By Dale Farris, Secretary
Golden Triangle PC Club
August 2002

Overview

PowerDesk Pro 5 is a simple, fast and fun way to organize and manage files, digital photos, MP3 music files, and web images on your PC. Running this neat and extremely powerful utility is convenient and it saves time! In just one, two, or three clicks, you can customize your PC to move, copy, zip, label, color code, search, view, prioritize, convert, and use your files the way you want to use them.

PowerDesk Pro 5 comes from Ontrack Data International, Inc., the company well known for their amazing assortment of super computer add on software utilities, including their famous Ontrack SystemSuite. PowerDesk Pro 5 is a high-powered file manager that does many things that Microsoft's Windows Explorer does not do, most of which are features users of Windows wish were built into Windows, but are not. This is the key to the value of PowerDesk Pro 5 to many users, its many capabilities you just do not find in Microsoft's Windows.

In the new version 5, Ontrack not only kept all the existing features from prior best selling versions, they also enhanced these tools, and added even more, such as digital camera and MP3 support, making this program ultra useful for many PC users.

PowerDesk Pro 5 can stand alone as one of the best file managers you will ever work with, but it is way more than a super sized file manager. PowerDesk Pro 5 is a luxury edition of a file manager and offers more features and functionality than the standard file manager offered in Windows or other file management software. PowerDesk Pro 5 can completely replace Windows Explorer, giving users a wide array of tools to search, edit, delete, move, sort, view and copy files, including those found on digital cameras or MP3 music players.

All the editions of PowerDesk Pro have received kudos from editors, writers, and users for years, and the response to this latest PowerDesk Pro version 5 is even more extraordinary. This essential program has also won numerous awards and sparkling reviews from PC Magazine, Windows Magazine, and PC World, to name just a few.

Feature Highlights

The heart of PowerDesk Pro 5 is still the file manager. This core tool provides you with single or dual pane file management, an even more powerful file finder, expanded zip and unzip capabilities, a dialog helper, plus many other features.

In Windows, you have to rely on a file name to remember what it contained. That all changes with PowerDesk Pro 5. With a right-click of the mouse, you can add notes to help organize your files. Displayed in a mouse-over window or details view, these notes can remind you of what's in a file without having to open it,  just like an electronic sticky note.

In the physical world, you might use different colors of folders or labels to help organize your paperwork. Now you can apply that idea on your PC. With PowerDesk Pro 5 you can customize, organize, and label your file folders with eight distinct colors.

The brand new File Info Column feature prominently displays specific details about each file in the file pane viewer. MP3 files will show a song title and run time. Images will show the size and resolution, and Word documents show the document title.

Are you a digital music fan? Would you like to play your MP3 files and view media files in your file manager? How about edit MP3 tags or sort your songs by artist, title, album, or genre? PowerDesk Pro 5 allows you to create and control play-list files for portable MP3 devices, as well as multimedia applications, such as WinAmp or other MP3 devices. Use the randomize feature to assure a complete play of the files in random order. The PowerDesk Pro 5 file manager also gives MP3 users cool tools for playing previews of files, searching for files, as well as renaming and editing groups of files in a single action.

Forget where you saved that important file? No problem. With PowerDesk Pro 5, you can quickly locate files through searches by almost any criteria with its powerful "search engine" type tool. Search by keyword, file type, size, or date range, and see the "hits" displayed in a single-line reference. You can now also search inside Zip files and archives.

Want to open the right file the first time without having to guess and open multiple files? PowerDesk Pro 5 has improved file preview options, which allow users to view the contents of a file in a preview pane or as a thumbnail image. This is particularly useful for browsing files from digital cameras, whole directories of images, or MP3 players where you can even view by artist name, album title, or your own personal notations. In addition, you also get a customizable toolbar for fast access to your favorite files and applications, a Size Manager shows you which files are cluttering up your drive, and much more.

What's New?

