When comparing Altap Salamander vs Avanquest PowerDesk, the Slant community recommends Altap Salamander for most people. In the question“What are the best file managers for Windows?” Altap Salamander is ranked 13th while Avanquest PowerDesk is ranked 21st.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Looks very polished and consistent
Pro Very feature-rich
Pro Very stable, even preview versions
Pro Intuitive two-pane interface
The program features a dual-pane interface that allows you to easily move files between views.
Pro As of July 2019 now freeware
Pro Very fast
No delay is noticable in the user interface.
Pro License is good on multiple machines
Can be used at home and work.
Pro Extensive keyboard shortcut support
Pro Built-in FTP and SFTP
The program has built in support for a variety of common network protocols (such as FTP, FTPS, SCP and SFTP) for file transferring over the internet.
Pro Powerful bookmark support
Easy bookmark usage, e.g., Shift+1 selects the first directory. The bookmarked directories are also available in the usual popups to switch the left/right drive (Alt+F1/F2).
Pro Built-in archive support (zip, rar, etc)
Pro Customizable colors
Different colors can be assigned to compressed files or files with a certain name pattern.
Pro Customizable with own external tools
Pro Copy and move operations can work in background
Pro Automation plugin
Enables user to automate repetitious actions via JScript and VBScript (via windows script engines already installed). There is also support for Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby (Arton's ruby must be installed to have the Action script support)
Pro Encrypt files
Pro Built-in undelete plugin
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 Slow development
Rarely updates.
Con Text Viewer does not support UTF-8
Con Winscp not available for x64 version
Winscp plugin is available only for x86 version and missing @x64.
Con Hard-coded shortcuts
Shortcuts are hard-coded and therefore can't be changed by the user.
Con Image viewer is basic
Con No tabs in dual panes
There are no tabs available in the dual panes view, which can be a time-saver for some users.
Con No Unicode support
Unicode was promised many years ago, but due to slow development, still nothing.
Con Is only available for Windows
There is no full replacement for Linux or OS X.
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.