In order to preserve LFNs while working in real mode, Norton Commander 5.51 required the use of a Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) utility. Symantec released Norton Commander 5.51 to support long filenames using the standard Windows APIs. Windows 95 included a new graphical shell called Windows Explorer and supported long filenames (LFN). Additionally, it also includes a built-in text file viewer (invoked with F3 key) and text file editor (invoked with F4 key). Thus, without heavy use of the mouse (although mouse functionality was integrated around version 3.0), the user is able to perform many file manipulation actions quickly and efficiently. At the bottom of the screen, Norton Commander displays a list of commands that are extended on demand by the CTRL and ALT keys.
Each panel can be easily configured to show information about the other panel, a directory tree, or a number of other options. After starting the program the user sees two panels with file lists. Norton Commander was easy to use because it had a constant view of two file manipulation objects at once.
