FAQ
cwdio — frequently asked questions
Straight answers about cwdio: how to say it, what it costs (free in beta, free forever for founding users), which Windows versions it runs on, whether it phones home, how updates work, what the AI can and cannot do, and how it compares with Total Commander and Explorer.
Every answer here is written to stand on its own — quote one and it still makes sense. If your question is missing, open an issue and it will be added.
The basics
What is cwdio?
cwdio (Cwdio File Manager) is a free, keyboard-first, dual-pane file manager for Windows 10 and 11, built for developers and for anyone who moves a lot of files. Its defining feature is two-way working-directory sync: navigate a file panel and the built-in terminal follows; type cd in the terminal and the panel follows. Around that sit verified transfers with a queue that survives a restart, search inside files, SFTP/FTP servers browsed as folders, archives opened as folders, bulk rename, a disk size map, a duplicate finder, folder compare-and-sync, previews with the space bar, git integration and an optional AI assistant.
How do you say it?
cwd-io. Say cwd however you already say it, then io: KUD-ee-oh (rhymes with audio) is what the team says, and see-double-you-dee-eye-oh is just as right. It is cwd — the working directory your shell is in — plus io, the work: copy, move, transfer. The name is the product: your working directory and your input/output, kept in one place.
Who is cwdio for?
First for developers and power users who live in a terminal and a file manager at the same time — the working-directory sync removes the constant re-typing of paths between the two. Second, for anyone who spends real time moving, renaming, sorting and cleaning up files: bulk rename, the size map, duplicate finding, folder compare and Space-to-preview need no command line at all.
Is cwdio open source?
No. The source code is private. The released binaries, the update feed, the SHA-256 checksums and the issue tracker are public on GitHub at github.com/cwdio/cwdio, and the app has no telemetry, so what it does on your machine is checkable even though the code is not published.
Electron — so it is slow?
Fair question, and the reason the benchmarks are published rather than claimed. Listing, copy throughput and recursive traversal are measured against the real code and regenerated each release. File bytes never cross the renderer process — the copy engine runs in a separate host process — which is the architectural reason a 10 GB move does not stall the interface.
Which languages is the interface in?
English and Ukrainian today. Every user-facing string in the app is localised through one system, so adding a language is a translation job rather than a code change.
Price and licence
Is it really free?
Yes — every feature, for the whole beta, with no account. Use it now and you are a Founding User: it stays free for you forever, even after 1.0 introduces paid tiers for new individuals and businesses.
What will cwdio cost after 1.0?
New individual users pay a one-time €29 early-bird price, then €39, for a perpetual licence with a year of updates included. Commercial use starts at €59 per seat, one-time. Every tier has every feature; there is no crippled edition and no subscription. Founding Users — anyone who used cwdio during the beta and registered — never pay.
What does “Founding User” actually mean?
It is not a purchase and there is nothing to pay. Using cwdio during the beta is what makes you one. Leave an email on the home page, open the link that arrives, and a perpetual licence key is issued on the spot — activate it under Help ▸ License…. If you never register nothing breaks: the app stays fully functional with every feature and no time limit. Registration puts your founding status on record for when 1.0 introduces paid tiers, and claiming again with the same email returns the same key.
Does the licence phone home?
No. A licence is a signed token verified on your machine; registering never turns into a launch-time server call. Stop updating and nothing locks — a lapsed updates window pauses updates and never disables the software.
Install, update, uninstall
Portable or installer?
The installer is per-user (no admin) and updates itself in the background. The portable zip installs nothing and updates nothing — unzip it, run it, delete it. Both are the same app, and both have Help ▸ Check for updates.
Why does Windows warn me?
Because cwdio is new and not yet code-signed, SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC”. It is not a virus alert — Windows simply has not seen this file often enough to recognise it, and every new independent app gets the same treatment until it does. Click More info, then Run anyway. Every release publishes SHA-256 checksums if you would rather verify the file first, and a signing certificate is on the 1.0 list, which removes the prompt for good.
Does it need administrator rights?
No. The installer puts cwdio in your own user profile and never shows a UAC prompt; the portable build runs from wherever you unzip it. The app runs with exactly the permissions you already have — no more.
How do updates work?
The installer build checks for a new version shortly after launch and then every few hours, downloads it in the background and applies it on the next restart, with a Restart now / Later choice. The portable build never changes itself: it shows a passive notice when a newer version exists, and Help ▸ Check for updates on either build tells you whether you are current, out of date, or — if it could not reach the update information — that it does not know.
How do I uninstall it?
