KillerShell is a free, portable Windows shell that integrates a file browser, terminal, and text editor into a single exe with live search and keyboard-first navigation.

Stars

8

7-day growth

No data

Forks

0

Open issues

4

License

GPL-3.0

Last updated

2026-07-27

AI repository intelligence
FR-AI / ANALYSIS

Why it is worth attention

It combines three essential tools (browser, terminal, editor) in one portable exe with live file search that requires no indexing, making it ideal for power users who need a lightweight, keyboard-driven environment on any Windows machine.

Who it is for

  • Power users seeking a unified workflow
  • IT professionals and sysadmins doing remote troubleshooting
  • Developers who want a portable coding and command-line environment
  • Field technicians working on machines without admin rights

Use cases

  • Browsing, editing, and running scripts in the same window
  • Searching file contents across folders without waiting for indexing
  • Using a portable shell on a borrowed or temporary Windows PC
  • Managing files with dual-pane view and integrated terminal

Strengths

  • Single portable exe with no runtime, agent, or account required
  • Live file and content search that parallelizes across all CPU cores
  • Keyboard-first design following Explorer conventions plus custom shortcuts
  • Integrated file browser, terminal (PowerShell/CMD), and text editor with syntax highlighting

Considerations

  • Windows 10/11 only (x64, requires .NET Framework 4.8)
  • No Linux or macOS support
  • Editor syntax highlighting limited to common field-tech formats and AvalonEdit defaults

README quick start

Free shell for power users. One window holds a file browser, a PowerShell or CMD terminal and a text editor, on one tab strip and one set of keys, so finding a file, reading it, changing it and running something against it never means switching tools. Search is built into the browser rather than bolted on: any folder by filename wildcard or by file content, streamed live with no index to build and nothing to wait for.

It is one portable exe. No runtime, no agent, no account. Drop it on a machine that is not yours, do the work, delete it.

Open-source, GPLv3, run portable or install for just you or every user on the PC.

Part of KillerTools.net.

Features

Browse

  • Browse any folder in list, icon, or details view, with a folder tree, an address bar, and back / forward / up on Explorer's own keys
  • Details columns resize by dragging any divider, Explorer style: the divider sizes the column on its left, the ones to its right keep their widths and slide, and a double-click puts a column back. Ctrl+wheel over the list resizes the icons in every view, not just tiles. Both are remembered
  • Favorites drawer for the folders you live in, with Alt+1 to Alt+0 to jump to the first ten
  • Two panes, side by side or stacked (F11), each with its own tabs
  • A browsed folder tracks the disk, so a file deleted in another window disappears here too

Terminal

  • PowerShell, Windows PowerShell or CMD in a tab (F8), elevated on Ctrl+F8, opened in the folder you are looking at
  • The working directory is tracked live on the shell's own toolbar; click it to open that folder as a tab
  • A shipped prompt script you can edit or reset, and your PowerShell $PROFILE one click from the rail, the shell's right-click menu or Ctrl+comma. The submenu lists the hosts actually installed and asks each one where its profile is rather than guessing the path
  • Powerline separators, the git branch mark and the prompt chevron render on a machine with no Nerd Font installed: the exe carries a 26-glyph, 2.9 KB fallback face, used only for the codepoints your chosen font is missing

Edit

  • Open any file in a tab with F7 or the Edit row on the results menu: syntax highlighting, line numbers, undo, find (Ctrl+F), go to line (Ctrl+G), save (Ctrl+S) and a right-click menu, with word wrap on by default
  • The pencil on the rail opens a blank document in the

Description

Free shell for power users. File browser, terminal and text editor in one portable Windows exe. No installer, no account.

Related repositories

Similar projects matched by category, topics, and programming language.

l0ng-ai
Featured
l0ng-ai GitHub avatar

tty7

tty7 is a fast, GPU-accelerated terminal workbench with persistent sessions, built-in input tools, SSH support, and coding agent awareness.

Developer ToolsCLI & Terminal
359
programmersd21
Featured
programmersd21 GitHub avatar

flow

flow is a minimalist terminal dashboard that displays real-time network throughput with smooth animations, multiple responsive modes, and zero configuration.

Developer ToolsCLI & Terminal
277
mereyabdenbekuly-ctrl
Featured
mereyabdenbekuly-ctrl GitHub avatar

clodex-ide

Clodex is an open-source, local-first agentic IDE that combines persistent AI tasks, code, terminal, browser, Git, models, memory, and governed execution in one Electron workspace, currently in technical preview.

AI & Machine LearningAI Agents
859