If you're using a fuzzing plugin to open buffers most of the time, and use NERDTree only to explore larger directory hierarchies, you might want to learn about Vim's built-in netrw interface: :help netrw
.
Options that I found particulary useful were:
let g:netrw_banner = 0
let g:netrw_keepdir = 0
let g:netrw_liststyle = 1 " or 3
let g:netrw_sort_options = 'i'
And maybe a way to run it on Vim startup:
1) Open it at startup if no argument was specified ($ vim
):
autocmd VimEnter * if !argc() | Explore | endif
2) Open it only when the specified argument is a directory ($ vim /tmp
):
autocmd VimEnter * if isdirectory(expand('<afile>')) | Explore | endif
HTH