The Fix Is In: Top Windows Utilities

Sure, Windows has its own built-in set of utilities. But you can do better. We examine dozens of third-party utilities to find the best tools for fine-tuning your PC.

Friday, June 25, 1999 12:00 AM PDT

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File Managers: Explorer Gets Lost

If you need a replacement for Windows' own file tools, PowerDesk Utilities is the best--and it's free with Mijenix's Fix-It Utilities 99.

Why on earth would you need a file manager? Look, you already have Windows Explorer to handle copying, moving, launching, and otherwise manipulating files. But if you work a lot with files--downloading them, examining them, relocating them, and zipping them into archives, Explorer's limitations become obvious. Third-party file managers can help you live amicably with those limitations. These programs give you a number of conveniences Microsoft left out--including split windows that let you view two folders at once, filtering so you can see only the files you want, and built-in file compression.

We looked at five file management programs for this review: Clear & Simple Software's DiskJockey 98, Canyon Software's Drag and File Gold, Science Translations' FileTiger, Mijenix's PowerDesk Utilities 98, and Pacific Gold Coast's Turbo Browser 98. Which is best? That's an easy one: PowerDesk trounced the competition on almost every measure. It's easy to use, integrates nicely with Windows, and does pretty much anything you could ask a file manager to do. The icing: It's also the cheapest application in the group.

The PowerDesk Edge

PowerDesk 98 looks and works like the Windows 95 version of Explorer, so you'll feel at home immediately. And it truly assimilates into Windows. Right-click a file, and you'll get PowerDesk options such as Zip and Copy. Or you can summon PowerDesk anytime you click the My Computer icon.

PowerDesk improves on Explorer in countless little ways. You can split the window to see two folders at once, print a file list, and filter the list to see only certain types of files. You can easily toggle the folder-tree pane on and off, but it remains available as a pull-down menu.

Like Microsoft, Mijenix uses Inso's Quick View file-viewing technology. If you don't have Quick View installed, PowerDesk's installation program will load it for you. Like Windows' version of Quick View, PowerDesk carries a modest set of viewers heavily oriented toward Microsoft Office applications; however, it does add more graphics formats, including JPG, GIF, and TIF. Unlike Quick View, PowerDesk lets you copy and print what you view. And PowerDesk integrates well with Inso's full-size Quick View Plus (see "File Viewers").

Best of all, PowerDesk 98 won't strain your credit card. The official retail price of $30 is low enough, but you can find it in stores and online for about $25. Alternatively, you can purchase PowerDesk as part of Mijenix's $49 Fix-It Utilities 99 suite (see "The Suites").

Other Options

Though PowerDesk is the best general-purpose file manager, other products have some noteworthy specialized skills. Canyon Software's Drag and File Gold, the only file manager we've seen that supports the Internet's File Transfer Protocol, makes posting files to a Web site as easy as copying them to a floppy. Clear & Simple's DiskJockey 98 offers better file viewing than its competitors. Its larger set of viewers (also based on Inso's technology) lets you examine Corel and Lotus apps that you can't look at with basic Quick View.

But Drag and File Gold, DiskJockey 98, and Turbo Browser 98 share a common problem: a high price tag. Drag and File Gold carries a hefty $50 registration fee--$55 plus shipping if you want to get a CD-ROM and a manual. (Plain Drag and File--without Gold's Drag and Zip compression program--costs $30.) Disk Jockey and Turbo Browser both cost close to $60. FileTiger costs only $40, but all you get is a bare-bones file list.

A good file manager rates as a convenience, not a necessity. All you risk by forgoing one is a little extra work. But for $25, PowerDesk lets you avoid the excess labor and makes your computing life more pleasant. We'd spend the money.

--Lincoln Spector

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