Welcome to Star*Explorer Home!

"...a great product backed by a great service..." 
Actual User Comment 
 
  • Upload or replace unlimited number of photos
  • Download unlimited number of photos back to your HDD
  • Automatically convert your images to Smugmug-compatible formats or resize your JPEGs
  • Take it everywhere with you - it "weighs" less than 1Mb...
  • Find your images, albums, sales and stats fast
  • Drag-and-drop and/or send your files and folders from your Windows Explorer or Adobe Bridge/Lightroom
  • Notify yourself, your friends and your family of the new uploads
    with the built-in email client
  • Use it from as many machines as you want
  • Create and re-use your own custom gallery settings
  • Stay organized with the extensive but easy-to-use options
  • Friendly and responsive customer service (not that you'd need it much:-)
  
 
Read more, or download latest version and start benefiting from using the best in its class add-on for Smugmug now!

 
Newsflash:
 
  • Got SmugVault?
    This AMAZing (pun intended:-) new service allows you to use your SM account to store ANY types of files online, not just jpegs. Sky is the limit (well, technically 512Mb per file for now:-).
    And the best thing - if you have Star*Explorer, you don't have to worry about it .
    Sign up for SmugVault in your SM Control Panel and then simply add the desired extensions to your "Video" files extension list (and set the limit to 512Mb if it wasn't set that way yet). That's all!

    NOTE: These files can be  huge and mishaps can, and most likely will, happen.
    But S*E's persistent queue still guarantees - as always - no file gets lost, large or small!
  • Greatly improved Sales Results dialog
  • S*E can resize your images now; also you can control your thumbs :-)
  • Smugmug has increased max file sizes. Pros get 24Mb, the rest got 12Mb.
    Please update your S*E settings (Tools|Options, Upload, Max File Size) accordingly.
  • S*E is at Facebook
  • S*E got new home at GoDaddy!
  • Please see History for details.
  • Warning: End of year 2006 changes to the Smugmug servers broke down image stats download.
    SM officials have been notified.
    In the mean time please do not use individual image stats feature until further notice.
  • Adobe Bridge Integration: in addition to Windows explorer, you are able to send your images directly from Bridge! Unlike default Bridge/Smugmug interface, S*E helps with numerous folders and large number of files.
  • Nice Adobe Lightroom integration method!
  • Star*Bucks: earn some real money!
  • From the recent prior versions:
    *     Super-fast "no-wait" upload mode
    *     Auto-resume Upload
    *     Downloadable Search Results
    *     Bulk image replace
    *     Image-level keywords
    *     Full-text search
    *     Vista-safe licenses
    *     Multithreaded image upload, 10%..30% speed improvement
    *     Custom size image download;
    *     S*E knows about Bridge sorting files (you may need to turn this option ON)
    * ... complete history ...
     
  • With extremely high CSI, 165,000+ hits, 630+ customers and counting, S*E is going strong!
    Many thanks to all the users, sponsors and customers!
  • Quote from a customer: "S*E is simply the best, love it love it love ittttt!!!!"
 
What Customers Say

"I've tried all the other utilities such as SendToSmugMug and a plug-in for Lightroom and I had problems with all of them.
The main problem was that I would setup a large upload to go up during the night and the upload would invariably fail during the night. This type of failure was a real pain because it was a partial failure, I had to either delete all the photos from the album on Smugmug or try to figure out which ones out of the hundreds of uploaded pictures were not successfully uploaded.
I will go as far as to say Smugmug is a good photo site, however it is essentially worthless to me if I can't get photos uploaded in an efficient manner. That's where Star*Explorer comes in. Without your utility my Smugmug account would be worthless to me due to the difficulty in uploading hundreds of photos.
I would also like to say it would be in Smugmug's best interest to furnish a legal copy of Star*Explorer with each account. I would suggest supplying the standard version with the basic Smugmug account and doing the Power and Pro with the higher end accounts. I think it would help them retain customers. I know I was ready to cancel my Smugmug account that I've had for a year or so. It's just to hard to upload a lot of photos without a good utility like Star*Explorer.
I think you have done a great job with it and seem to be really interested in fixing any problems that arise from Smugmug site upgrades. It's a rare thing to find a software company that is responsive to the needs of its customers. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for your efforts."