Installer build: Windows Settings ▸ Apps ▸ cwdio ▸ Uninstall, like any other app. Portable build: delete the folder. Settings and logs live under %AppData%\@cwdio\desktop if you want to remove those too. Nothing else is left behind, and nothing needs administrator rights.
How do I verify a download?
Every release publishes SHA256SUMS.txt alongside the binaries. In PowerShell, run Get-FileHash on the file you downloaded with -Algorithm SHA256 and compare the result with the line for that file. If they match, the file you have is the file the release workflow built.
Everyday use
I'm not a developer. Is this for me?
Probably, if you move a lot of files around. The terminal features are what make cwdio unusual, but they are one part of it — renaming a folder of photos in bulk, finding what filled your drive, spotting duplicates, comparing two folders before copying, previewing anything with Space. Those are the jobs most people open it for, and none of them involve a command line. Everything terminal-shaped is opt-in and stays out of the way until you go looking.
Is it hard to learn?
It opens as two ordinary folder panels and you can use it that way forever — double-click to open, drag to move, Delete to remove. The keyboard shortcuts, terminal, remote servers and the rest are opt-in: the extra bars and panels are switched off by default, and Ctrl+Shift+P lists every command with its shortcut whenever you want to go further.
Does it have tabs?
Yes. Each panel holds folder tabs — Ctrl+T opens one, Ctrl+W closes it, Ctrl+Tab cycles — and the whole layout (panels, terminals, tool windows) is a dockable workspace you can rearrange and reset to the default with one command.
Do the Total Commander keys work?
The orthodox set does: F5 copy, F6 move, F7 new folder, F8 and Delete delete, F2 rename, F3 view, F4 edit, Alt+F1/Alt+F2 for the drive lists, Ctrl+U to swap panels, Ctrl+B for the flat branch view, and the numpad +, − and * selection keys. Developer-audience chords sit beside them: Ctrl+P go-to-file, Ctrl+Shift+F search, Ctrl+Shift+P command palette. Every shortcut can be rebound.
Which archive formats does it handle?
It opens ZIP, 7z, RAR and tar archives (including .tar.gz) as ordinary folders, with the readers built in, so nothing extra needs installing. Password-protected ZIP (classic ZipCrypto) and RAR archives can be opened with their password; AES-encrypted ZIP entries and encrypted 7z archives are listed but not extracted. It creates ZIP, 7z and tar.gz archives from a selection. RAR is read-only, as it is everywhere outside WinRAR.
How does search work?
By name instantly, or by content inside files, skipping the build output your .gitignore already lists. If the free Everything search engine (voidtools) is installed, name search uses its index and is effectively instant across the whole drive; without it, cwdio walks the folder itself. Results are real rows: copy, move, rename or delete straight from them.
Terminal and shells
Which shells does the terminal support?
The shells you actually have, discovered the way Windows Terminal discovers them: PowerShell and Windows PowerShell, Command Prompt, one profile per installed WSL distribution, Git Bash, and Visual Studio's developer prompts when Visual Studio is installed. Each terminal is a real PTY, so anything that runs in a terminal runs here.
How does the terminal know where the panel is — and vice versa?
Through the same shell-integration mechanism modern terminals use (the OSC 7 working-directory report): when the shell changes directory it tells the terminal, and cwdio moves the panel; when you navigate the panel, cwdio sends the shell a cd. It works over SSH too, so a remote shell and a remote panel stay in step the same way.
Do I have to use the terminal?
No. The terminal is a pane you open when you want it (Ctrl+` toggles it) and never see otherwise. cwdio is a complete file manager without it.
Safety and privacy
Will it break anything on my machine?
It installs for your user only and never asks for administrator rights, so it runs with exactly the permissions you already have — no more. It is still a file manager, so it can move and delete your files; that is why deleting goes to the Recycle Bin by default, overwritten files are kept rather than destroyed, and Ctrl+Z undoes a whole batch. Uninstall from Windows Settings, or with the portable version just delete the folder.
Does cwdio collect any data?
No. The app has no telemetry and no analytics SDK — it does not phone home. Your AI provider key and your server credentials stay on your machine, encrypted by the operating system. Crash reports are opt-in and scrub your username and home path before they are sent. A licence is verified offline, so registering never becomes a launch-time server call.
What can I undo?
A whole batch at once with Ctrl+Z: a copy, a move (each item goes back to its own original folder), a rename of hundreds of files, a new folder, an overwrite (the replaced file was stashed, so it comes back), and anything the AI assistant did through the same queue. Deletes are deliberately not on the undo stack: they go to the Recycle Bin instead, where Windows can restore them. The queue is journaled, so an operation interrupted by a crash or a dropped drive can resume rather than start again.
Where are my server passwords stored?
