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ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 07 Dec 2011 05:48
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.
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 07 Dec 2011 06:04
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.
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:43
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.
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 07 Dec 2011 16:13
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!
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 09 Dec 2011 03:11
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
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 09 Dec 2011 03:11
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.
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 09 Dec 2011 03:15
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?
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 09 Dec 2011 03:25
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.
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 09 Dec 2011 03:28
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.
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:43
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!
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 12 Aug 2012 01:19
by jadinolf
No one else have anything good to say about XYplorer?
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 18 May 2014 01:58
by jadinolf
jadinolf wrote:No one else have anything good to say about XYplorer?
I'm still here.
Now 80 years old and still lovin' XYplorer!
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 18 May 2014 11:27
by PeterH
jadinolf wrote:jadinolf wrote:No one else have anything good to say about XYplorer?
I'm still here.
Now 80 years old and still lovin' XYplorer!
Hey: congratulations
(For the 80 years, and for loving XYplorer
)
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 20 May 2014 10:12
by Borut
jadinolf, congratulations for 80 also from my side. All the best!
Re: ex PowerDesk user finds a great replacement
Posted: 20 May 2014 10:15
by admin
Oh yes, 80 years XY love, that's about as much as I could possibly expect.
