Preferences Reference Guide

The Preferences dialog in FileVoyager allows you to configure the application’s behavior, appearance, and features.
This page describes every available option, organized by category.

General

Option	Description
Display Central Toolbar	Enables or disables the vertical toolbar placed between the two file panels. This toolbar provides quick access to common actions.
Use Classic UI instead of Ribbon UI	Switches the interface from the modern Ribbon UI to the traditional menu-and-toolbar style.
Display big icons in AppBar	Allows to display the application icons pinned in the AppBar in 32×32 pixels, instead of 16×16
Put icon in System Tray when minimized	When checked, minimizing FileVoyager places its icon in the Windows system tray. The application stays active but hidden from the taskbar.
Put icon in System Tray when closed	When checked, closing FileVoyager hides it to the system tray instead of fully exiting. This is useful if you want FileVoyager to remain available in the background.
Allow only one instance of FileVoyager	When enabled, only a single instance of FileVoyager can run at a time. If you try to launch a second instance, the first one will be brought to the front instead.
Language	Selects the UI language for FileVoyager.
Theme	Defines the general visual theme of the application.
Check for update frequency	Controls how often FileVoyager checks for updates: Never: FileVoyager will never check for updates At startup: FileVoyager will check for updates at every startup Weekly: FileVoyager will check for updates only if the last check was made at least 1 week before Monthly: FileVoyager will check for updates only if the last check was made at least 1 month before
Use custom font (not recommended, requires restart)	Allows the user to define a custom font for the entire application. ⚠️ Not recommended, because not all fonts support Unicode, and the change will make FileVoyager restart automatically.
Display RSS news from Author	Displays the RSS feed from the FileVoyager blog (https://www.filevoyager.com/blog) inside the main window, in the upper-right corner. This provides quick access to updates and announcements from the author.

File Exploration

Option	Description
Left Pane / Right Pane – Display Mode	Defines the default view mode for each file pane. Possible modes are: Details Large Report Icons List Thumbnail Thumb Flow See Navigation Pane documentation for more
Display pane toolbar	Shows or hides the toolbar above each file pane.
Use system for file operations	By default, FileVoyager uses its own internal engine for copy/move/delete operations. When enabled, file operations are delegated to Windows Explorer’s engine, providing the same behavior as the native Explorer.
Use single click to open items	Enables “single-click to open” behavior, similar to Windows Explorer’s single-click mode.
Underline folders	When enabled, folder names are underlined, making them look like hyperlinks.
Display grid lines in pane lists	Adds horizontal and vertical grid lines in the file lists.
Use 64-bit context menu	Note: This setting exists only in 32 bit version of FileVoyager When enabled on a 64-bit system, FileVoyager will invoke the native 64-bit Windows Explorer context menu. Otherwise, the 32-bit menu is used.
Folder tabs at bottom	Each file panel can contain multiple tabs (each tab representing a path). This option places the tab bar below the file list instead of above it.
Item check boxes	Displays checkboxes next to each file or folder when hovering with the mouse. This allows easier selection of multiple items.
Rectangle marquee	Enables the familiar marquee selection: dragging a rectangle across the pane selects all items inside that rectangle.
Show infotip automatically	When enabled, hovering the mouse pointer over a file or folder automatically displays a tooltip (infotip) with additional information.

Colors

These settings affect how file lists and other UI elements are colored.

Option	Description
Immersive	Applies theme-based colors from the currently selected FileVoyager theme. Note: If Immersive option is selected, all the following settings in this table are ignored
User	Uses custom colors defined by the user.
System	Uses standard Windows system colors (clWindow, clWindowText, clHighLight, etc.) for list views and controls.
List background	Color of the list background.
Normal item	Color for unselected items.
Selected item	Text color for selected items.
Selected item background	Background color for selected items.
Focused item	Text color for the currently focused item.
Focused item background	Background color for the currently focused item.
Compressed item (NTFS)	Text color for compressed NTFS items.
Odd lines	Enables alternating row colors for improved readability (striped lists).
Selected items in bold text	Displays selected items in bold font.