Greg Williams

"My first upload with the tool was over a wired connection of about 520+ images total over 1.2Gb. The upload was going great until I had to unplug the laptop power supply and move the computer to get it away from the kids (I have a 11 month old and 3 year old). I panicked when the program stopped responding after the move. Before, I had to manually figure out which files to upload and with 520+ images it would be very time consuming. But, I simply ran Star*Explorer, was prompted with a dialog about an interrupted upload and if I wanted to proceed. I, of course, said yes and another dialog confirmed the number of files yet to be uploaded. It's great when a tool does what it claims to do with a minimum of impact to the user. I ran a smaller upload last night over my wireless network. I have never had any size upload complete successfully wirelessly, until Star*Explorer. I did not have any problems or interrupts. Thanks for a great tool!"

Chris Otto

"I know that I don't have to tell you how much time S*E has already saved me. I've only used it three times so far, each time uploading several GB of files. When I shoot, I usually take b/w 1500 and 3000 images a day, which need to be sorted and uploaded within 24 hours to maximize sales. It just wouldn't be possible w/o your program.
Thanks for a great effort, and a great software package!"

...Two Months Later...

"...Your software is amazing. My testimonial you use on your home page was what I wrote after only using the software three times. Now that I've had it for two months, I can honestly say that you should be charging at least four times as much as you do. I've used it to upload 35Gb in the past two months, mostly while I sleep..."

Thomas Jordan,
Jordan Motorsports

"Nikolai,
I personally wanted to thank you for S*E and to let you know how pleased we are with its performance and your terrific customer support.
As a commercial Event Photography Company, Pictures Ink may upload anywhere from 100 to as many as 3000 photographs within 2-3 days of an event. I can’t tell what a bottleneck this was to our workflow process using the default Smugmug uploader. We could only get an average 50 digital images per window so many times my photographers would have 10 or more sessions running simultaneously. Then if a session crashed (which happened with regular frequency) we would have to delete all of the corrupted uploaded files and start over.

We started using S*E on a trial basis and within 2 weeks of using your wonderful program we were hooked and had to buy the S*E Pro.
I can’t imagine doing things the old way. We have saved 5 times the cost of the software in increased productivity in the past 10 days alone. I estimate we saved 3 photographers well over an hour each.

In May, 2005 we are photographing a Basketball tournament with 70 teams and 5 venues, I expect there publish over 10,000 photographs of the event within 3 days. Pictures Ink would not have been able to accept this challenging task without the confidence to publish the photographs in a timely manner; your software has given us that confidence.

Thank You!

Keith Van Wemmer
President/Owner
Pictures Ink"

"Nik - You've really done a great job on this! It does everything I could possibly ask for!
I've figured out what the "collate" function does and within 10 minutes (mostly because of my being a bit excel "rusty"), I was able to see my profit per dance event, my outstanding order payments, my most popular print items, and those items that have had repeat customers.
All things that would have taken literally tens of hours to manually enter, maintain, and customize.
You can quote me on any of this and if you would desire any kind of "kudos" write-up beyond this, just let me know.
Take care and absolute luck and success with this great add-on smugmug tool!

Derek Meredith, http://dtmphotos.smugmug.com"
more feedback here...
 

What is Star*Explorer?

Star*Explorer (S*E, formerly Smugmug Explorer) is a very small, fast, robust and efficient Windows application designed to facilitate certain smugmug-related activities, such as unlimited persistent image upload, download, customized gallery settings, reports, etc.

It has been created and is fully supported by a person who loves digital photography, smugmug, and, most importantly, has more than 30 years of hardcore programming experience behind his belt.

Here's how S*E's main screen looks:


 Main screen with upload queue populated with images

Start*Explorer has an extensive (while easy to use - I hope:-) set of options:

Options dialog

Default values are set to match the initial needs, so you don't have to start tweaking them immediately.
 

