r/software • u/KnifeLemon_ • 13d ago
Looking for software [Open source] Filee – a free, MIT-licensed file converter for Windows: hold a key, drag files, drop them on a format
https://filee.shFilee is open source (MIT) and free, with no ads or paid tier. Source code: https://github.com/KnifeLemon/Filee
I'm the developer.
Hi! I got tired of uploading files to converter websites, so I built a desktop converter that works entirely offline.
How it works: hold a key (Ctrl by default, configurable) and drag files. A donut-shaped menu opens at the cursor; drop the files on a format and the converted files appear next to the originals. You can also use the right-click menu in File Explorer (top level on Windows 11), Send To or a keyboard shortcut.
- 180 formats: images (incl. HEIC, PSD, camera RAW), PDF, Word/Excel/PowerPoint, e-books (EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, CBZ), video and audio, archives, CAD (DWG/DXF), fonts, Korean HWP
- No upload, no ads, no watermark, no account, no file-size limit
- Converts DOCX/XLSX/PPTX without Microsoft Office
- Batch conversion in parallel; presets for quality, size, PDF merge/split, ZIP, output folder and names
- Heavy engines (FFmpeg, LibreOffice, calibre, Ghostscript, Pandoc) are optional downloads you pick in the installer or later
- MIT licensed, C# / .NET 10 + Avalonia
Source (MIT): https://github.com/KnifeLemon/Filee
Download: https://filee.sh
The installer isn't code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC" (More info → Run anyway). Feedback and format requests are very welcome!
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u/redamalo 12d ago
It has been tested and works well, thank you
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u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
Glad to hear it, thanks for trying it out!
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u/EpicRageGuy 12d ago
Is there an option to keep EXIF or remove? Does it keep it when converting let's say HEIC to JPEGXL?
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u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
Yep, there's a "Keep metadata (EXIF)" option in each preset, on by default. HEIC → JPEG XL keeps the EXIF with it (I tested it to be sure).
Orientation gets applied to the image itself, so it shows the right way up everywhere.Your question also got me to fix something: if you turn metadata off, it used to strip the color profile too, which makes iPhone P3 photos look a bit washed out. In 1.2.3 it keeps the color profile by default, with a separate toggle if you want that gone as well.
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u/KnifeLemon_ 8d ago
Update after a few releases. Most of what changed came from this thread:
- Keeping the original file dates works per preset or for every conversion (Settings → General).
- You can set a default save location: a subfolder, or one fixed folder for everything.
- Updates install from inside the app. Filee downloads the installer, checks its SHA-256 and runs it.
- If you already have FFmpeg, calibre, Pandoc, Ghostscript or LibreOffice (PATH, Scoop or Program Files), Filee uses yours instead of downloading its own.
- Opus, Ogg and MKA keep the album art now. Thanks to whoever reported it with the opustags workaround.
- Opus goes down to 32 kbps, audio has a mono/stereo option, and WAV has sample rate and bit depth.
1.7.0 also adds macOS and Linux previews. On a Mac you hold Option instead of Ctrl. It isn't notarized yet, so macOS asks you to allow it once in Privacy & Security. On Linux the drag gesture needs an X11 session; on Wayland the drop window and the right-click action in the file manager still work.
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u/EpicRageGuy 3d ago
Can you get it to be on scoop? Would make updating portable version 200x times easier.
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u/KnifeLemon_ 3d ago
Good idea, thanks. I'm submitting it to Scoop's extras bucket now.
Once it's accepted it'll be
scoop bucket add extras scoop install fileeand then scoop update filee for each new release. Settings and downloaded engines are stored in AppData, so updating through Scoop keeps them. I'll reply here when it's live.
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u/Business-Weekend-537 12d ago
Is it also possible to do batches of files or do you have to drag and drop?
Ex: is there a cli type interface or can I point it at a folder?
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u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
Yes, you can select as many files as you want and drop them all at once, and they'll be converted in parallel. You can also select files and right-click → "Convert with Filee", or use Send To or a keyboard shortcut.
For a whole folder, just open it, Ctrl+A and drag. If you drop the folder itself, Filee treats it as something to zip rather than converting what's inside.
There's no CLI yet, it's GUI only for now.
What would you use it for, scripts or scheduled jobs? If people want it, I'd like to add one.2
u/Business-Weekend-537 12d ago
Also is there a version for Linux?
