PowerDesk is an orthodox file manager for Windows produced by Avanquest Software SA. It is currently at version 9.0.2.3, and it is available both as a free product with partial capabilities and no technical support and the full, commercial version retailing for US$39.95 which integrates file search and management with FTP, compression, content preview, rapid search and other functions. The name of the company making PowerDesk has changed on a few occasions since the first version came out in 1990, with OnTrack Data International being the publisher until recently. One difference this software currently has with many of its type is that it is not extensible with plug-ins, whereas Total Commander, XYplorer and others do allow for plug-ins and helper programmes to be integrated with the main software much in the same fashion as TextPad, which add functionality ranging from additional compression algorithms to e-mail capability to recovery of deleted files to being able to view the contents of database and spreadsheet files from within the manager. PowerDesk's main competitors are Total Commander, XYplorer, ZTreeWin amongst commercial software and Midnight Commander and Explorer++ amongst free and/or copylefted software; a comprehensive table can be found in Wikipedia as part of the article Comparison of file managers. PowerDesk had a 2.5 of 5 rating at CNet as of 15 July 2014. The free Version 4 is on the programme disk in the Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kits. The documentation for this version and others puts an emphasis on PowerDesk as a compression tool whilst noting that it is a complete alternative to Windows Explorer and the My Computer icon.
Novatix Explorer Plus by PowerDesk programmer Mike Kronenberg
Explorer Plus is an equivalent much faster 'branch off / fork' of PowerDesk 5. It was written by Mike Kronenberg, the actual original programmer of PowerDesk. He went and formed the now-defunct company Novatix, produced ExplorerPlus, then it went back to V-Com for version 6. The manual can be downloaded from the old defunct www.novatix.com website on the Internet Archive. This software could be deemed AbandonWare. The Novatix website archive talks about an "expansion pack". This is only applicable to the trial. You could previously download the trial in 2 pieces to save bandwidth. The full 20mb purchased/retail program already has the expansion pack included. Features are almost exactly comparable to PowerDesk 6.0. It has a new tab system, very convenient. If desired, ExplorerPlus can open at "MyComputer" every-time by restarting it with your chosen folder, R-Clicking on the current tab and un-checking "Update on Exit". Only the Size Manager utility is missing. In comparison to later versions of PowerDesk, ExplorerPlus 5.2 is lightning fast, with almost no crashes or glitches. It works perfectly in Windows XP SP3, and also installs and works very well in Windows 7 64bit. Here is a history quote taken from a defunct webpage in a file archive of the software: "ExplorerPlus came about at the moment when Kroll-OnTrack sold the rights for PowerDesk to V-COM. At that time, the OnTrack version was at 5.0.1.2. V-COM released the product virtually unchanged, but with the V-COM name in the appropriate places, at version 5.0.1.7. Meanwhile, Mike Kronenberg - the original developer of PowerDesk, managed to wrangle the rights to further develop the PowerDesk code and release it under the Novatix Banner, a company hed already started and marketed SendPhotos with. The Novatix incarnation started with version 6.0.0, then 6.1.0, and ended with 6.2.0, with all code being re-absorbed into V-COM at the end. Sometime after the ExplorerPlus 6.2 release, V-COM introduced PowerDesk 6. It too had a skinnable interface, and Verity Keyview Libraries. Novatix dropped marketing for ExplorerPlus, but continued development for SendPhotos and RedWall. Eventually, both products were absorbed into the PC Tools lineup. Today, PC Tools, RedWall and SendPhotos are all marketed under the Avanquest Banner. Mike Kronenberg as of January 3rd 2012, is Chief Scientist with Webroot. For those who would tend to begrudge Mike leaving PowerDesk in the hands of the incompetent ninnies at Avanquest, I would remind you that there are far greater monetary rewards in coding for security risks than ever existed in the crowded shareware market of File Managers."
