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Virtual Desktops on Windows?
raist_online asks: "After long years of X11 (and recently Mac OS X) I'm now in a job that mandates Windows and uses some Windows-only tools, providing us with XP Pro installs. Using VMWare with dual heads means I can still mostly live in X11-based goodness but I'm really missing a virtual desktop when I have to use Windows. The MS Powertoy doesn't really cut it for me and I've been trying out Cooldesk (some task-bar integration but not behaving well) and altdesk (which is OK but doesn't integrate into the task-bar). I'm really looking for something as simple as the standard X11 pager. Please note that I HAVE to use native Windows for some things so suggestions for Wine / VMWare inside Linux are missing the point. Slashdot, what are your suggestions?"
I don't have them set up at the moment, so I don't remember what they're called offhand; but one of the utilities that nvidia gives you gives you virtual desktops; though they're a lot clunkier (IMHO) to navigate than what you get with either GNOME or KDE. But, none-the-less; they're there. The downside being you have to have an nvidia card, of course.
I use WinScroll (English version here). It might have problems if you have multiple desktops, I use a triple-head system that only presents a single, unified desktop to Windows.
http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/
the power toys - or whatever the junk is from M$ - sucks!
Never really used it, but it might do what you want... http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/
Not a full desktop but I found Ultramon to be a great little item. Its also lightweight and non obtrusive, which were two features I found lacking when I tried other desktops out.
Professor Karmadillo Songs of Science
Link
GoScreen is the best virtual desktop manager that my friends and I found and use. It is not free after 30(?) days, but it is cheap and worth it. It still supports old Windows 95 to the newest (XP). Very low resources. We use it at home and work.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Back in the days when I was still using windows, I used Virtuawin. It works very nicely, has a rich feature set, but ... 9 virtual desktops, each one filled with application, sometimes brought Windows to its knees ;-)
http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net
See also my previous post about Virtuawin an other posts in reply to an article about "Improving the Windows XP User Interface" containing other useful applications in the same line: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/14/19 18218&tid=201
If you've read any reliable reports you will know that the total cost of owership of a MS-based PC is far less than a Linux one. Therefore your company should be able to afford to fit many PCs on your desk and you won't have to use virtual desktops.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Torrent here . Enjoy.
I haven't used any myself in quite a while, but there are alternative shells for windows that replace explorer (start menu et al) that are very unixy. I used to use LiteStep, which made it seem a lot like AfterStep. I even had a theme that made it seem kinda' WindowMaker-y (though it was a bit cheesy). I'm not current, don't know what's "the best" these days, but it's a direction you might want to look in to, if you're employers will let you do it.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
...what is it about the Powertoy that DOESN'T suit your needs?
Note: Having Microsoft's name attached doesn't count.
-l
http://powerpro.webeddie.com/
Does multiple desktops and so much more. I've been using it just for multiple desktops on Windows for years and have never even touched the rest of its functionality. It just works.
I have used this for more years than I care to remember (more than 10). It is the second thing to get installed on any Windows system that I have to use. Immediately after GoBack.
quite simple, but does the job. i've been rummaging through various multiple desktop environments for windows for years, and have come back to desktop twister regularly.
z ip
download:
http://members.aol.com/SuperFlago/files/dsktw150.
Free for personal use last time I used it. http://www.dexpot.de/
I've always considered Windows itself a virtual desktop.
I currently use bbLean. It has not been updated in awhile but it is reliable.
http://xoblite.net/
Granted it's not been updated for almost a year now, but I use it at work for the very same reason. I use the edge flipping and mousewheel plugins with the pager so I have a lot of flexibility in how I move from desktop to desktop. It gives me Unix like interface and with Cygwin (which also has an option to run X windows but I've not played with it much) augmenting my command line, I'm almost happy with it.
I've used various Blackbox for Windows branches, and xoblite seems to be the best of them. Fast and stable; the only times I've had problems with it, could be traced back to another program.
Plus there is the added bonus that my Windows only co-workers can't figure out how to navigate around my machine.
I've had a machine to run only Outlook that way, and now I have one that's dedicated to compiling code that I edit and do version control with on my Linux laptop. The laptop runs Samba, and the compiler has to get the source over CIFS.
