOC__ Total Commander is an orthodox file manager, i.e. it features two file list panels (selectable via tab key) and a Command-line interface, command line. It supports Tab (interface), multiple tabs for each panel. Total Commander is deve ...

for Windows * Volkov Commander for DOS *WinNC for

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

* RAR

archive manager File Roller (formerly GNOME Archive Manager) is a file archiver for the GNOME desktop environment. File Roller can: * Create and modify archives * View the content of an archive * View a file contained in the archive * Extract files from the ar ...

used to have Norton Commander-like interface, the last version with that interactive file manager interface look-alike was DOS version 2.50 *Xfolders for

OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

References in popular culture

* ''Norton Commander'' is a song released by the Montreal

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *Independent media, media free of influence by government or corporate interests *Indie art, fine arts made by artists independent of commer ...

group,

Men I Trust Men I Trust is a Canadian indie band formed in Quebec City, Quebec, in 2014. The band consists of Emmanuelle Proulx (lead vocals, guitar), Jessy Caron (guitar, bass), and Dragos Chiriac (keyboards). The group has self-released all of their music ...

. While the song contains no literal references to the Norton Commander file manager, it is speculated that the song's subject matter of comfort and familiarity relate to the familiarity and reliability of the software. * A mobile game called ''Progressbar95'' features an unlockable gamemode called "Progress Commander" based on the software.

References

* Nikolai Bezroukov (2005)
The History of Development of Norton Commander (NC line of OFMs)

External links

The History of Development of Norton Commander
(Softpanorama)
21st Century Nostalgia
A Tribute to Norton Commander 5.0

A graphical review in the GUI Gallery {{Authority control Orthodox file managers DOS software OS/2 software Utilities for Windows

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

Gen Digital software Proprietary software Discontinued software 1986 software