Microsoft releases Desktops, new virtual desktop manager

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware

Microsoft releases Desktops, new virtual desktop manager

by Brad Linder Aug 22nd 2008

Microsoft's Sysinternals team has released a new, free, light weight virtual desktop manager for Windows called Desktops. Yes, Microsoft already had a virtual desktop manager called, well, Virtual Desktop Manager. But Desktops offers a few advantages. First, it's a single, tiny executable file. No installation necessary, which makes this a good candidate for carrying with you on a USB flash drive. And second, Desktops offers a wide range of keyboard shortcuts to choose from, which could come in handy if your Alt+1 key combo is reserved for something else.

If you're scratching your head trying to figure out what a virtual desktop is, here's how it works. You can create up to four different desktop spaces and switch between them. In other words, you can load a few programs in desktop 1, a few more in desktop 2, and a few others in desktop 3. They'll all keep running as you switch back and forth. So if you have iTunes playing in desktop one, and an Office document to edit in desktop 2, you can keep listening to music while you're typing away.

The advantage is that if you've got, say a 1280 x 1024 pixel monitor, but you like to have umpteen applications open at once and there's no way to keep them all visible on that display. A virtual desktop gives you another 1280 x 1024 pixel canvas or two, or three to work with.

[via Digital inspiration]

Tags: desktops, virtual-desktop-manager, virtual-desktops, windows-xp-powertoys

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Rocketboy said 11:30AM on 8-22-2008

Eh, Virtua Win works just fine for me. VDM already soured me on MS's virtual desktop offerings, due to the buggyness of it. Who likes a corrupted Excel window when you change desktops?

Not me.

Haplo said 11:44AM on 8-22-2008

Does any of these desktop managers support right clic and send-to-desktop on applications?

Roy said 11:47AM on 8-22-2008

Whatever. I'm bored.

gopal said 12:08PM on 8-22-2008

Does it work with Win 2003 Server? The original Virtual Desktop Manager did not support Win2k3...and I did not see the platform support for Desktops.

chris said 12:10PM on 8-22-2008

Microsoft's version is nothing like the one for Linux. I don't want something that simply changes the windows that are currently showing. I want something that actually creates virtual desktops!

Todd said 12:41PM on 8-22-2008

Now you can see four Blue Screens of Death simultaneously! - HA!

Undrhil said 1:08PM on 8-22-2008

PCTools used to have a virtual desktop manager for Windows 3.1. I don't remember the specifics about it, but it worked perfectly by giving each desktop their own icon sets, so if I delete an icon from one desktop, it would still be on the other ones. I have yet to find a virtual desktop manager that does this now. Does anyone know of one?

Thrush said 2:23PM on 8-22-2008

I never got the Virtual Desktop concept .. if you have to click, or key over to another desktop, why not just click or key to minimize/maximize windows?

kingkool68 said 6:41AM on 8-23-2008

If you have several apps set-up and positioned on the screen in a certain way, say a text editor and browser open side-by-side for HTML editing, then you would run into problems when you wanted to switch to a full screen app like Photoshop to look at a comp. This just makes that task easier.

I like Apple's approach better of just hitting control+arrow key.

Justin said 2:23PM on 8-22-2008

I am disappointed. The app runs well but is very basic. As far as I can see, you can't move windows between the desktops. THAT would be helpful. If I wanted 4 different non-connected desktops, I could log into our Terminal Server 4 times. Not impressed. Anyone know of a free option that takes little RAM and allows to move windows from one desktop to the other? C'mon Microsoft! For once, IMPRESS us, please.

Rocketboy said 3:39PM on 8-22-2008

Yes, and I mentioned it above. Virtua Win.

http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/

Rocketboy said 3:39PM on 8-22-2008

Because sometimes you need a 'clean' desktop, or you're just working on multiple projects at one time.

SysInternals said 4:09PM on 8-22-2008

SysInternals are the great folks who wrote Regmon and Filemon. I trust them to make really quality software. I'm sure this will be a wonderful tool for Windows users.

JaBu said 7:09PM on 8-22-2008

Check out Dexpot. It works great and has loads of options.

jfjb said 7:04PM on 11-05-2008

I second that: Dexpot is multi-featured, tiny footprint German-engineered application

LinearMode said 12:59PM on 9-24-2008

I agree, dexpot is a really nice program and simple to use

nizzy1115 said 11:19PM on 8-22-2008

This keeps crashing my Vista 64 bit. It locks it up when i switch it to a different virtual monitor.

markm75 said 11:19PM on 8-22-2008

This sounds close to an idea I had for having multiple windows on the same screen.. where you could draw, say 2 grids then just double click your windows into those grids, kinda like moving them over to another whole screen and double clicking.. only in this case they are whole desktop grids.. i didnt know of any app that could do this.. ill have to try this one out.. though i run vista x64.. sounds like there may be an issue there?

hazard said 11:38AM on 8-23-2008

Any Delphi Developers out there might be interested in this open source Virtual Desktop

http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-desktop/

jfjb said 1:26PM on 8-23-2008

Desktops v1.0 by Sysinternals.

2MB footprint for 4 windows only.
Pressing Crtl-Alt-Del pops in any window pops the task manager in window 1.
Testing more quirks now.
Over.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters