To note, VC4 supports directory copying whereas Norton Commander did not support this until version 5.0.

This is a screenshot of DOS Controller running in DOSBox: Although deleting a directory (and all its subdirectories) is supported, nothing will happen if you press F5 on a directory – you will have to copy the files it contains manually. At 48KB, it has most of the features of Volkov Commander 4.0 except for directory copying and file viewing (replaced by a very good editor).

If you want something even lighter, you should definitely try the DOS Controller (DC.COM or DC-SK). This is a screenshot of VC4 running in 50-line mode (EGA) under ntVDM圆4: Volkov Commander 5.0 adds long file name support but was an unfinished project as many features such as editor or help system were missing.

It has all the bells and whistle of NC, except for the viewers, and consumed only ~200KB, instead of more than 4MB. Volkov Commander 4.0 is a lightweight NC clone. Take note that the displayed disk space is limited to 2GB. This is a screenshot of NC 5.51 running under NTVDM圆4, showing long file names and 1GB emulated disk space. The DOS version of Norton Commander was abandoned shortly after. Unfortunately v5.51, despite being released in 1998, is not able to view Excel 5.0 format (which support multi-sheets). Preceding version 5.51 was version 5.0, released in 1995, with more support for viewing different file formats, particularly Excel 4.0.

This version appears to have been released in a hurry, as only the copyright date was updated to 1998 – descriptive text for the Wide entry was not added to online help. The last version for DOS is v5.51 which adds long file name support, accessible via an selection named Wide from the Left and Right menus. Most of us are familiar with the Norton Commander, one of the most popular orthodox file managers for DOS.

Norton commander windows 10