Ok, I'll consider that. Thanks.

see screen shot example

What do you mean by "violet theme"? Are you using some custom Windows theming?

Thanks Martin, I checked again following your suggestions:

• The path bar color
  
• The focus rectangle
  
• The selection color
  

They are all there — but unfortunately, they’re not visually strong enough, at least in real-world use.

For example:
If I minimize and then restore the window, it's very easy to lose track of which panel is active, because the visual difference is too subtle.
The focus rectangle is thin and barely noticeable, especially with modern screens and themes.

Also, in my case, the background color of the local (left) and remote (right) panels looks almost the same. Even when one is active and the other is not, there’s not enough contrast.

Example:
If I set a violet theme and the local panel is active, I still see similar violet tones on both panels — so I can’t easily tell which side is active.

That’s why I wrote here:
I believe this could be improved with a much stronger visual distinction — like a different background color, a more visible border, or even a small indicator/icon showing “active panel”.

Maybe the inactive panel could simply turn gray (dimmed) — like visually "not selected" — and when I click on the other side, it becomes violet or highlighted again.
That’s just an idea, but something like that would really help.

Thanks again for listening!

You can tell which panel is active by:

• Color of a path bar above a file list
  
• Selection color (as you mentioned yourself)
  
• Focus rectangle
  

All can be seen on this screenshot:
https://winscp.net/eng/data/media/screenshots/commander.png

Thanks! I see what you mean.

Yes, there is a small difference in how selected items look (bright vs faded), but that only helps when something is selected inside the panel.

My point is more about the whole panel having a clear visual indicator — like a slightly different background or border — to show which side (local or remote) is currently active, even if nothing is selected inside.

It would really help after minimizing/restoring the window, or when using keyboard shortcuts like F5, where it's easy to forget which panel is selected.

So this is more about a persistent and clear UI highlight for the active panel, not just item selection.

Thanks again!

Wouldn't simply selecting after restoring the window and then using copy fix this? It should be possible to simply adjust how you're going about things.

Anyway, they do seem to kind of already have this. Any folder or file selected will be bright in the selected panel. If there's a selected one in the other panel at the same time, its faded.

Hi,

I often work in Commander interface with local files on the left and remote files on the right.

Sometimes I forget which panel (left or right) is currently selected/active — especially after minimizing and restoring the window.
For example, if I press F5 to copy, I get confused whether it will upload or download, because I’m not sure which side is active.

I would like to suggest a visual indicator:
When one panel is selected (active), it should be clearly highlighted or have a brighter background, and the other panel (inactive) should be slightly dimmed.

This would make the UX much clearer and safer — avoiding wrong transfers due to wrong focus.

Is there any option to enable this, or could it be considered as a feature request?

Thanks!