Entries tagged with virtual desktops - Channel 10

Desktops 1.0: A New Virtual Desktop Sysinternals App

sarahintampa — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:25:00 GMT

When Microsoft bought Mark Russinovich’s Sysinternals site back in July 2006, I.T. pros and power users everywhere were thrilled to have all of these tools available from one convenient location on the web. If there was any fear that the purchase would mean the end of development for these great apps and utilities, those fears were soon assuaged. Today’s Sysinternals website features all the programs organized into categories like networking utilities, system information, file and disk utilities, and so on, and new ones are released on a regular basis. And to keep updated on those releases, there is the Sysinternals RSS feed – subscribe to this and you’ll always know when there’s a new utility for you to play with.

Recently, that feed was updated and I came across Desktops 1.0, a new utility for virtual desktops in Windows. The software is very much like this old XP Powertoy, but the difference is that Desktops 1.0 runs on Vista. The program itself is very simple. A .exe file installs the software which can be configured to run upon startup or not. You can specify what hotkey combination should be used to switch between the four desktops and then the app sits in your system tray, ready for you to swap between the different desktops as often as you wish.

Get Virtual Desktops With VirtuaWin

sarahintampa — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:08:00 GMT

Who’s been on a desktop customization kick lately? Me, of course! Another great find I recently stumbled upon is VirtuaWin, a virtual desktop manager for Windows. It works with Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2K, XP, 2003, and Vista. The program sets up several virtual desktops – you can have up to 9! – but what’s really cool is that the program supports the addition of “modules,” which are independently developed add-ons to the VirtuaWin application which offer more functionality. For example, there are add-ons that offer different ways to cycle through your desktop, add-ons that let you name the different desktops, add-ons that let you change your wallpaper from desktop to desktop, and much more.

The VirtuaWin program is freely distributed and licensed under the GNU General Public License. You can download VirtuaWin from here. The list of available modules is here.

Get Multiple Desktops With Dexpot

sarahintampa — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:55:00 GMT

Dexpot is desktop manager software that lets you easily manage multiple desktops. One of its best features is that it offers different ways to switch between screens - which is arguably the most important feature in a multiple desktop program. In Dexpot, you can use keyboard shortcuts (my fav) or you can click on the Desktop Manager interface, which hovers above the Windows Taskbar. With the program, each desktop can be customized with its own settings, files can be quickly moved from window to window, you can preview other desktops, and a lot more. Best of all, the program is available for free for personal use - you can download it from here. (via MakeUseOf)

Cubedesktop

sarahintampa — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:23:00 GMT

Here's a twist on multiple desktops: software from Cubedesktop increases your working space by offering you a 3D virtual desktop environment. With Cubedesktop, you will have 6 virtual desktops which you can move between in different ways, one of which is a 3D cube. As you move from desktop to desktop, you will see a live preview of what's happening. All the windows update in real time, so you can find just the one you are looking for. Each desktop can be named (like "work," "school," or "fun") and can have its own wallpapers and icon arrangement.

Besides the 3D cube, you can also use features like the "Window Exposer," which tiles the open windows on to your screen, or a simpler Desktop Explorer. The software is available as a free trial for both XP and Vista (does not specify if x64 supported). (via Go2web20)

Adding Virtual Desktops to Your PC

sarahintampa — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:20:00 GMT

Although XP has a Virtual Desktop PowerToy, there's no version for Windows Vista yet. However, there are not one, but three third party programs that Cnet just reviewed: VirtuaWin, which supports up to 20 separate desktops, Virtual Dimension, and Z-Systems' Vista/XP Virtual Desktop Manager, which takes advantage of Vista's Aero interface.

Out of these, the Z-Systems program looks like the one I would choose, not only because of the Aero aspect, but also because it offers full-screen desktop previews in Vista so that you can easily find the desktop you're looking for. With Z-Systems, you can generate a system tray icon for each desktop, which makes switching really fast. You can also select certain programs that will show up on all of your desktops.