On your machine, encrypted by Windows through the operating system's own credential protection, and never uploaded anywhere. SSH host keys are trusted on first use and remembered; a host whose key later changes is refused rather than silently accepted.
The AI assistant
Does the AI touch my files without asking?
No. Read tools run in the background; anything that changes a file becomes a proposal you confirm, and it executes through the same queue, trash and undo as a manual action.
Which AI provider does it use, and do I need one?
You bring your own key for the provider you already use; the key stays on your machine, encrypted by the OS. Without a key the assistant is simply absent — every other feature works exactly the same, and nothing about cwdio requires an internet connection.
Can other AI tools drive cwdio?
Yes. cwdio can act as an MCP server, exposing its file tools to an external assistant, and as an MCP client, adding external tools to its own assistant. Anything that changes a file still arrives as a proposal to confirm and still runs through the undoable queue.
Compatibility
Which operating systems does cwdio run on?
Windows 10 and Windows 11, 64-bit. macOS and Linux are not released yet.
Does it work with WSL?
Yes. WSL distributions appear beside your drives, their filesystems browse like any other folder, and each installed distribution gets its own terminal profile — with the working-directory sync working across the boundary.
What about OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox?
Their synced folders are ordinary Windows folders, so cwdio browses them like anything else. There are no dedicated cloud-storage connectors yet; the remote side of cwdio today is SFTP and FTP/FTPS servers, which mount as folders with a real SSH shell on the same connection.
Compared with other file managers
How is cwdio different from Total Commander?
Total Commander is the 30-year standard of the dual-pane genre and its keys are the ones cwdio inherits — F5, F6, F7, F8, Alt+F1, Ctrl+U. cwdio adds what the genre never had built in: an embedded terminal that follows the panel and vice versa, verified transfers with a journaled queue that survives a restart, git status in the file list, a modern dockable UI, and an optional AI assistant — free during the beta and with no telemetry. Total Commander has a far larger plugin ecosystem and runs on 32-bit and very old Windows; cwdio is 64-bit Windows 10/11 only.
Why not just use Windows Explorer?
Explorer is fine for a folder at a time. cwdio is for the work between two places: two panels side by side, a queue that verifies copies and resumes after a dropped drive, an undo that covers a whole batch, bulk rename with a live preview, and a terminal that is always in the folder you are looking at. Explorer stays your default; cwdio does not take over file associations, and its context-menu entry is a per-user opt-in.
Questions
What is cwdio?
cwdio (Cwdio File Manager) is a free, keyboard-first, dual-pane file manager for Windows 10 and 11, built for developers and for anyone who moves a lot of files. Its defining feature is two-way working-directory sync: navigate a file panel and the built-in terminal follows; type cd in the terminal and the panel follows. Around that sit verified transfers with a queue that survives a restart, search inside files, SFTP/FTP servers browsed as folders, archives opened as folders, bulk rename, a disk size map, a duplicate finder, folder compare-and-sync, previews with the space bar, git integration and an optional AI assistant.
How do you say it?
cwd-io. Say cwd however you already say it, then io: KUD-ee-oh (rhymes with audio) is what the team says, and see-double-you-dee-eye-oh is just as right. It is cwd — the working directory your shell is in — plus io, the work: copy, move, transfer. The name is the product: your working directory and your input/output, kept in one place.
Who is cwdio for?
First for developers and power users who live in a terminal and a file manager at the same time — the working-directory sync removes the constant re-typing of paths between the two. Second, for anyone who spends real time moving, renaming, sorting and cleaning up files: bulk rename, the size map, duplicate finding, folder compare and Space-to-preview need no command line at all.
Is cwdio open source?
No. The source code is private. The released binaries, the update feed, the SHA-256 checksums and the issue tracker are public on GitHub at github.com/cwdio/cwdio, and the app has no telemetry, so what it does on your machine is checkable even though the code is not published.
Electron — so it is slow?
Fair question, and the reason the benchmarks are published rather than claimed. Listing, copy throughput and recursive traversal are measured against the real code and regenerated each release. File bytes never cross the renderer process — the copy engine runs in a separate host process — which is the architectural reason a 10 GB move does not stall the interface.
Which languages is the interface in?
English and Ukrainian today. Every user-facing string in the app is localised through one system, so adding a language is a translation job rather than a code change.
Is it really free?
Yes — every feature, for the whole beta, with no account. Use it now and you are a Founding User: it stays free for you forever, even after 1.0 introduces paid tiers for new individuals and businesses.
What will cwdio cost after 1.0?
