Why send me an email telling me that I can install this update, but first I must uninstall all previous versions and then after doing that and installing the update tell me that my serial number has been used to many times?  Now, I just guess I am screwed. You will never sell another thing to me that has to be activated.

I have the same problem. My previous Laptops motherboard failed and can't use Powerdesk 8 due to the stingy "serial number has been used to many times" factor. I am now using Directory Opus.

I just downloaded patch 3, and PD is still buggy. Crashes when I try to add a folder to sychronize, for one example, just like before. PD worked well on Windows XP, but not on Vista or Windows 7. What a shame.

My main problem is the folder synchroniser which seems to try and look at every file in archives which is so slow that it renders it useless for synchronising my installation folders to my backup external hard disk. This was not a problem in previous versions.

Well folks, miracles do sometimes happen.

The problem I had, which forced me to use something else temporarily, has it seems been sorted.

I've done a few quick tests and it seems to be working okay now.

Thanks

Dave

*** Problem summary *****************************

PDP8 keeps locking a directory I've looked inside, even though I've done nothing but look, then close that directory.

This is something I do when disk housekeeping, and when deleting stuff that's accumulated over a period, and it has become a real PITA as the only escape from this lock, if I want to delete, is quit PDP8 then re-run it.

This coupled with my second... has become such a PITA that on the Win 7 machine I've gone back to PDP7 which doesn't have the problem.

The second problem... Well when I eventually manage to delete a file or directory, it does actually get deleted, but the filer window continues to display the icon of that file or directory... Properties shows it as 0 bytes etc, but it still remains.

Forcing a window re-draw does not resolve the problem and the filer icon remains until PDP 8 is quit and re-run.

********************************************

I also have the problem that the serial number has been used too many times. It does so now even with the older version of PD8. When I bought this, this was NOT an issue, so I think Avanquest is being VERY underhanded - to say the least. I have had Powerdesk since version 1, but I guess this is goodbye. Especially since I first installed the beta version on a laptop I don't use too often - to test it, of course. Now when I want to use my older version on my main machine, it too complains of the too many times serial number - so I did NOT get this problem when I installed the beta, even when I had already installed the older version on another machine. I am now stuck with the beta on the seldom-used laptop, and the inability to use any installation on any other computer that I use.

Fortunately there is some freeware that is just as good as PD, if not better. Too bad for powerdesk, but I have had it. No more!

You could of course do what I had to do a while back after some problems requiring a reinstall, email support and ask them to reset the counter.

PITA I agree, but there yuh go, that's the way they do it.

Dave

They are making that so difficult. I cannot find this information, and of course powerdesk itself no longer runs so I cannot use that way. The link in the message about the serial number leads nowhere. Do you have the link to the contact form page, or do you have the email address?

On the top of this page is a Tab [Support] Click it, in the Product box, choose a product, find Power Desk Pro and a page full of possibilities opens up, including an online support form, and if it's the right time of the day, Live Online chat.

Etc.

Dave

"after doing that and installing the update tell me that my serial number has been used to many times?  Now, I just guess I am screwed"

No need to panic if you run into the serial number problem. If you call or write support and give them your order number for PD8, they will gladly supply you with a new serial number that will solve the problem.

One of the hardest things to diagnose and repair -- whether it's computer or cars or whatever -- is a problem which is not consistent.

Case in point: On my older WinXP system, toolbar changes are not saved; but the same procedure on my WinServer2008R2 system works perfectly. Both are using 8.4.1.4.

Any suggestions?

I updated P3 and I have no issues so far. I have experienced some of the problems with licensing and upgrading in the past which others here have expressed. I am running Windows 7 64 bit. Those older problems were in part due to conflicts with administator rights. I found I had to reboot to administator mode and install Powerdesk there. There were still many glitches. I hope the current patches will fix some of them. I have been a user of Powerdesk since it first became available from its original vendor. Recent versions seem buggier than the earlier ones. For me Powerdesk 6 was very stable.

I haven't installed this latest because it sounds like a hassle, and I expect to buy a laptop in the not too distant future, whereupon I'll put PDP on that.

PDP was a program that made me say "meh" the first few times, but I soon came to depend on it. That's why I was disappointed when some of its features simply stopped working. First the directory sync--very useful in the days when I toted around a Zip750 disk. Now I have a thumb drive, but since sync doesn't work,....Then it was the way the program simply could not handle large numbers of files in a directory. PD freezes, or goes all white, and comments on the forum indicate that it is not threaded like Windows Explorer, so the UI hangs while the program struggles with whatever it's doing to all those files. The program's performance is now completely unacceptable.