Support for digital camera formats
Manage digital music files
Enhanced integrated drag and drop
Find files based on type
Get more information on your files
Annotate your files
Group rename - That's right! Rename multiple files in a folder all at once.
Make self-extracting archives
New dialog helper viewer pane in Open and Save dialog boxes
Color folder icons
Faster folder synchronizer
Support for Windows 95b, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, and XP

Targeted Customers

PowerDesk Pro 5 is a super utility that is essential for any serious PC user, and even those who occasionally use their PC will also likely quickly realize how valuable is this program in saving them time and enabling them to much more efficiently operate their machine. The features in the program do lend themselves to more experienced PC users, only because it usually takes a while working in Microsoft's Windows Explorer before you begin to realize what is "missing" from the standard file manager that comes with Windows. I suspect brand new PC users will first need some time to work with and become familiar with what does come in Windows Explorer, before they consider this important package of features. However, even for novice PC users, I suspect it will not be long before these limitations are known, especially if folks have an opportunity to see what PowerDesk Pro 5 can really do for them.

Install and Setup

The program should install and set up with no problems. Once loaded, you can open and work in PowerDesk Pro 5, as well as your standard Windows Explorer. PowerDesk Pro 5 does NOT replace your existing Windows Explorer.

Price

$29.95 download price
$32.95 surface mail shipping price
$19.95 upgrade - download price
$22.95 upgrade - surface mail shipping price

Minimum System Configuration Requirements

Pentium II 266MHz MMX or similar processor
Win 95B, 98, 98 ME, NT 4 Workstation, 2000 Pro, XP Home, XP Pro
32MB RAM
40MB free hard disk space

About Ontrack Data International, Inc. (Now Kroll Ontrack)

Kroll, Inc. has completed the acquisition of Ontrack Data International, Inc., a leading provider of data recovery, electronic discovery, and computer forensics services. Through the acquisition of Ontrack, Kroll becomes a leader in the growing electronic discovery and computer forensics marketplace. Ontrack also brings expertise and technology in data recovery that complements Kroll's core strength in information gathering and analysis, and provides a scaleable platform for growth. This group, which combines Ontrack's 396 employees and Kroll's 13-person team of computer forensics professionals, will market its electronic discovery and forensics services under the new brand name “Kroll Ontrack,” while keeping the data recovery software and services under the brand name “Ontrack.”

Kroll, Inc. is a leading independent risk consulting company, providing a broad range of investigative, intelligence, financial, security, and technology services to help clients reduce risks, resolve problems and capitalize on opportunities. Headquartered in New York with offices in over 60 cities on six continents, Kroll has a multidisciplinary corps of more than 2,000 employees and serves a global clientele of law firms, corporations, non-profit institutions, government agencies and individuals.

Kroll has four core business groups: (1) Consulting Services, which provides business investigations and intelligence services, and financial services such as forensic accounting, business valuation, and corporate recovery; (2) Employee Screening, which provides employee and vendor background investigations, substance abuse testing, and video surveillance services; (3) Security Services, which provides institutional, architectural, and personal security services; crisis management and business continuity programs; and travel and political risk information; and (4) Technology Services, which provides data recovery, electronic discovery, and computer forensics services and software.

Kroll Ontrack, Inc., a new wholly-owned subsidiary of Kroll Inc., provides data recovery and electronic evidence services to help corporations, law firms, federal agencies, and individuals quickly and cost-effectively recover electronic information. Formerly known as ONTRACK Data International, Inc., Kroll Ontrack brings technology expertise to the world’s leading risk consulting company Kroll. Kroll Ontrack operates as the “Technology Services Group” of Kroll, which is one of four business groups dedicated to serving the complex business of providing practical and integrated solutions to organizations worldwide to help safeguard them against risk. In addition, Kroll Ontrack also brings to the relationship award-winning PC utility software programs to help prevent critical data loss through a broad line of problem-solving, file-management and productivity utilities.

Contact Information

Customer Service
Kroll Ontrack, Inc.
9023 Columbine Road
Eden Prairie, MN 55347
Toll Free: 1-800-872-2599
1-952-906-4860
FAX 1-952-937-5750
customerservice@ontrack.com
www.ontrack.com

You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.