When comparing Far Manager vs Avanquest PowerDesk, the Slant community recommends Far Manager for most people. In the question“What are the best file managers for Windows?” Far Manager is ranked 7th while Avanquest PowerDesk is ranked 21st. The most important reason people chose Far Manager is:
Far Manager's interface encourages keyboard operation - all actions are easily accessible with keyboard shortcuts, you can quickly record macros for any repeatable action, there are no screen redraws if it is not necessary and that makes everything faster.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Keyboard-oriented
Far Manager's interface encourages keyboard operation - all actions are easily accessible with keyboard shortcuts, you can quickly record macros for any repeatable action, there are no screen redraws if it is not necessary and that makes everything faster.
Pro Open source
Released under BSD license.
Pro Two-panel interface
Pro Many plugins
There are may of them, and you can write them in any languages, including Python.
Pro Editor with syntax highlighting
Every Far feature is also true for its editor. You can setup an external editor if you like, but the included editor works really well and features syntax highlighting.
Pro Easily recorded macros
Hit "Ctrl-." and start recording your boring sequence. Hit "Ctrl-." again to assign it a key. You can use Lua if you need more advanced macros.
Pro Numeric sorting option
E.g. readme-9.txt before readme-10.txt
Pro Extremely fast
Pro Offline context help
Just press F1 when you need it. No internet connection or browser is required.
Pro Themeable
Fully themeable, allowing you to change the colors of every part of the interface.
Pro Scrippting support via LUA
Pro In split verticle view, it has a tree & details view for each side
Font size is perfect and allows at least 65 lines on a 1920 X 1200 monitor.
Pro In split verticle view, it has a tree & details view for each side
Font size is perfect and allows at least 65 lines on a 1920 X 1200 monitor.
Pro Has a powerful file sync capability
Powerful file sync capability for keeping directory trees on two different drives in sync. Great when working with external drives or for backing up a laptop or smartphone to your PC Hard drive. Two vertical panes make it easy to copy files from one place to another using drag & drop
Cons
Con Blocking operations
Operations such as copy, move, delete, etc are blocking, and you have to wait for them to complete before you can continue.
Though you can cancel the operation with the escape key.
Con Only for Windows
Con Always uses monospace font
Which makes long file names look extremely wide
Con Does not support scrolling with mouse
With plugin
Con Text-based interface
Far Manager does not use a GUI like most windows applications nowadays. This may prove difficult to use for people who are not familiar with text-based user interfaces.
Con Folder shortcuts not available in Alt+F1/F2 menus
Con Lacking support / updates in recent years
Lacking signs of active support in recent years, which is too bad because it was the best Windows File manager out there back in the Windows 7 era. Avanquest had really blown it. But if you have unused licenses, it is still usable.
Con Slow & bug-ridden
This program used to be an outstanding file manager for the Windows platform (Mike Kronenberg's "WizManager"). Several acquisitions later, it's slow, bug-ridden & has had almost no developer input for many years. Don't waste your money on this one!
Con Another acquisition, no redemption in sight
PowerDesk 9 has this really neat annoyance that causes it to go back to its (current?) mothership and request that you re-enter the serial number so that you can continue using the program. It's hard to determine what causes this program to do this, but it does happen. If the serial number re-entry doesn't work, and oftentimes it doesn't, Tech Support recommends that you uninstall the program, then go to the Tech support website to get the "latest" edition that supposed to reinstall with the original serial number, but it doesn't work. This was once a great program but now VCOM owns them and no sign of updates, corrections, bug fixes, even low level customer notices.