Do I need an account to use cwdio?

No. There is no sign-up, no login and no licence key needed. Download it, run it, and it opens on your home folder. Leaving an email on the home page is optional and only exists so a founding licence key can be sent to you.

Which download should I pick?

The installer if you want cwdio to keep itself updated — it installs for your user only, with no administrator prompt. The portable zip if you want nothing installed at all: unzip, run cwdio.exe, delete the folder when done. Both are the same app.

Why does Windows say it protected my PC?

cwdio is code-signed, so clicking More info shows the verified publisher, Ihor Melnyk. SmartScreen still weighs how many people have run a given file, and a new release starts that count at zero, so the prompt can appear for a while. It is not a virus alert. Click More info, then Run anyway. Every release publishes SHA-256 checksums if you would rather verify the download first.

How do I find a command whose shortcut I do not know?

Press Ctrl+Shift+P (or F1) to open the command palette. Type a few letters of what you want — it fuzzy-matches every command, shows the shortcut beside it, and lists the ones you used recently first.

Getting started with cwdio

cwdio installs in about a minute, opens as two folder panels on your home folder, and needs no setup. This page gets you from the download to the ten keys that make it feel different from Explorer.

1. Install it

Pick one of the two builds on the download page:

Build	What it does	Choose it when
Installer (`CwdioFileManagerSetup.exe`)	Installs for your Windows user only — no administrator prompt — and updates itself in the background. Uninstalls from Windows Settings.	You want the normal, self-updating app.
Portable zip (`cwdio-win32-x64-portable.zip`)	Installs nothing. Unzip anywhere, run `cwdio.exe`, delete the folder to remove it. Never changes itself; shows a quiet notice when a newer version exists.	You want nothing written to the system, or you are trying it out.

Both require 64-bit Windows 10 or 11. Every release also publishes SHA256SUMS.txt so you can verify the file before running it.

2. Windows will warn you once

On first run Windows may show “Windows protected your PC”. cwdio is code-signed, so clicking More info names the verified publisher — Ihor Melnyk — rather than an unknown one. SmartScreen also weighs how many people have run a particular file, and each new release starts that count at zero, so the prompt can still appear. It is not a malware detection. Click More info, then Run anyway; you will not see it again for that file.

3. First launch

cwdio opens on your home folder with two panels side by side, a menu bar above and a command line below. There is no dashboard, no wizard, no panel you have to dismiss, and no telemetry call. Everything described elsewhere on this site — the terminal, remote servers, the size map, the AI assistant — is already installed and switched off until you reach for it.

You can use cwdio as a plain two-panel file manager forever: double-click to open, drag to move, Delete to remove (to the Recycle Bin), F2 to rename.

4. Ten things to try in the first ten minutes

Tab — switch between the two panels. The cursor always sits on a real file or folder, never on .., so there is always something to act on.
F5 / F6 — copy or move the selection to the other panel. It goes through the operation queue: verified, resumable, and undoable.
Space — Quick Look the file under the cursor: images, video, audio, PDF, CSV, Markdown, code. Nothing else launches and nothing is modified.
Ctrl+` — show the terminal. It opens in the folder the panel is showing, and from then on the two follow each other: navigate the panel and the prompt moves; type cd and the panel moves. How that works.
Ctrl+Shift+P — the command palette. Every command, its shortcut, fuzzy search, recent first.
Ctrl+T — a new folder tab in the active panel; Ctrl+W closes it, Ctrl+Tab cycles.
Ctrl+Shift+F — search by name or inside files, skipping what your .gitignore already lists. Results are real rows you can copy, move or delete from.
Shift+F2 — bulk rename. Type a pattern and watch the new names appear before you commit.
Ctrl+Z — undo the last batch: a copy, a move, a rename of hundreds of files, an overwrite. Deletes are not on the undo stack; they went to the Recycle Bin, where Windows can restore them.
Ctrl+/ — the in-app shortcut table. Any chord can be rebound from there.

The full shortcut table has everything else. If you are arriving from another file manager, the Total Commander and Explorer guides say what carries over.

5. Where things live

Settings and logs: %AppData%\@cwdio\desktop — settings, the layout, and logs\main.log, services.log and plugins.log. Help ▸ About has an Open logs button.
The installed app (installer build): under your user’s local application data, never in Program Files, which is why no administrator prompt is needed.
Nothing else. cwdio does not change file associations or make itself the default file manager. Its optional Explorer right-click entry, Open in Cwdio File Manager, is per-user and can be toggled under Tools ▸ Explorer integration.

6. Getting help

Troubleshooting covers the handful of things people actually run into.
The FAQ answers the common questions in one paragraph each.
Bugs and requests: open an issue on GitHub. Help ▸ About ▸ Report an issue pre-fills one with your version and Windows build.

Install and update — how updates work on each build, and how to uninstall.
Every feature, one page each — what is waiting when you want it.
Security and privacy — what the app does and does not do on your machine.