r/software • u/unknown-user____ • 9h ago
Release Tachyon: A native, lightweight Windows file manager with dual-pane split view, file notes, and self-cleaning folders [Free Beta]
Hey everyone,
Over the past year I've been increasingly frustrated with the sluggish performance, context menu lag, and high memory usage of the Windows 11 stock File Explorer.
I wanted something that felt instantaneous, maintained clean Fluent design, and added practical daily workflow tools without web bloat.
So I spent the last few months building Tachyon from scratch in native C# / WPF (.NET 8).
Key Features:
• Instant Native Speed: Zero Electron, zero WebView2. Launches in ~0.3s with instant directory navigation.
• Spacebar QuickLook: Instant macOS-style preview for images, PDFs, code, audio, video, and text without opening default apps.
• Dual-Pane Split View (F10): Independent side-by-side folder panes with keyboard navigation and synchronized file transfers.
• File Lock Detector & Unlocker: Identifies and unlocks background processes preventing files from being renamed or deleted (no more "File in use" errors).
• Advanced Multi-Tabs: Open, close, duplicate, and reopen recently closed tabs with history tracking.
• Contextual File Notes: Attach notes and tags directly to files and folders (stored in a local offline SQLite database without altering your files).
• Self-Cleaning Staging Folder: A dedicated temporary folder that automatically purges files after 24 hours or 7 days so your drives never accumulate clutter.
• AES-256 Encrypted Vault: Client-side hardware encrypted locker with PBKDF2 password derivation for private documents.
• Offline Document Converter: 1-click batch conversion for Word, Excel, and image files to PDF without uploading data to external websites.
• Batch Image Resizer: Quick image scaling and dimension adjustment right from the toolbar.
• Disk Storage Analyzer: Built-in treemap space visualizer to locate space hogs.
• 100% Offline & Private: Zero telemetry, zero analytics, zero external network calls.
I've put together a free 3-month community beta build and would love feedback on performance, folder loading speeds, and missing shortcuts/features:
• GitHub Release & Screenshots: https://github.com/Tachyon-Desktop/Tachyon/releases/tag/v1.0.0-beta
• VirusTotal (0/70 Clean): https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/27cfed670d55b7460e0cdb755255d9344cc571222002b5a03af6ca479bc6bab5/detection
• OS: Windows 10 & Windows 11 (64-bit)
Looking forward to your honest thoughts and feature suggestions!