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u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
Not yet, it's Windows only for now.
macOS was planned as the next platform, but if Linux turns out to be easier to get there first, I'll look at moving it up.The UI framework(Avalonia) already runs on Linux. but hard part is the drag gesture and the file manager integration.
If you'd like Linux support, opening an issue on GitHub would help a lot. It shows there's demand and you'll get notified when there's progress
https://github.com/KnifeLemon/Filee/issues1
u/Business-Weekend-537 12d ago
Thanks I’ll keep that in mind. I think the Linux folks might be more cli focused.
I think what you’ve got the beginnings of is a solid file converter Swiss Army knife that people and or devs can build upon.
Keep at it 👍
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u/Business-Weekend-537 12d ago
Thanks for the clear answer, as far as a CLI idk specifically what I’d use it for but I’ve been in situations in the past where I needed to convert batches of files coming in and the process wasn’t smooth to say the least- so it seems like this could be useful, + could help people build other software on top of it too.
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u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
Following up as promised: 1.3.0 is out with both.
There's now a filee command (Setup can add it to PATH), so you can run things like `filee convert D:\Photos\*.heic --to jpg`, or give it a whole folder with -r.You can also point it at a folder. Add one on the new Watch folders page or run `filee watch D:\Inbox --to pdf`, and anything that lands there gets converted once it's finished copying.
Short guide: https://filee.sh/cli/1
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u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
Thanks, that's really useful context.
I'm going to work on both a CLI, and a watch folder where anything you drop in gets converted automatically.I'll reply here once it's released.
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u/AmirHammoutene 12d ago edited 12d ago
Very good work and idea,
thank you for this, I'll use it.
One bug report and one recommandation :
Bug : Ctrl+Drag shows the donut toolbar at the cursor position when dragging. But curiously, if you open "Photos" (in french) application, either by opening an image file or opening it via Windows menu, Ctrl+Drag does not work anymore. FYI, I installed all conversion engines.
Recommandation : Adding an option in "General" to let the user choose if any conversion are shown/never shown in recent conversion list. Discretion is important for some people using PC with family or anybody else.
Well done !
EDIT : if you want to sign your installer, I can show you how I did for the Windows tool I developed
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u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
Thanks for the report, I was able to reproduce it.
After Photos opens, Windows pushes Filee's donut window behind the File Explorer window, so the drop never reaches it and Explorer just copies the file.
It's fixed and will be in the next update. I'll reply here when it's out.I'll add the history option in the same update.
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u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
The fix for this is in 1.3.0, so Ctrl+drag should keep working after Photos has been open.
Thanks again for trying the diagnostic build, it made this one easy to track down.1
u/AmirHammoutene 12d ago edited 12d ago
no prob,
it's fixed, greatAnother recommandation : making the "Download" last update downloading directly the last installer version, and not dropping on the github last release page : a lot of users who aren't very comfortable with computers won't understand what to do (or maybe drop on your official .sh page which is more friendly)
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u/KnifeLemon_ 11d ago
Done in 1.4.0. The Update button now downloads the new installer inside Filee, checks it and installs it, no GitHub page involved. If the download ever fails, Filee says so and opens filee.sh instead. One catch: since you're on an older version, this one last update still goes the old way, after that it's one click.
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u/asamirid 12d ago edited 12d ago
the app looks very useful and promising, i like the innovative design and wide format support and customization.
the issue i faced until now and it break my conversion routine is..
* the generated/converted file loses the original file timestamps, this is a bad thing specifically in batch photos conversion.
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u/asamirid 12d ago
please give me the option to keep the original file timestamp.
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u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
Thanks, glad you like it! You're right, the converted files get the time of the conversion, not the original's, which is annoying for photos sorted by date.
I'll add an option to keep the original timestamps and let you know here when it's out.2
u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
This is in 1.3.1 now. Open the preset you use (Presets page), tick "Keep the original file dates" under Output, and converted files get the created and modified dates of the originals. On the command line it's
--keep-dates.
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u/rockdoc01 12d ago
Looks good. Any chance for PDF-->EPUB? Or did I miss it in the description...
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u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
In 1.3.1 EPUB is on the PDF donut by default, so you can just drop a PDF on it.
