Why are these "superior"?
I consider any multi-pane presentation (either left/right or over/under, but within a single window) to be superior for me to the alternative, which is to either (a) drag/drop from one window to a second window, both of which must be open and visible to some degree on possibly very limited screen real estate if only a single monitor is in use, or (b) navigate the source on the right side Explorer pane and then scroll the left side Explorer tree view to bring the target destination for the drag/drop into view, in order to facilitate a drag/drop action, while simultaneously avoiding clicking on the left side which would lose the currently selected pointer on the right (source) side... something that may be unavaoidable.
Obviously have a totally independent source and target pane visible at one time, with navigation in either completely unaffected by navigation in the other, is far more convenient.
Furthermore, instead of really just having two panes (source and target, or just two independent views of two unrelated things at the same time onscreen), it's really FOUR panes... Explorer tree on the left and contents on the right, in two separate sub-panes within each of the major split-screen two halves (which can be left/right or top/bottom, whichever you prefer).
Also, these products are really sophisticated file managers, with extensive icon/button functions that can be customized on a toolbar, features and capabilities that go beyond those of Explorer, and one-click (or keyboard equivalent) actions that are not necessarily tied to the mouse and RMB popup context functions.
Also, their presentations are concise and intuitive and very user-friendly (after many years of user-requested evolution and refinement), and navigation is much easier and more direct than with Explorer and its scrolling... not to mention Win7's annoying unwanted folder opening when you scroll, or not not opening if you've turned that off when you really did want it to open.
Look, I'm not trying to say Explorer isn't useful or doesn't work, or that I can't do something that I want to. I'm simply saying that these 3rd-party file manager products are worlds better than Windows Explorer, for file management functions... and that's why I've been using them since Win 3.1.
And in particular, Free Commander is my now current product of choice under WinXP and Win7, after having used Canyon Software's very similar Power File Gold for the past 12 years under Win98 and WinXP. It was abandoned by its author many years ago (and consequently isn't very compatible with Win7, and also had some unfixed bugs with WinXP) but I loved it and lived with it since I was used to it. But Free Commander is plain and simple a much better product, doing everything PFGold could do plus more... and more reliably, and under win7.
Plus, personally I couldn't live without Beyond Compare. Just as I couldn't run my personal finances any longer without Quicken (which I've been using for about 17 years now), I can't see life without it. Impossible. Even though all banks provide "online banking and bill paying", and brokerages provide online trading and reporting services, and credit card banks offer online account management, they just aren't the same as Quicken... which can DO IT ALL, IN ONE PLACE, WITH ONE SINGLE COMMON INTERFACE. Well, Beyond Compare does that same thing for me on the PC... I use it for countless tasks, that no other product can do as well or as easily or as intuitively or as powerfully. For example, Beyond Compare is the tool I use to keep my MP3 portable music player's storage loaded and current, based on my PC's music and album art collection.
That's just my opinion, of course.