New individual users pay a one-time €29 early-bird price, then €39, for a perpetual licence with a year of updates included. Commercial use starts at €59 per seat, one-time. Every tier has every feature; there is no crippled edition and no subscription. Founding Users — anyone who used cwdio during the beta and registered — never pay.
What does “Founding User” actually mean?
It is not a purchase and there is nothing to pay. Using cwdio during the beta is what makes you one. Leave an email on the home page, open the link that arrives, and a perpetual licence key is issued on the spot — activate it under Help ▸ License…. If you never register nothing breaks: the app stays fully functional with every feature and no time limit. Registration puts your founding status on record for when 1.0 introduces paid tiers, and claiming again with the same email returns the same key.
Does the licence phone home?
No. A licence is a signed token verified on your machine; registering never turns into a launch-time server call. Stop updating and nothing locks — a lapsed updates window pauses updates and never disables the software.
Portable or installer?
The installer is per-user (no admin) and updates itself in the background. The portable zip installs nothing and updates nothing — unzip it, run it, delete it. Both are the same app, and both have Help ▸ Check for updates.
Why does Windows warn me?
Because cwdio is new and not yet code-signed, SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC”. It is not a virus alert — Windows simply has not seen this file often enough to recognise it, and every new independent app gets the same treatment until it does. Click More info, then Run anyway. Every release publishes SHA-256 checksums if you would rather verify the file first, and a signing certificate is on the 1.0 list, which removes the prompt for good.
Does it need administrator rights?
No. The installer puts cwdio in your own user profile and never shows a UAC prompt; the portable build runs from wherever you unzip it. The app runs with exactly the permissions you already have — no more.
How do updates work?
The installer build checks for a new version shortly after launch and then every few hours, downloads it in the background and applies it on the next restart, with a Restart now / Later choice. The portable build never changes itself: it shows a passive notice when a newer version exists, and Help ▸ Check for updates on either build tells you whether you are current, out of date, or — if it could not reach the update information — that it does not know.
How do I uninstall it?
Installer build: Windows Settings ▸ Apps ▸ cwdio ▸ Uninstall, like any other app. Portable build: delete the folder. Settings and logs live under %AppData%\@cwdio\desktop if you want to remove those too. Nothing else is left behind, and nothing needs administrator rights.
How do I verify a download?
Every release publishes SHA256SUMS.txt alongside the binaries. In PowerShell, run Get-FileHash on the file you downloaded with -Algorithm SHA256 and compare the result with the line for that file. If they match, the file you have is the file the release workflow built.
I'm not a developer. Is this for me?
Probably, if you move a lot of files around. The terminal features are what make cwdio unusual, but they are one part of it — renaming a folder of photos in bulk, finding what filled your drive, spotting duplicates, comparing two folders before copying, previewing anything with Space. Those are the jobs most people open it for, and none of them involve a command line. Everything terminal-shaped is opt-in and stays out of the way until you go looking.
Is it hard to learn?
It opens as two ordinary folder panels and you can use it that way forever — double-click to open, drag to move, Delete to remove. The keyboard shortcuts, terminal, remote servers and the rest are opt-in: the extra bars and panels are switched off by default, and Ctrl+Shift+P lists every command with its shortcut whenever you want to go further.
Does it have tabs?
Yes. Each panel holds folder tabs — Ctrl+T opens one, Ctrl+W closes it, Ctrl+Tab cycles — and the whole layout (panels, terminals, tool windows) is a dockable workspace you can rearrange and reset to the default with one command.
Do the Total Commander keys work?
The orthodox set does: F5 copy, F6 move, F7 new folder, F8 and Delete delete, F2 rename, F3 view, F4 edit, Alt+F1/Alt+F2 for the drive lists, Ctrl+U to swap panels, Ctrl+B for the flat branch view, and the numpad +, − and * selection keys. Developer-audience chords sit beside them: Ctrl+P go-to-file, Ctrl+Shift+F search, Ctrl+Shift+P command palette. Every shortcut can be rebound.
Can I open a folder in cwdio from Windows Explorer?
Yes. The installer adds an “Open in Cwdio File Manager” entry to the right-click menu of folders, folder backgrounds and drives, per-user and without administrator rights; the portable build offers the same via Tools ▸ Explorer integration. On Windows 11 it appears under “Show more options” until the app is code-signed.
Which archive formats does it handle?
It opens ZIP, 7z, RAR and tar archives (including .tar.gz) as ordinary folders, with the readers built in, so nothing extra needs installing. Password-protected ZIP (classic ZipCrypto) and RAR archives can be opened with their password; AES-encrypted ZIP entries and encrypted 7z archives are listed but not extracted. It creates ZIP, 7z and tar.gz archives from a selection. RAR is read-only, as it is everywhere outside WinRAR.
