ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

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jacksonmacd
Posts: 32
Joined: 07 Dec 2011 05:33

ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by jacksonmacd »

I've been a PowerDesk user forever, but it just got too painful on Win7 and/or on networks. Decided to take a look at XYplorer, and purchased a lifetime licence after only one day of the 30-day free trial. I am really impressed!

I kept looking for features from PowerDesk that I've come to rely on, and sure enough, they were right there in XY. Configured the list views to my minimalistic preference, found how to display filesize in bytes instead of KB, found how to display drive icons on the toolbar, found that the Catalog was a superior replacement to PD's "favourite" feature, etc, etc. The depth of this program is amazing.

Only thing I haven't found yet (and I understand it's on the roadmap) is browsing Zip files. It was a favourite feature of mine from PD, and I encourage the developer to put it into XY.

I am really impressed by the Catalog. I created a bunch of entries for various network resources that I use everyday. Helps this old-guy's brain to remember and organize disparate network locations. Well done.

I also really like the ability to create Junctions. I used to use a standalone utility to create soft links, but the Junctions work much better. Well done!

I like the software licence -- can install it on every computer that I use. Nice touch. It's not often I shell out $70 for software, but I think I made the right decision, partly because of the right-minded licence.

One nit: I would like to see some tweaking of the "save on exit" routine. Specifically, I've turned off the "save on exit" so I can re-arrange at will during any session. I defined several resources in the Catalog, then forgot to do the manual save, and lost the resource definitions. Would be nice if the "save" function for the catalog was separate from the main "save on exit" toggle.

j_c_hallgren
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Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by j_c_hallgren »

jacksonmacd wrote: Would be nice if the "save" function for the catalog was separate from the main "save on exit" toggle.
Hi and welcome to the XY forums!
And glad you are happy with XY thus far! You'll find a dedicated group of fans here in the forum!

As to your comment re save of catalog: Have you looked at File>Settings>Save Catalog? You can select various items to save within that Settings menu...

And until XY gets zip support, I encourage you to look at some of the ways here in forum that other users have found to interface to external zip pgrms...don't recall which appl is easiest to use but may be another one than what you're using now.
Still spending WAY TOO much time here! But it's such a pleasure helping XY be a treasure!
(XP on laptop with touchpad and thus NO mouse!) Using latest beta vers when possible.

nas8e9
Posts: 2232
Joined: 21 Jun 2008 14:50

Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by nas8e9 »

j_c_hallgren wrote:
jacksonmacd wrote: Would be nice if the "save" function for the catalog was separate from the main "save on exit" toggle.[/quoteAs to your comment re save of catalog: Have you looked at File>Settings>Save Catalog? You can select various items to save within that Settings menu...
Alternatively, you could re-enable Save settings on exit, but with lists you don't want to save in Configuration > Startup & Exit > Remember most-recently-used lists > Apply to, disabled.

avsfan
Posts: 554
Joined: 29 Jun 2006 09:00
Location: Fort Collins, Colorado

Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by avsfan »

jacksonmacd wrote:Only thing I haven't found yet (and I understand it's on the roadmap) is browsing Zip files. It was a favourite feature of mine from PD, and I encourage the developer to put it into XY.
Welcome!

Something that may work for you to be able to at least see the contents of a zip file is to make a tweak that will use the preview pane to show a zip file's contents.

To do this, just edit the configuration file and add .zip to the key "OfficePreviewCustomExtentions" -- for example, mine looks like

Code: Select all

OfficePreviewCustomExtensions=.gif.zip.
Then save the config file and restart without saving and you should be set...

Again, welcome!

jacksonmacd
Posts: 32
Joined: 07 Dec 2011 05:33

Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by jacksonmacd »

j_c_hallgren wrote:
jacksonmacd wrote: Would be nice if the "save" function for the catalog was separate from the main "save on exit" toggle.
Hi and welcome to the XY forums!
And glad you are happy with XY thus far! You'll find a dedicated group of fans here in the forum!

As to your comment re save of catalog: Have you looked at File>Settings>Save Catalog? You can select various items to save within that Settings menu...

And until XY gets zip support, I encourage you to look at some of the ways here in forum that other users have found to interface to external zip pgrms...don't recall which appl is easiest to use but may be another one than what you're using now.

No - I had not seen the SaveCatalog command. Too much stuff to cover.... ;-)
Handy to know, but it still requires manual intervention. One of the other replies below may be more to my liking.