Technical Facts
You don't have to read this, but in case you're into it - here you are:

Feature

Comment
Operating system Any Windows flavor. XP or better recommended.
So far S*E also runs on 98/Me, but support for those OS-s can be dropped any moment.
Deployment size About 1Mb initial download, updates about 700Kb.
Application type Native Win32 executable, no VB or .NET run-time required
Upload size Unlimited. So far the record was about 30Gb in one session, let's see if you can beat it..
How to add files for upload
  • drag-and-drop
  • add files/folders via standard file/folder dialog
  • directly from Windows Explorer via Send To context menu (Shell Extension)
  • directly from Adobe Bridge (extra scripts needed)
Persistent upload queue Yes, once upload has been initiated the queue is stored on the HDD to protect user against crashes, power failures, etc.
Duplicates verification Several levels, configurable.
Image replacement Yes, including multiple images/albums at a time
Albums creation Yes, including multiple albums at a time
Categories/Subcategories creation Yes, including multiple items at a time
Custom album settings Yes, user-configured
Conversion to SM-compliant file types Yes, for whatever graphics types supported by GDI+ on your system
File types/size check Yes, user-configurable
Direct access to specific pages Yes, from toolbar, and main/context menus
Custom captions Yes, including access to EXIF/IPTC data
Upload image preview Yes, any compatible file type
Image arranging for upload Yes, including various sorting options and fully manual adjustment
Export to Excel/Clipboard Yes, in multiple places. Check context menus.
Report capabilities Yes, S*E is using industry standard ADO interface to store information in local databases.
If you have MS Access or any other ADO-compatible tool (Crystal Report, etc) installed, you are free to run reports of your data.
Accountability Yes, all actions are logged (details level can be set by user)
Security Yes, SSL protocol levels 2 and 3 are supported. User can specify action types to secure.
Instant startup Yes, due to extensive local data caching S*E can load momentarily and display your data without connecting to your account.
Offline mode Yes, including optional auto-disconnect and auto-exit
Email support Yes, SMTP, user-configurable.
Upload email Yes, multiple formats, includes capability for "progress" reports
System Shutdown upon Upload Yes, user-configurable: none, suspend, hibernate, logoff, shutdown
Sales data export/analysis Yes*
Bandwidth cap control Yes (Pro/Power edition)
Direct access to statistics Yes**
Image info download Pro: unlimited, Power: one album at a time. Not available for Standard.
Image download Pro: unlimited, Power: one album at a time. Not available for Standard.
Star*Bucks cash out Pro only
Full Text Search + Results Download Yes (Pro/Power edition)
Customer support Very friendly and helpful, see for yourself
 
*) Pro edition required for full mode, view-only otherwise.
**) Pro or Power edition required to download unlimited statistical data, single album/current month only otherwise
 

All in all, it may come handy when you have more than a dozen cell phone pictures to upload.

Download the latest version of Star*Explorer and start using it.
 

What actual users have to say:

