Imagine this: you have a video file on the desktop that you’d like to move to your video folder on D:\; you drag and drop it over an icon hovering on your desktop and *poof* , the file is moved.
You then would like to extract a zip archive from your download folder onto your desktop; so you open that folder, drag the zip file onto the same hovering icon and *poof* it appears, unzipped, on your desktop.
This is the kind of flexibility that DropIt (“a little hovering icon on your desktop”) can provide, and it can do this based on rules that the user defines him or herself. For example, you can tell DropIt “if the file contains the word “projectA” in it, then move it to “D:\ProjectA\”; if the file is a JPG, PNG, GIF, or BMP then move it to “My Pictures”, and so on.
But what’s more, DropIt allows for the creation of multiple “profiles”, that you can switch across via right clicking on the icon. For example, you can have a “from desktop” and a “to desktop” profiles, with a different set of programmed outcomes generated by the same trigger event.
What’s remarkable about this software is the sense of possibility; a few rules and a handful of possible actions can amount to a great many potential uses. There are 6 possible actions in fact, at least as of this writing: move, copy, compress, extract, open with, delete, and exclude.
PROS: what I like about this program
Prompts user on duplicate patterns: you can define the same pattern more than once with different actions for each (e.g. “.ZIP move to D:\Downloads, “.ZIP extract on the desktop“; the program will prompt the user for which action to use on a case by case basis (see screenshot to the right).- Handles both files and folders: the latter being denoted by two asterisks (e.g. projectA* =all files that start with “projectA”; projectA** = all folders that start with that string).
- Can be added to the send-to menu: if you would rather right click on your items than drop them on a hovering icon.
- Can create multiple profiles: for example you can have a profile for each project you are working on, etc. Each profile can have its own distinct icon. Multiple profiles show up as multiple entries in the send to context menu.
- Icon: can be customized, always on top, and locked into place. If necessary.
- Portable version: available.
CONS: or, more accurately, my WISH LIST
- The ability to specify AND in conditions list; i.e. that a file is both a PNG and has “project A” in its name BOTH. Currently all conditions are “or” conditions. This means that currently you cannot specify JPGs that have “ProjectA” in their name go to “D:\projectA\images\” and JPGs that have “ProjectB” go to “D:\projectA\images\”. A pity.
- The ability to sort or rank conditions.:i.e. give priority to this rule, and then if it doesn’t apply apply the next one, etc.
- The ability to specify “is not true” in conditions.: would be great if the first wish list item were implemented.
The verdict: this is the kind of awesome app that creates many possibilities and lets the user run with it. I give it my highest accolade and it should have been included in my recent post on notable Windows enhancements, but I only found it after the fact.
The program can be much improved (see wish list above) but as it is it is excellent. Check it out.
Version Tested: 2.5
Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7.
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 1.94 megs).
