Uncategorized

Windows only: Keep your desktop or any other folder on your hard drive organised and under control with Belvedere, an automated Windows file management tool. Use Belvedere’s friendly interface to create advanced rules to move, copy, delete, rename, or open files based on their name, extension, size, creation date, and more.

Belvedere Automated File Manager

Version: 0.1
Released: January 8, 2008
Creator: Adam Pash

License: Belvedere is licensed under the GNU Public License. If you’d like to take a look at the source, you can download it here.

What it does: Sets up rules for taking actions on files based on the name of a file, it’s extension, size, age, and more.

NOTE: Belvedere is a Windows knock-off of the Mac-only Hazel, and Gina has already guided you through setting up a self-cleaning Mac with Hazel, so for a few good ideas for how you might get started with Belvedere, check out her guide. Belvedere’s not quite up to par with Hazel yet, but in time I’m hoping to implement as many of Hazel’s features as I can for Windows users.

Belvedere is still very young and a little rough around the edges, but I’m hoping to push out updates soon. The 0.1 release features a barebones implementation, but you can still create worthwhile, time-saving rules with the application as is (like the “Delete downloads older than one month” or “Move PNG files from the Desktop to the Screenshots folder” rules I used for the screenshots.

Installation

I’m distributing the initial release as a simple executable, so to install it, just download Belvedere.exe from the download link above, drag it to a folder of your liking (might I recommend C:\Program Files\Belvedere\) and double-click to start. If you want Belvedere to run as a Windows startup app, you’ll have to add it manually for now.

How It Works

Setting up rules with Belvedere is as simple as adding folders, then creating to run on each folder using Belvedere’s simple point-and-click interface.

Just name your rule with the Description field and build your conditions with the drop-down menus.

Roadmap

I’m planning to add most of the Hazel functionality I can to Belvedere over time, so here’s a brief outline of my feature roadmap for upcoming releases:

• Set up rules to meet multiple requirements, either ALL or ANY. (0.2)
• Multiple actions for matched rules. (0.2)
• Edit existing rules (0.2)
• Test rule matches before saving rule (0.3)
• Add a trash management tab to the GUI (0.3)
• New action to add files to iTunes (0.3)
• Recurse folders (0.3)

Changelog

• Version 0.1: Released.

Bug Reports and Feature Requests
Belvedere’s 0.1 release is working well on my Vista PC, but it may have a few bugs here and there (it won’t accidentally go deleting all the files on your computer by any means, but I probably wouldn’t point the 0.1 release at your most important folders). Also, though it already sports some advanced capabilities, it’s still somewhat light on a few features, and I’m planning on adding a lot more to it. If you’ve got feature requests or bug reports, I’m happy to hear them in the comments.