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tichau/fileconverter

★ 14,349C#Audience · generalComplexity · 1/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Free Windows tool that adds a right-click context menu to Windows Explorer for converting and compressing audio, video, image, and document files without opening any extra app.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((fileconverter))
    What it does
      File format conversion
      Batch compression
      Windows integration
    Tech Stack
      C#
      ffmpeg
      ImageMagick
      Ghostscript
    Use Cases
      Audio conversion
      Image batch resize
      Video conversion
    Audience
      Windows users
      General users
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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Convert a folder of audio files to a different format by right-clicking them in Windows Explorer and picking the target format.

USE CASE 2

Resize or batch-convert images to PNG or JPEG directly from the file browser without opening image-editing software.

USE CASE 3

Convert a video file to a different format for sharing without installing or opening a separate video tool.

USE CASE 4

Compress PDF documents or convert them to other formats from the Windows Explorer right-click menu.

Tech stack

C#ffmpegImageMagickGhostscript

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Free to use and modify, but any version you distribute to others must also be open source under the same GPL terms.

In plain English

File Converter is a free Windows tool that lets you convert and compress files directly from Windows Explorer, the file browser you use every day on a Windows PC. Instead of opening a dedicated app, you right-click on any file, and a "Convert to" option appears in the context menu. You pick the format you want, and File Converter handles the rest. The tool can handle many file types, including audio, video, images, and documents. Behind the scenes it uses several well-established open-source programs to do the actual conversion work: ffmpeg for audio and video, ImageMagick for images, and Ghostscript for PDFs. You do not need to install any of those separately, File Converter bundles them for you. The project has been in development since 2014 as a personal open-source effort. It is translated into more than 20 languages, including Portuguese, Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, and others, thanks to contributions from volunteers. The installer and the Windows Explorer integration are built with standard Windows development tools. File Converter is released under the GPL version 3 license, meaning it is free to use and modify, but any modified version you distribute must also be open source. It is available for download at file-converter.io and the source code is on GitHub. The project accepts donations and welcomes code contributions.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I have 200 WAV files on Windows, how do I batch-convert them all to MP3 using File Converter's right-click menu?
Prompt 2
Using File Converter on Windows, how do I create a conversion preset that resizes images to 1080px wide and saves them as WebP?
Prompt 3
How do I configure File Converter so all converted files are saved to a specific output folder instead of the same folder as the original?
Prompt 4
Walk me through installing File Converter on Windows and verifying that the right-click context menu appears when I select a video file.
Prompt 5
How do I contribute a translation to File Converter for a language that is not yet included?
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