In contrast to several other file managers, it has a context aware user interface hiding complexity – for instance, the bottom function list changes on press of modifier keys, just showing the currently available hotkey function set.

[5] Servant Salamander 1.0 development was started in 1996 as a hobby project by Petr Šolín (from Czech Republic) during his studies at university and released as freeware in 1997.

Salamander 2.0 included support for viewer and archiver plugins.

Custom column plugins known from Total Commander are not supported, neither yet non-latin alphabets of the Unicode.

Altap Salamander 3.x version series newly supports the Windows 7 and higher, two binaries are available, for users' choice: 32-bit and 64-bit.