Aston versus Explorer

Aston vs. Explorer: comparative review

In this article I'd liked to name all the pros and cons of both shells.
What for? First of all, some users think, that alternative shells have less features, than Explorer and thus less usable. Next, I know no comparative reviews of both shells as there are not really many alt shell fans (and the existing ones don't write reviews too often).

So, what's different in Aston and Explorer?

• Both shells are pretty stable nowadays;
• Aston is more stable, than Explorer in Windows 9X/ME;

• Aston typically consumes about 2 megabytes of RAM, Explorer may need from 5 to 30 Mb (Explorer XP)

• Aston: Taskbar buttons' width is dynamic. In other words, a single task button would fit the whole task; two tasks would fit a half of its width each and so on. Aston task buttons have three states (active, inactive, minimized), while Explorer has only has two basic states.
• Explorer: Explorer in Windows XP has a useful task grouping option, which is sometimes quite useful;

• Both Aston and Explorer XP have a two state system tray (minimized tray and restored tray) and both allow easily moving icons from one group to another;
• Aston: these features also work under Windows 9X/ME/NT and tray closing/restoring can be done by a hotkey as well;

• Aston: QL items can be stored on Taskbar or hidden under a small button, saving lots of space on Taskbar, one can easily define the number of visible tray icons;
• Explorer: a certain number of QL elements must be always visible on Taskbar.

• Aston: menu includes (by default) easy access to control panel items; first level menu items can be easily configurated; menu items are always sorted.
• Explorer: menu items sometimes need to be sorted manually (a changeable behaviour), drag'n'drop inside main menu excellently works in recent versions of Explorer; main menu can have two looks: default XP (barely useful) and classic;

• Both shells allow users store icons on their desktops;
• Aston: uses its own Desktop system, but allows accessing Explorer Desktop folder through the main menu (or any other way, defined by user), Aston Desktop cannot store documents and folders on it (shortcuts, buttons and plugins only), which is done to organize and educate users; shortcut buttons can have any size up to 255x255 px, can be animated; icons are recommended to be stored as Panel items.
• Explorer: wide support for dag'n'drop, can store documents, folders and objects (recycle bin, My Computer, etc...).

• Aston: allows having buttons (multistate shortcuts) and decorative elements on desktop; some plugins can be placed on Desktop, enhancing its functionality; Aston Recycle Bin and Disk links can have an unlimited numer of intermediate states (explorer Bin uses two, no intermediate fill states for disks at all);
• Explorer: Active Desktop allows using HTML pages as Destktop background;

• Both shells allow activating links by shortcuts;
• Aston: allows accessing applications, links, URLs, special items, plugins, have basic windows manipulations and so on with the shortcuts; has a basic set of predefined shortcuts;
• Explorer: allows activating links (documents, applications, URLs), has a set of build-in (unchangeable) shortcut combinations to access Taskman, My Computer's properties and so on;

• Aston: has two side panels (Toolbars), which can be used to store plugins, shortcuts and items;
• Explorer: no build-in analogs;

• Aston: has a set of build-in plugins (clocks, Panels and so on), allows using third-party modules;
• Explorer: allows using third party extensions (mostly affecting the file management part);

• Aston: appearance and behaviour can be changed by using one of available themes;
• Explorer: Explorer XP has three build-in Windows Styles, three optional styles may be ordered or obtained from the MS site; in order to use third-party styles one must iether use a hacked version of system library or any third-party application (like one of Stardock products);

• Aston: $28 (common price, a license can also be obtaineed for free);
• Explorer: $0 (you buy it with a copy of Windows);