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Customize

All customization lives in Preferences. Settings are grouped by category in the left sidebar of the Preferences window.

tip

Changes apply immediately unless noted. If something looks off, use Help → Troubleshooting → Reset all settings (see the end of this page).

General​

Overview​

Choose the overall layout and a few global behaviors.

  • Layout
    • Dual Panel — two file panes side by side.
    • Dual Panel + Sidebars — panes plus sidebars for drives/shortcuts.
  • User Interface Appearance
    • Automatic (follows macOS), Dark, Light.
  • Quick Settings
    • Show hidden/system files — reveal dotfiles and macOS-protected items (access depends on permissions).
    • Group folders while sorting — folders first.
    • Double-click to close tabs — faster tab cleanup.
    • Lynx-like navigation — Enter opens folders, Backspace goes up.
    • Show progress indicator on Dock icon — display transfer progress in the Dock.
    • Permanently delete files and folders (don’t move to Trash) — skip Trash; use with care.
    • Interface language — pick your UI language (requires relaunch if noted).

Permissions​

Manage which folders/volumes DCommander can access (see First-run Setup for background).

  • Add… / Remove / Replace… — grant or adjust scopes (e.g., Home on macOS 26+, /Volumes, external drives).
  • Use this if you can’t browse a path or get “operation not permitted.”
  • Full Disk Access (optional) can reduce prompts for protected areas.

Display​

Layout​

Show/hide UI elements and tune list columns.

  • Drive buttons — quick access buttons for mounted volumes.
  • Drive dropdown — choose drives from a menu.
  • Folder tabs — tabbed browsing per pane.
  • Current directory path — show the full path bar.
  • Show button for directory hotlist — quick jump to favorites.
  • Show column headers — toggle headers above file lists.
  • Show status bar — show item counts, sizes, selection info.
  • Show command line — inline command bar at the bottom.
  • Show function key buttons — on-screen F-key actions (F3/F4/F5/F6/…).
  • File panel options
    • Show vertical grid / horizontal grid — separators between rows/columns.
    • Show focus ring around the active file panel — clearer active pane.
    • Size unit — bytes / kilobytes / megabytes / gigabytes / dynamic (auto scales).
    • Date column — Created date or Last modified date.

Colors​

Choose appearance and fine-tune light/dark palettes.

  • Interface appearance — Automatic / Dark / Light (same choice as in General).
  • Theme colors (per mode)
    • Font, Background, Alt background, Selection, Cursor, Inverted cursor font color.
  • Options
    • Alternate background colors — zebra striping.
    • Group folders while sorting — duplicate of General for convenience.
    • Invert cursor — high-contrast selection caret.
    • Bold text for folders — make directories stand out.
    • Display label colors — show macOS file color labels.
    • Display item icons — toggle icons for speed/clarity.

Fonts​

Control typography for lists and the viewer.

  • File panels — font family & size.
  • Viewer — font family & size (monospace recommended for code/logs).

Operation​

Refine how you move and open things.

  • Lynx-like navigation — Enter opens, Backspace goes up (also in General).
  • Show parent item (..) in root of drive — quick jump upward.
  • Show square brackets around folders — visual differentiation.
  • Show hidden/system files — same as General quick toggle.
  • Show contents of .app bundles when opening — treat apps as folders.
  • Show contents of container files when opening — drill into containers.
  • Show contents of archive files when opening — browse archives like folders (read-only).
  • Double-click to close tabs — same as General quick toggle.
  • Automatically calculate container file size — precompute sizes (slower on large sets).
  • Alternate Spacebar action — Space triggers Quick Look instead of selection toggle.

Copy / Delete​

Tune transfer method and safety prompts.

  • Copy method
    • Standard copy — optimized, default.
    • Byte-by-byte copy — strict sequential copy; set Buffer size (use for delicate devices or diagnostics).
  • Prompts
    • Prompt before copy/move — confirm operations.
    • Prompt before clipboard operations — confirm paste/duplicate from clipboard.
  • Feedback
    • Show progress indicator on Dock icon — file transfer progress over app icon.
  • Deletion behavior
    • Permanently delete files and folders — skip Trash; dangerous on mistakes.

Control type-to-select behavior inside file lists.

  • Access mode
    • Letters only — start typing to jump.
    • Letters with search bar — shows an inline bar while typing.
    • Disabled — turns quick search off.
  • Name must start with first typed character — prefix match vs contains.
  • Last character before extension must match — helpful for dotted names.

External apps​

Pick your preferred tools for common actions (per-user overrides).

  • Viewer (F3) — e.g., Preview, a code viewer.
  • Editor (F4) — e.g., BBEdit, VS Code.
  • Search tool — external content searcher if you use one.
  • Sync tool — external sync/compare app.
  • Terminal — preferred terminal app for launching shells.
note

External apps launch with the selected file/folder context when applicable.

Help​

Troubleshooting​

A safety valve when experimentation went too far.

  • Reset all settings — restores defaults for all categories.
    Use this if the UI looks corrupted or behaviors are unpredictable after heavy customization.

Recommendations​

  • Start with layout & visibility: enable Folder tabs, Status bar, and Focus ring for clarity.
  • Keep prompts on until you’re fully comfortable with the transfer manager and copy/delete flows.
  • Use dynamic size units for mixed media; switch to fixed units for audits.
  • Accessibility: increase Fonts and enable Invert cursor if the selection is hard to see.
  • Speed vs polish: disabling Item icons and grid lines can speed up huge folders on slow remotes.