Free file management software like Calibre (or Sharepoint)?

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I use the free Calibre software package to organize my e-books. I've recently started using it to organize other files I've saved on my laptop, because I really like the layout. I like the way you can scroll down your list of books (or files) in the middle of the screen, and for each book (or file) you see on the right-hand side a cover image plus a summary of the book (or file) contents. Also, you can apply metadata to your books (or files) and do searches based on that metadata. If you do a google image search for Calibre software, you will see what I mean!

My question is ... is there a file management software package with a similar sort of layout to Calibre? Calibre is still good for non-book files, but I don't think it's ideal. Firstly, the column headings (like 'Publisher') are often inappropriate for non-book files. Secondly, I can't help thinking adding thousands of Word docs, Excel files and html files to Calibre is going to slow it down.

The best alternative I have seen is perhaps Sharepoint, which I have used at work, but as with most file management packages, it doesn't seem to offer an option for single, home-based users (let alone a free option).

Why not simply organize the files the way you prefer on your PC? Directories, folders, and sub-folders can be sorted and/or viewed by filename, filetype, date, or any other metadata. The indexing is done by the OS automatically.

Its what file manager/File Explorer/ Finder (Depending on the OS) are designed to do and won't bog down until drive space becomes limited.

If you are using macOS you can search photos by face, GPS coordinates and metadata. You also have the option to color-code groups of different files in the same category across multiple disks or network shares.

I have considered that, but as far as I can see that solution does not provide everything I'm after.

The closest that File Explorer provides for what I'm after is if you go into the Pictures folder, view by Details, and then enable the Details pane, where you can see the "Author", "Subject" and "Comments" for every picture file, and edit these metadata as you like.

But is there a way to add 'Comments' metadata to Word files, or html files, and to get File Explorer to display them in a similar way? Also, I should add that some of the comments I would want to add would be several paragraphs long.

Plus, I find the search function in File Explorer pretty useless.

(On a separate note, I find File Explorer annoyingly slow to open up Picture folders or Video folders when they contain a large number of files.)

That makes sense. I'm not aware of anything markedly better for PC use though. I do like calibre for books, but I think you're right about it getting bogged down eventually.

Mediawiki is free and it is a bit like Sharepoint. It is a pain to install.

You might try something like:

https://lifehacker.com/run-your-persona ... ick-354005

You could also look at

https://alternativeto.net/software/calibre/

https://alternativeto.net/software/double-commander/

https://alternativeto.net/software/winscp/

https://alternativeto.net/software/project-gutenberg/

https://alternativeto.net/software/kindle/

https://alternativeto.net/software/adobe-reader/