I use 7-Zip. Easy enough and it works well, but not quite as integrated as what I am used to with PD. Again, the other suggestion about preview pane may work for me.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Jack

jacksonmacd
Posts: 32
Joined: 07 Dec 2011 05:33

Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by jacksonmacd »

avsfan wrote:
jacksonmacd wrote:Only thing I haven't found yet (and I understand it's on the roadmap) is browsing Zip files. It was a favourite feature of mine from PD, and I encourage the developer to put it into XY.
Welcome!

Something that may work for you to be able to at least see the contents of a zip file is to make a tweak that will use the preview pane to show a zip file's contents.

To do this, just edit the configuration file and add .zip to the key "OfficePreviewCustomExtentions" -- for example, mine looks like

Code: Select all

OfficePreviewCustomExtensions=.gif.zip.
Then save the config file and restart without saving and you should be set...

Again, welcome!

I definitely will try this.

jacksonmacd
Posts: 32
Joined: 07 Dec 2011 05:33

Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by jacksonmacd »

nas8e9 wrote:
j_c_hallgren wrote:
jacksonmacd wrote: Would be nice if the "save" function for the catalog was separate from the main "save on exit" toggle.[/quoteAs to your comment re save of catalog: Have you looked at File>Settings>Save Catalog? You can select various items to save within that Settings menu...
Alternatively, you could re-enable Save settings on exit, but with lists you don't want to save in Configuration > Startup & Exit > Remember most-recently-used lists > Apply to, disabled.

I guess the #1 thing I want to avoid is clobbering the layout of columns and the list sort order. However, it was not obvious to me which of the checkboxes to clear so that SaveSettingOnExit would not touch the layout of the columns. Suggestions?

jacksonmacd
Posts: 32
Joined: 07 Dec 2011 05:33

Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by jacksonmacd »

jacksonmacd wrote:
avsfan wrote:
jacksonmacd wrote:Only thing I haven't found yet (and I understand it's on the roadmap) is browsing Zip files. It was a favourite feature of mine from PD, and I encourage the developer to put it into XY.
Welcome!

Something that may work for you to be able to at least see the contents of a zip file is to make a tweak that will use the preview pane to show a zip file's contents.

To do this, just edit the configuration file and add .zip to the key "OfficePreviewCustomExtentions" -- for example, mine looks like

Code: Select all

OfficePreviewCustomExtensions=.gif.zip.
Then save the config file and restart without saving and you should be set...

Again, welcome!

I definitely will try this.

Well, it displays the zip contents, but hangs XY when I try to move away from the zipfile. Something not right... so I removed the customExtensions. Actually, using 7-Zip is not so bad -- just a matter of getting used to it.

nas8e9
Posts: 2232
Joined: 21 Jun 2008 14:50

Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by nas8e9 »

jacksonmacd wrote:I guess the #1 thing I want to avoid is clobbering the layout of columns and the list sort order. However, it was not obvious to me which of the checkboxes to clear so that SaveSettingOnExit would not touch the layout of the columns. Suggestions?
Tabs and Tabsets would be the one, except that way - if you have more than one tab open - all but one tab, including its location, are discarded.

An alternative might be Folder View Settings, which allows you to:
1. define specific view settings for a folder and optionally, its subfolders, including view mode and column layout;
2. define a default folder view which will apply to all folders that don't have a specific FVS applied.

jadinolf
Posts: 150
Joined: 04 Jul 2012 21:51
Location: California, USA

Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by jadinolf »

I just want to add my name to the list of ex PowerDesk users.

What a disappointment it was after installing Windows 7 64 bit and finding that no version of PD did very well.

I am now a proud owner of XYplorer.

Thank you XYplorer! :)
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Windows 10 on six computers

jadinolf
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Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by jadinolf »

No one else have anything good to say about XYplorer? :kidding:
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jadinolf
Posts: 150
Joined: 04 Jul 2012 21:51
Location: California, USA

Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by jadinolf »

jadinolf wrote:No one else have anything good to say about XYplorer? :kidding:
I'm still here.

Now 80 years old and still lovin' XYplorer!
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PeterH
Posts: 2776
Joined: 21 Nov 2005 20:39
Location: Germany

Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by PeterH »

jadinolf wrote:
jadinolf wrote:No one else have anything good to say about XYplorer? :kidding:
I'm still here.

Now 80 years old and still lovin' XYplorer!
Hey: congratulations :appl: :appl: :appl:

(For the 80 years, and for loving XYplorer :biggrin: )
W7(x64) SP1 German
( +WXP SP3 )

Borut
Posts: 1412
Joined: 19 Oct 2010 19:29

Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by Borut »

jadinolf, congratulations for 80 also from my side. All the best!
Win 10 Pro 64bit

admin
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Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement

Post by admin »

Oh yes, 80 years XY love, that's about as much as I could possibly expect. :biggrin: :beer:

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