Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware
Microsoft releases Desktops, new virtual desktop manager
by Brad Linder Aug 22nd 2008 at 11:00AM
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]
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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.
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Roy said 11:47AM on 8-22-2008
Whatever. I'm bored.
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Haplo said 11:44AM on 8-22-2008
Does any of these desktop managers support right clic and send-to-desktop on applications?
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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!
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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.
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Todd said 12:41PM on 8-22-2008
Now you can see four Blue Screens of Death simultaneously! - HA!
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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?
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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JaBu said 7:09PM on 8-22-2008
Check out Dexpot. It works great and has loads of options.
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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.
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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?
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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/
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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.
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