SPAN Finder
The lightweight, tabbed file manager Windows always needed.
Quick update on SPAN Finder — the Miller Columns file explorer I'm building for Windows.
After the first release, I set up Sentry for crash reporting and started getting real error logs from users in Japan, Korea, and Europe. That changed everything. Instead of
guessing what might break, I could see exactly what was failing in the wild.
What I shipped this week:
- Workspaces — save your tab layouts with a name, restore them in one click. Switching between "work" and "personal" tabs is now instant. This one's my favorite.
- RDP file paste — a user filed an issue saying they couldn't paste files from Remote Desktop. Turns out RDP uses a completely different clipboard format. Had to write an OLE
clipboard parser from scratch.
- SHA256 file hash — shows in the preview panel with a copy button. Opt-in, default off.
- Syntax highlighting — code preview now highlights 30+ languages.
- In-app donations — finally set up MS Store IAP.
What I fixed:
Sentry caught a crash from a user in Japan — rapid right-clicking caused a COM race condition. Another user reported the dark theme not applying to one specific tab. Took hours
to trace through WinUI's theme pipeline, but the root cause was one wrong property reference.
In total: 8 crash fixes, 20+ async safety improvements, and a full COM cleanup audit across the codebase.
What I learned:
Shipping to real users is the fastest way to find bugs you'd never catch yourself. Three crash reports taught me more about WinUI edge cases than weeks of local testing.
The app is still free on the MS Store. Open source (GPL v3).
📦 MS Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P7NJ351X9TL
I'm building SPAN Finder—a Miller Columns file explorer for Windows (basically, Mac's Finder but optimized for Windows).
A few days ago, I quietly published the first version on the MS Store. Surprisingly, a few organic users from Switzerland and Russia found it and actually left three 5-star reviews.
It was a great feeling for a moment, but then I caught a bug while testing. Some basic features were failing depending on the Windows environment. I didn't want my very first users dealing with a broken tool, so I just unlisted it right away.
I spent the weekend fixing the code and finally pushed a stable v1.0.12 today.
Why it's free right now:
Windows environments are diverse, and it's hard to test every edge case by myself. So I’m making the app 100% free on the MS Store for the next month to get some real-world usage data.
If you download it now, it stays linked to your MS account forever, even after I make it a paid app later.
If you use Windows and hate navigating deep folders, I'd appreciate it if you could try it out. If something breaks or doesn't work as expected, please leave an issue on my GitHub so I can fix it.
MS Store Link: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P7NJ351X9TL
GitHub Issues: https://github.com/LumiBearStudio/SpanFinder/issues
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