Get a new job then. If using Windows is more important than what you want to accomplish then maybe the job is too badly managed. It annoys me that many organisations place restrictions on technical solutions that the employee could make oneself; For example, it would be demotivating for me to be ordered to work with IE instead of Firefox (or Windows instead of UNIX :-) Not all employees are sheeps that have to be micromanaged. Some people are more than capable of making techical decisions without admins or technical support.
i figured someone would save me the trouble of posting this, but an hour or so later, no one has.... so here you go.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_desktop
They list a bunch of alternatives on there. I hooked a friend up with Dextop, it works pretty slick.
its supposed to be a shell replacement but you can just use the virtual desktop part
http://www.sharpe-shell.org/
Vern
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Try http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/ it's very good
Cyberbite Networks - Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers & Colocati
So rather than page through your individual applications, you want to page through 'desktops' showing your applications already maximized?
Virtual desktops are so early 90s.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
It's by no means flawless, though - it's freeware, but not Free; and the code is old, having not been updated since Win98 days. But my Windows days at work would be vastly more painful without it.
I will be looking at some of the other recommendations in this thread, though.
Dunx
Converting caffeine into code since 1982
10 desktops, lightweight, free, portable, allows window exclusion - works great
http://keir.net/bosskey.html
I've used something called XDesk for quite a while on my remaining windows machine. Before settling on that, I tried just about every one I could find and felt this handled just about everything better than the others.
I do turn some of the "bells and whistles" off. For example, I really don't need to see representations of the individual windows. From my point of view, that usually just gets in the way.
I believe the purchase provided updates for one year. Since I really don't use windows all that much these days (mainly OpenBSD and Linux), I never bothered to purchase another year's worth of updates. So my version is not the latest by any means.
A company that mandates the use of a certain solution invariably develops an inability to address that segment of their market which exists outside of the dependency on that solution.
For example, a shipbuilder who mandates all hulls it builds to be sealed with a certain type of caulk will be unable to address the market for hulls built with a different kind of caulk.
In this example, to the extent that your company will be using Windows as its exclusive solution for whatever it is you are required to do, the company will be unable to access solutions outside of the Windows-centric method for doing this. If a better (or more appropriate) non-Windows solution becomes available, that solution will not exists within the 'toolbox' of solutions available to your company, placing it at a competitive disadvantage.
This 'one solution' strategy does have it's place, for example, if the only market for your solutions is among a customer base which exclusively demands those solutions. An example of this might be an electronics manufacturer demanding that all circuit pack manufacturing processes use CFC-free solvents in a market where legal requirements or market conditions specify this.
Such might be the case here if your company is developing a Windows-exclusive product or service for a Windows-exclusive market. However, I'd argue it's inappropriate here due to Microsoft's extensive dominance of their market. Essentially any Windows-exclusive solution eventually becomes a part of Windows itself, unless blocked by legal restraints (think: Quicken in money management) or abnormal market dynamics (think Symantic in anti-virus software). You company would be destined do be bought-out by Microsoft, on Microsoft's terms.
The thing about things we don't know is we often don't know we don't know them.
I use SDesk even though it's "closed as of 2000" whatever that means. This is exactly like the FVWM desktop switcher and I've mapped ctrl-arrow key combinations to move around, just like on my Linux system. It's GPLed, so you can theoretically modify it if you want. It's written in Delphi?? I don't even know what that is.
My only complaint is that SDesk seems to take a really low process priority. So that when an application is busy, it's difficult to change desktops. In practice, this doesn't seem to be a problem at all. It's just an occasional irritation.
I use altdesk and I'm very happy with it. I've been using it for about a year and a half since entering the financial software dev world. I was all Linux and Macs until then. Now I'm all Linux and Macs at home and all Windows and Linux in the office. My entire setup is actually kinda neat. I hide the desktop icons, use cygwin, but with a putty shell interface (search for puttycyg), aquadock (an apple style launcher) and altdesk. Combine that with iTunes and Firefox and you won't really mind windows so much. It's at least tolerable...
Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
http://flashdesktops.com/
Very easy to move apps from one VD to another. You can also make them sticky.
Customizable keyboard shortcuts for moving between windows as well as other
process/.exe-specific handling if you desire.
I've been using it for at least 5 years. There's a try-before-you-by period,
cost is $25.
Best feature -- it's FAST.
Andy
It's not well-known, and we haven't hacked on it since 2001, but it works pretty well as is. And it's GPL. It requires no installation, and the zip file is only 117kB.
The sourceforge page has since lasped, but here's the last version we released (with source): compass.zip. Try it out; if someone wants to do more with the code, by all means.
From Enable Software at http://enablevirtualdesktop.com/ Works pretty much just like an X11 desktop pager, you can drag apps from window to window and they behave as expected. It also has a set of 'rules' that you can implement to handle apps that don't play nice. I have been using this software for 8 years now, it just works.
