When comparing Avanquest PowerDesk vs FileVoyager, the Slant community recommends FileVoyager for most people. In the question“What are the best file managers for Windows?” FileVoyager is ranked 20th while Avanquest PowerDesk is ranked 21st.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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
Pro Free
Pro Modern look & feel
Pro Highly customizable
Pro various display modes
Browsing in various display modes (like report or thumbnail modes)
Pro A lot of out-of-the-box features
FileVoyager offers a (nearly) universal file viewer, a (nearly) universal archive format support (integrated 7-zip), a (nearly) universal image and video support, a hash tool, a file and folder comparison.
Pro Actively maintained
Pro Quick preview
Render multimedia files (including M3U, PLS, ASX, WPL, MPCPL and XSPF playlist formats)
View ebooks and comicbooks including PDF, EPUB, MOBI, FB2, DJVU, CBR, CBZ, XPS, … (Powered by SumatraPDF)
Syntax highlighting for virtually any source code language/format (Powered by Scintilla)
Render final view for formats supported by Preview Handlers (like Office files, PDF, pictures, …)
Support many character encodings (SBCS including various ANSI implementations, UTF-8, UTF-16, EBCDIC)
Display in flat or hexadecimal for any format
Pro Synchronize folders
Compare files or folders.
Pro Play virtually any Audio or Video formats
FileVoyager relies at once on installed codecs, on WMP and on VLC
Pro 7-zip integrations
Pack and unpack ZIP, 7Zip, GZip, BZip2, XZ, Tar and WIM formats
ARJ, CAB, XAR, Z, RAR, LZH, LZMA, ISO, WIM and many others
Pro file operations containers
Usual file operations (rename, copy, move, link, delete, recycle) in the containers listed above and even between them
Pro Easy browsing
Browse disks, folders (real or virtual), shares, archives and FTP/FTPS in one unified way
Pro Portable
Cons
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.