Midnight Commander is based on versatile text interfaces, such as Ncurses or S-Lang, which allow it to work on a regular console, inside an X terminal, over SSH connections, over an RS-232 interface (for embedded devices) and all kinds of remote shells. (Pressing F1 would then produce a brief explanation of the options, including examples of how to use wildcards.) All of these features are available by using the File > Rename/Move menu selection. In addition, the user can select whether or not to use ' shell patterns' or ' globs' (automatic grouping of wildcards). This makes the power of regular expressions available for renaming files, with a convenient user interface.

It lets the user specify the original and resulting file names using wildcard characters. Midnight Commander can also move files to a different directory at the same time as it renames them. to make them conform to a new naming convention. This is convenient for manipulating large collections of files, e.g. Midnight Commander can also rename groups of files, unlike a number of other file managers that can only rename one file at a time. Users also have the option to replace mcedit with the editor of their choice (Options Menu>Configuration> Use Internal Edit). mcedit's features include syntax highlighting for many languages, macros, code snippets, simple integration with external tools, automatic indentation, mouse support, a clipboard and the ability to work in both ASCII and hex modes. Midnight Commander also includes an editor called mcedit, which can be executed as a standalone program or from Midnight Commander using the F4 key. Midnight Commander's features include the ability to view the contents of RPM package files, to work with common archive formats as if they were simply another directory, and to function as an FTP or FISH client. When running inside an X terminal, these versions can update the name of the window in which Midnight Commander runs (if allowed by the terminal emulator). Such versions are aware of GPM and X terminal emulators (such as GNOME Terminal or xterm) which support mouse reporting. Later versions of the Midnight Commander additionally have mouse support.

File selection is done using arrow keys, the insert key is used to select files and the function keys perform operations such as renaming, editing and copying files. The main interface consists of two panels which display the file system. Midnight Commander is a console application with a text user interface.

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