How does search work?
By name instantly, or by content inside files, skipping the build output your .gitignore already lists. If the free Everything search engine (voidtools) is installed, name search uses its index and is effectively instant across the whole drive; without it, cwdio walks the folder itself. Results are real rows: copy, move, rename or delete straight from them.
Which shells does the terminal support?
The shells you actually have, discovered the way Windows Terminal discovers them: PowerShell and Windows PowerShell, Command Prompt, one profile per installed WSL distribution, Git Bash, and Visual Studio's developer prompts when Visual Studio is installed. Each terminal is a real PTY, so anything that runs in a terminal runs here.
How does the terminal know where the panel is — and vice versa?
Through the same shell-integration mechanism modern terminals use (the OSC 7 working-directory report): when the shell changes directory it tells the terminal, and cwdio moves the panel; when you navigate the panel, cwdio sends the shell a cd. It works over SSH too, so a remote shell and a remote panel stay in step the same way.
Do I have to use the terminal?
No. The terminal is a pane you open when you want it (Ctrl+` toggles it) and never see otherwise. cwdio is a complete file manager without it.
Will it break anything on my machine?
It installs for your user only and never asks for administrator rights, so it runs with exactly the permissions you already have — no more. It is still a file manager, so it can move and delete your files; that is why deleting goes to the Recycle Bin by default, overwritten files are kept rather than destroyed, and Ctrl+Z undoes a whole batch. Uninstall from Windows Settings, or with the portable version just delete the folder.
Does cwdio collect any data?
No. The app has no telemetry and no analytics SDK — it does not phone home. Your AI provider key and your server credentials stay on your machine, encrypted by the operating system. Crash reports are opt-in and scrub your username and home path before they are sent. A licence is verified offline, so registering never becomes a launch-time server call.
What can I undo?
A whole batch at once with Ctrl+Z: a copy, a move (each item goes back to its own original folder), a rename of hundreds of files, a new folder, an overwrite (the replaced file was stashed, so it comes back), and anything the AI assistant did through the same queue. Deletes are deliberately not on the undo stack: they go to the Recycle Bin instead, where Windows can restore them. The queue is journaled, so an operation interrupted by a crash or a dropped drive can resume rather than start again.
Where are my server passwords stored?
On your machine, encrypted by Windows through the operating system's own credential protection, and never uploaded anywhere. SSH host keys are trusted on first use and remembered; a host whose key later changes is refused rather than silently accepted.
Does the AI touch my files without asking?
No. Read tools run in the background; anything that changes a file becomes a proposal you confirm, and it executes through the same queue, trash and undo as a manual action.
Which AI provider does it use, and do I need one?
You bring your own key for the provider you already use; the key stays on your machine, encrypted by the OS. Without a key the assistant is simply absent — every other feature works exactly the same, and nothing about cwdio requires an internet connection.
Can other AI tools drive cwdio?
Yes. cwdio can act as an MCP server, exposing its file tools to an external assistant, and as an MCP client, adding external tools to its own assistant. Anything that changes a file still arrives as a proposal to confirm and still runs through the undoable queue.
Which operating systems does cwdio run on?
Windows 10 and Windows 11, 64-bit. macOS and Linux are not released yet.
Does it work with WSL?
Yes. WSL distributions appear beside your drives, their filesystems browse like any other folder, and each installed distribution gets its own terminal profile — with the working-directory sync working across the boundary.
What about OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox?
Their synced folders are ordinary Windows folders, so cwdio browses them like anything else. There are no dedicated cloud-storage connectors yet; the remote side of cwdio today is SFTP and FTP/FTPS servers, which mount as folders with a real SSH shell on the same connection.
How is cwdio different from Total Commander?
Total Commander is the 30-year standard of the dual-pane genre and its keys are the ones cwdio inherits — F5, F6, F7, F8, Alt+F1, Ctrl+U. cwdio adds what the genre never had built in: an embedded terminal that follows the panel and vice versa, verified transfers with a journaled queue that survives a restart, git status in the file list, a modern dockable UI, and an optional AI assistant — free during the beta and with no telemetry. Total Commander has a far larger plugin ecosystem and runs on 32-bit and very old Windows; cwdio is 64-bit Windows 10/11 only.
Why not just use Windows Explorer?
Explorer is fine for a folder at a time. cwdio is for the work between two places: two panels side by side, a queue that verifies copies and resumes after a dropped drive, an undo that covers a whole batch, bulk rename with a live preview, and a terminal that is always in the folder you are looking at. Explorer stays your default; cwdio does not take over file associations, and its context-menu entry is a per-user opt-in.