Files and Folders Color

Option	Description
Show hidden and system items	Makes hidden and system files visible in the file list.
Sort with logical order	Enables “natural sorting”. For example: 1, 2, 10 instead of 1, 10, 2.
Sort folders	By default, folders are grouped and sorted alphabetically, while files follow the chosen sorting order. When enabled, folders are sorted using the same sorting method as files (but still grouped separately from files).
Display alternative names (MSDOS 8.3 names)	Shows the short “8.3” filenames alongside the standard long filenames. Note: On recent Windows versions, short names are not necessarily activated for all volumes. See this topic on Stack Overflow’s superuser.com for more info
Size format	Defines how file sizes are displayed: Bytes / KB / MB / GB (fixed unit) Dynamic (unit depends on the size: e.g. 4,096 bytes → 4 KB; 2,048,000 bytes → 2 MB)
Colorize items following given masks	Allows you to define custom coloring rules based on filename masks. Example: *.txt in blue, *.exe in red. The Add button lets you create new rules.

File Edition

Defines the editor to be launched when pressing F4 on a file, and which editor must be started according to a given file mask.

Option	Description
Default file editor	Defines the default editor to be launched when pressing F4 on a file if no alternative “editor/file mask” are defined, or if no file mask matches the current file. By default, it’s automatically set to Windows’ Notepad.exe.
File Masks / Editor Program / Add	Allows assigning different editors for specific file types (based on masks). For example: *.txt → Notepad++ *.bmp → Paint The Add button lets you create new associations.

Thumbnails

When displaying file thumbnails, FileVoyager can either generate its own thumbnails, or query those managed by Windows, or use both mechanisms.
The setting below helps choose the appropriate approach.

Option	Description
System thumbnails	Defines if, and when FileVoyager will query system thumbnail from Windows
Always try to get system thumbnails first	Note: This is the recommended option With this option, FileVoyager will first try to retrieve the thumbnail from Windows’ mechanism. If the retrieve fails, FileVoyager reads the file and tries to generate a thumbnail.
Use system thumbnails if internal fails	With this option, FileVoyager tries to generate the thumbnail, and only if it fails, will query Windows for a system generated thumbnail.
Never use system thumbnails	With this option, the thumbnail retrieval relies only on FileVoyager’s internal engines.
Show thumbnail in infotips	Displays a small thumbnail preview (if available) in the tooltip (infotip) when hovering over a file.
Size of the thumbnails	Defines the size of generated thumbnails. Possible values in the range of 50 to 300 pixels.

Diff

This section allows to define colors and an alternative tool for the File Comparison and the Folder Comparison & Sync tools.

Option	Description
Diff colors	Customizes the coloring of comparison results: Color for missing elements Color for modified elements
Use an external diff tool	Instead of using FileVoyager’s built-in diff tools, you can select and launch an external tool. The path to the tool is defined in the edit box below.

Viewer

Option	Description
Maps	In the Info pane of the Viewer, FileVoyager can display maps based on GPS metadata embedded in images and videos. The Open maps settings… button allows configuration of map providers.
SumatraPDF	FileVoyager integrates SumatraPDF internally to display PDF, EPUB, CBR, and other formats. This option configures SumatraPDF behavior.
Default display mode	Defines the default mode used by the embedded SumatraPDF viewer: Automatic Single Page Facing Book View Continuous Continuous Facing Continuous Book View
Force View Modes	Allows you to force specific file types to always open in a given viewer mode (Text, Hex, Image, etc.).
“Open with” display mode	Controls how the Open With menu is shown in the viewer: Compact → A single dropdown button listing the handlers. Full → A full toolbar with icons for each handler. Auto → Compact when the viewer is embedded in the main window, Full when standalone.