The Windows 95 Explorer is a powerful file manager that provides various views of your files and a built-in search utility. But one feature it does not offer is a way to use its file lists in other applications. What if you want to send someone a list of the files in a folder or save the results of a file search in a spreadsheet? You can't do it. When you drag a file from Explorer and drop it onto another application, you get the file's contents, not its name. The only way to get Windows 95 to give you a list of filenames is to open a DOS window and run the DIR command, with the output redirected to a file.

This issue's utility, FileGrab, lets you harness the power of Explorer's listing ability for use by other applications. When you drop files from Explorer onto the FileGrab window, you get a list of filenames, instead of the files' contents. You can save the list to disk, print it, or copy it to the Clipboard for pasting into another application. View options let you choose which file characteristics (such as date, size, or attributes) to include with the filenames.

FileGrab is a 32-bit utility that runs under Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.51 or higher. You can obtain FileGrab by downloading it from PC Magazine Online or by mail. Refer to the sidebar "Getting the Files" for details. The source code for FileGrab, which was written with Delphi 2.0, Borland's visual programming tool, is also provided for those interested in seeing how it works.