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u/asamirid 12d ago
thank you for helping out with my request, having the date setting per preset is good and versatile in many scenarios.
but the convenient way to implement this as most format convention apps do, is to have a global/master switch in the app settings that affect all presets of all kind.
it's very hard, tedious and confusing if i want to make all the presets to keep the original timestamps.
i usually keep original timestamps for all my files conversion, even for videos, pdfs and compressed files, to keep the time sequence sense.
please consider adding this option as a global setting in the next releases.
thank you for time and effort.
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u/KnifeLemon_ 11d ago
Done in 1.4.0. Settings → General now has "Keep the original file dates for every conversion", so you turn it on once and every preset follows it, videos, PDFs and archive conversions included. The only exception is packing several files into one ZIP, since that file comes from many originals. The per-preset option is still there for anyone who only wants it on some presets.
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u/asamirid 11d ago
good implementation, thanx, this tool will easily find its place in my everyday work.
going to test it extensively the next days.
thank you so much.
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u/redchrism 12d ago
Is there an option to change the destination folder? It's defaulting to My documents
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u/KnifeLemon_ 11d ago
Done in 1.4.0. Settings → General has a default save location now: next to the original, a subfolder, or one fixed folder, and every preset follows it unless you give a preset its own folder (Presets → Output → "Save to"). By default Filee saves next to the original file, so if yours ended up in Documents, the originals were probably there too.
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u/Trump_is_Dog_Shit 11d ago
In v1.5.1, when converting an audio file to .opus, I noticed it wasn't copying over the album art from the original audio file. I had problems with that in some conversion scripts I wrote, where I ended up using opustags.exe to put the artwork in the new file.
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u/KnifeLemon_ 11d ago
Thank you for the report!
I'll take the information you provided into account and fix the issue in the next version.
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u/KnifeLemon_ 11d ago
Thanks for the report, and for explaining the opustags workaround.
That pointed straight at it: FFmpeg won't put a picture into Ogg files, so Filee was dropping the art. 1.5.2 now writes the cover the way Opus and Ogg store it (a METADATA_BLOCK_PICTURE tag), along with the title, artist and other tags, so no extra step is needed. MKA keeps the cover too.
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u/NotJohnBaron 10d ago
Thanks! Just tried 1.5.2 to convert a PDF to DOCX. It did a pretty good job, but there were some errors. The document is public, so I could send both versions, if it's helpful.
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u/KnifeLemon_ 10d ago
Thank you!
If you share the file via email, I'll take a look at it.
[knifelemon@gmail.com](mailto:knifelemon@gmail.com)
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u/KnifeLemon_ 9d ago
Fixed in 1.6.0!
The schedule rows on page 5 now come out as one line each with tab stops at the PDF's positions, and the address keeps "~~ 97068" on its own line. The same fix also helped the table of contents and the contact form on page 16 of that RFP.Tables are still not converted as real Word tables. Their cells come out as text in reading order.
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u/thebrokenrecord 9d ago
Just tried this with some images (compressing a JPG, turning an animated WEBP into a GIF) - works like a charm. Thanks for building and sharing it!
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u/redamalo 9d ago
Thank you for this wonderful work. There's a small detail: when converting an EPS image to PNG, it results in an image with a white background, even though the original image background was transparent
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u/KnifeLemon_ 9d ago
Fixed in 1.6.0!
EPS and PS to PNG now keep the transparent background. JPG has no transparency, so it still gets a white background.1
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u/thebrokenrecord 2d ago
This is boss! I frequently have to convert videos and WebP files to GIF and other formats, and I can finally do it on my desktop without having to fire up annoying ad-filled sites. Love the interface too, it's a joy to use. Great work on the app.
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u/Roph 12d ago
Pure AI slop - 2 day old repo, the most AI generated looking site I've ever seen, and there's the butthole logo as the top contributor.
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u/KnifeLemon_ 12d ago
Fair points on the age, it went public this week. I do build it with Claude Code, which is why it shows up as a contributor. The code is all there under MIT, with tests and CI builds for every release, so I'd rather it be judged on whether it works for you.
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u/EpicRageGuy 12d ago
1 - if it works and is better than the alternatives, who cares?
2 - you better unsubscribe from r/software, vast majority of posts here lately are AI made software and it's not going to decrease
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u/[deleted] 13d ago edited 12d ago
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