Yod'm 3D is a nifty virtual desktop application that gives Windows users some of the wow factor of Beryl and Compiz bring to Linux desktops.

The free program lets you create four virtual desktops, which is nothing too special. You can do the same thing with Microsoft's Virtual Desktop Manager. But Yod'm 3D lets you switch between desktops by flipping through the sides of a 3D cube.

There's no installation necessary. You just download the program, unzip it to a folder, and select your language. You can configure Yod'm 3D to automatically start up with Windows, or ou can just click the .exe file when you want to start.

Flipping through desktops is a 2-handed operation by default. You click Ctrl+Shift and then use the arrow keys or mouse to navigate. You can configure it to use different keys. For example, if you select Ctrl, you can press and hold your right Ctrl key for a second and then use the arrow keys to move between desktops all with one hand. Since you need to tap and hold to bring up the cube, you can use the Ctrl key normally under most circumstances.

Dragging windows from one desktop to another is a little tricky. You have to make sure the window isn't maximized. Then you left click and hold the title bar with your mouse and hit the activate key. Now you can drag your window to another desktop.

[via lifehacker]

The first two fall under "taskbar enchancements," and the last is a nifty new virtual desktop manager. One of my biggest pet peeves in Windows is the management of the taskbar. First, I should be able to reorder the items in the taskbar. Enter Taskbar Shuffle, which allows you to simply drag-and-drop the items as you see fit. What a concept! Now even if I've got Photoshop lined up first (even though it was last, as it took longest to launch), I've still got IE with a dozen little windows minimized, crawling across the bottom of my screen, with no idea what's going on in each window. So I use Visual Task Tips to show me a preview. It's a light shell enhancement that lets me mouse over an item in the taskbar, and it pops up a teensy preview window. That helps more than you may realize until you start using it. Finally, when the taskbar won't cut it, there's always shifting around to different desktops entirely. Dexpot (sent in by Arun K.) is a great desktop manager in a field full of such beasts. Dexpot will manage up to 20 virtual desktops, and it does it quite well. Between these three tools I've significantly improved my workflow because I no longer have to hold things in my own brain as a sort of temporary RAM. Instead, I just dump everything into the computer in real-time, and let the computer manage the data. I can scan through what I'm working on faster as a result. All of these are free, although Dexpot requires a license if you use it in a business environment.

[Taskbar tools found on digg and digg]

Brad Isaac over at Achieve-IT! points to Fold, a new up-and-coming "web desktop" (currently in beta) that offers portable desktop-like functionality on a website. The feature list is fairly basic at this point, with the usual suspects present: RSS, notepad, calendar, weather and Flickr modules, but there are a couple of unique ones as well, specifically HTML and Flash containers.

The idea between the HTML and Flash containers is that simply put, if there is web content out there somewhere that you'd like to integrate into your Fold desktop, they are giving you the flexibility to do just that. I like it. Unfortunately, I'm still not a big fan of a web page that emulates a windowing system paradigm. I have no desire to drag little window containers around on a website. For now I'll stick with NetVibes or Google Personalized.