  • "...I have been uploading my entire studio archive to smugmug, and it would have been a nightmare to tackle a project like that without your software..."
  • "...I found out about Star*Explorer by searching for 'smugmug uploader' and 'smugmug upload tool'. I checked out whatever I found. Star*Explorer seemed to be the only one where the person behind it cared about stuff like bloat, stability, performance, bandwidth control, etc. I tried Picasa with the smugmug button...works ok for a couple of pictures but try 80 and my system pretty much locks up (unresponsive and is massively swapping or something). Star*Explorer worked fine with this load...."
  • "... found out about S*E from the Pro help section / hints on the SmugMug site; they suggested that many pros prefer to use S*E for uploading photos. I'm in the process of uploading over 6000 photos and it is going smoothly with your product!..."
  • "...I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Star Explorer! My favorite feature: shutting off the computer when I'm done with an upload! I do many of my uploads in the middle of the night so this is just the right feature for me!"
  • "...great product backed by great service..."
  • "...your app rocks..."
  • "...Your software makes it so much easier to upload thousands of event photos that we generate each weekend. I love it so much I'm buying the Pro edition even though I prolly don't really need the additional features!..."
  • "...Thanks again for the support. I almost feel a little weird about it, when do you ever get great support for a product when you haven't paid for it yet?..."
  • "...Great product! I enjoyed every moment of the trial period!..."
  • "...Fantastic program -- only wish I had brought it sooner. It's saving me quite a bit of time and stress over those "socket exception errors". Thanks! ..."
  • "...I'm just bummed I didn't know about your software 40,000 smugmug uploads ago..."
  • "...I finally got tired of the free uploaders and looked at your product...
    I just used a demo download of your software to upload 225MB of photos (107 of them) and it took something less then 25 minutes. OK, I'm impressed!..."
  • "...I stumbled across your software when i was trying to find out if Send to Smugmug could pass a proxy.
    Your software is great. Esp. the SSL option on upload, gets around our company's upload restrictions!! (((-:
    Has made uploading etc .much much easier, just wish I'd found it sooner..!!..."
  • "...Love the program! I do all the post processing, launch S*E, tell it shutdown my PC when done and go to bed. Can't imagine how to upload without it..."
  • "...Just a thank you! I know what I was looking for was a little confusing (dual license, one pro and one power), but you were patient helping me out! And when I typed my email address wrong, I can't believe how fast you got me a new code for my S*E!..."
  • "...HUGE thanks for this product. You've truly made my life so much easier! Having two sites and trying to get everything up to them was a complete pain, but not anymore...."
  • "...just wanted to say that you rock!..."
  • "...S*E rocks!!!..."
  • "...Love the program, really saves me from the trouble if the smugmug's browser-thing disconnects while uploading..."
  • "...I had an URGENT requirement to load to smugmug reliably, and your software was the only answer I could find!..."
  • "...Wonderful program!..."
  • "...This is an excellent piece of software..."
  • "...I love your product, it's made uploading pictures so much easier!.."
  • "...I recommend it to all the new smugmug users that I see..."
  • "...I like the idea of being able to download my pics back automatically..."
  • "...I uploaded 80GB with my trial of S*E and it worked great!..."
  • "...S*E is simply the best, love it love it love ittttt!!!!..."
  • "...Your program has been a life saver. I recently shot my first wedding and had 700mgs to upload and only 1 night to do it in. I would have had to pull an all nighter if it wasn't for Star*Explorer.
    Phenomenal interface and a ton of useful features. I couldn't be happier..."
  • "...Thanks for all you hard work and sorry it took me so long..."
  • "...Amazing program..."
  • "...Thanks for a great application!..."
  • "...I have been testing the setup, and without question, I love S*E! Great work!.."
  • "...What can I say: you make a good product :) ..."
  • "...Thanks for putting out such a cool product...."
  • "...You have a wonderful software product that makes working with smugmug much easier..."
  • "...Love the program... I plan on putting lots of travel photos up on Smugmug, and without Star*Explorer, it would never happen. :)..."
  • "...I have to say that I am quite impressed with this software package. Job well done..."
  • "...I couldn't be so efficient using SmugMug without your application..."
  • "...I've used your program while it was still in beta. Very helpful and nicely designed. Thanks again for the great product..."
  • "...Great product! Will be a lifesaver for me..."
  • "...I think you program is really great.  I've got 18Gigs on Smugmug and so can use the convenience and power of your program..."
  • "...Your program is a life saver. Absolutely worth every penny and then some..."
  • "...I've really enjoyed the program. I have uploaded 700+ files so far from my recent trip... Not a single glitch or hiccup...
    I can't imagine doing it the other way, because I had a LOT of stability issues when uploading a large batch of files..."
  • "...Thanks for a great program! I've been using it since before its full release when I heard you mention it on dgrin. Finally got a chance to sit down and send you some money for the license. It will be used quite a bit!..."
  • "...Thanks for a quality product!..."
  • "...I love your program and encourage you to push on. It's great!..."
  • "...We love what you're doing and want to support it as much as our meager resources will allow..."
  • "...You have an AVID fan! I frequently have to open 10 upload windows so this will be a HUGE help..."
  • "...Love your product, you have done a great job with this!..."
  • "...Read the entire dgrin dialogue concerning your app for and was fascinated. I downloaded it today and it will be great for what I plan to use smugmug for. Just had to say thanks for all the work!..."
  • "...I'm just getting started with smugmug ... and S*E looked like a great tool..."
  • "...Ver 010.100 seems to be working flawlessly! Thank You!..."
  • "...If only every business was as responsive as you!..."
  • "...S*E makes life with Smugmug oh so pleasant..."
  • "...S*E Customer Service deserves 5 stars..."
  • "...SM deleted an order from last month without telling me which screwed up my tracking by 1 print.
    If it hadn’t been for S*E I would have been spent at least 30-45 minutes reconciling.
    With S*E I was able to get a sales report and do a side by side in Excel and within 5 minutes I had the answer..."

Have something to say about S*E? Drop a line to feedback@starexplorer.com.

 

Star*Explorer. No Limits.
 

Copyright © 2005 Star*Explorer, contact: support@starexplorer.com