The answers below cover everyday use, mode switching, media playback, file locking and licensing. If your question is not here, e-mail us — support is free for everyone.
Click a single file in the file list and FileSee previews it immediately. Use the toolbar arrows to move through a folder:
A double-click hands the file to Windows instead, so the system default program opens it rather than FileSee. That is intentional — the single click is the FileSee preview.
You can also start FileSee directly from Windows Explorer: right-click any file and choose View with FileSee.
Three toolbar buttons change how the same file is rendered:
HEX mode is the fastest way to confirm a file's real type when the extension lies, to inspect an undocumented binary format, or to check whether a download was truncated.
There are two routes:
FileSee also includes a WAV-to-MP3 converter for turning recordings into smaller, shareable files.
This is the file preview working as designed. While FileSee is previewing a file it holds a read lock on it, so Windows will not let you rename or delete that file until the preview is released.
To fix it, turn the preview off first: open the menu View → Enable File Preview and uncheck it. The lock is released and rename or delete will work normally.
Open the menu Tools → Search files in disk, enter your criteria and run the search. Matches appear in the Found files list, where you can preview them without leaving FileSee — handy for hunting down a specific file name across drives.
FileSee is a Windows desktop application. It runs on Windows 7, 8, 10 and 11 (and legacy releases on Windows XP). There is no macOS or Linux build.
Disk footprint is small: the installer is 24.9 MB and the installed program is a fraction of that.
FileSee plays the great majority of formats out of the box, but a small number of files use codecs that Windows does not ship by default. Installing a decoder pack closes that gap:
K-Lite Codec Pack is widely used and free. Search for “K-Lite Codec Pack” to get the newest release, or download the builds we mirror directly:
Install the pack, restart FileSee, and try the file again. If it still fails, e-mail us the exact extension and we will tell you whether it is supported.
No. SmartScreen warns about any small publisher it has not yet seen enough times — it is a reputation filter, not a virus detection. Choose More info and then Run anyway to continue.
The installer is 24.9 MB and installs no toolbars, no browser extensions and no background services. You can verify the file size against the number on the download page before running it.
Use Settings → Apps → Installed apps (or Add or Remove Programs on older Windows) and select FileSee. Uninstalling does not revoke your license — you can reinstall later and reuse the same registration code.
FileSee is shareware, not freeware. You can evaluate the complete program — every feature, nothing removed — for 30 days at no cost. After that, a license is required to keep using it.
FileSee costs US$ 29.95 per license. It is a one-time payment — there is no subscription and no renewal. A single-user license covers you on your own machine.
Go to the order page when you are ready, or start the free trial first.
No. All future upgrades are free to registered users. When a new version is released, download it from the download page and install over your existing copy — your registration code continues to work.
Yes — support is free for everyone, whether or not you have purchased a license. Registered users are placed in a priority queue, but no question goes unanswered.
Send anything that is not covered above to support@filesee.com. Order and licensing questions go to the same address.
To help us answer quickly, include your Windows version, the FileSee version shown in the title bar, and the file extension that is causing trouble.
Describe what you are trying to open and we will tell you exactly which mode or codec you need.