It is the fastest virtual desktop switcher out there, no pause, no hesitation whatsoever. Icons for the most part stay on their own virtual desktop. There is no gui,everything works by hotkey. It is the only virtual desktop manager that just stays out of my way and works.
Most virtual desktop managers for windows are dog slow, you can watch the minimized icons dissapear one by one, then the desktop switches, then the icons for that desktop pop into place, one by one. None of that for me, I am sticking with Secretly.
It was designed to be the ultimate boss key program, but it is more of a linux junkies favorite utility when forced to work in Windows.
vi +
I can vouch for this. I've used VirtuaWin for ~3 years, and it is hands down the best virtual windowing utility for Windows I've tried.
It's open source too.
Eric
I am surprised no one has mentioned deskwin
[www.yipton.demon.co.uk] yet?
You mean for games right?
Run X11 and use Terminal Services to connect to your Windows servers for anything you could ever want to do (except games).
What is the standard X11 pager?
Isn't zealotry and hatred a beautiful thing?
Do a search for a little utility called multidesk. It puts up to nine icons in the tray. Very unobtrusive. There are two versions, one a more updated beta and a slightly older one v2.1b. The newer one looks slicker while the older one has an ugly green desk for a tray icon. I suggest the older one as it works a little better.
I would definetly recommend LiteStep.
All the previously mentionned bugs/problems have been solved years ago. LiteStep is now easy to install/use/configure.
Get details and the installer here : http://ls-universe.info/
PS. It is also easy to run LiteStep as a normal app to get only the features you want (VMW or whatever)
If you can get your hands on the windows nt resourse kit, there's a utility called VDesk.exe. One of the best desktop managers I've come across. Maintains separate login sessions for each desktop. 12 desktops maximum. Only annoyance: cannot change the hotkey - linked to CTRL+Fn. Best feature: hooks into the virtual screen, so xp terminal services mode does not work. Bliss :)
http://www.litestep.net/ should have all the stuff necessary for litestep's needs.
"Highly, highly recommended."
Especially with the Cool Desktop Switcher module.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I have used x-desk 1.4 which I liked because it was lightweight and seem to have a fast refresh when switching (it also normally kept the windows in the taskbar in the same order which some virtual desktop programs have problems with). Development was halted, so it's kinda dead, but it still works great: http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Shell_and_Deskt op/Virtual_Desktop_Managers/X_Desk.html
Suggest you change the default to "alt-arrow" for changing desktops.
Free apps are everywhere. google it
By far the best one I've used is calll Virtual Dimension. I can set it up to behave just like GNOME, with CTRL + ALT + RIGHT to move to the desk at the right, and CTRL + ALT + LEFT to move left. One can also drag and drop icons from desk to desk, or make a window appear on all desks. It's also integrated into Window's shell.
Check it out:
http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/
You could just not use the default shell. Litestep does a pretty good job of doing everything it needs to, including giving you multiple desktops...
Which of these various virtual desktop systems hide windows NOT on the current taskbar?
I have KDE and GNOME both set up to do that. If I'm on desktop 2, I don't want to see the window entries from desktop 1.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
JSPager. It used to be located here:
http://hem.fyristorg.com/jspage/
Unfortunately, it's gone. It was the best windows virtual desktop pager I've found. Very simple and lightweight, and none of the fluffy bloated options on any of the other ones. Completely configurable too. If you manage to find it, post the link here, I've been looking for it.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
Normally I will have a dozen Firefox windows (each with a dozen tabs, so don't bother suggesting tabs) and three dozen xterms. Often I will also have several PDFs open, a couple spreadsheets, and an image editor.
So, how usable is your taskbar with 60 apps running?
You can get a free trial, and this works better than the NVidea solution. You can even make your desktop look like your favorite Linux flavor. WWW.stardock.com
CadWizard
Kinda surprised nobody has mentioned this...
If you've got an ATI card, you should try Hydravision. It will allow you to set up multiple virtual desktops and has a pager...
If you don't have an ATI card it might even still work (it doesn't seem to be hooked into the ATI drivers). More info on ATI's site.
I recommend the Litestep alternative shell. Please see the comment I wrote to another commenter here for details about installers, upgrades, and a little bit of recent news on development.
Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
has to be http://www.goscreen.info/
" GoScreen was created in 1998. Since the first time I saw (and worked with) "pager" in FVWM desktop window manager for X Windows I wanted something similar in Microsoft Windows world. The idea of how could I implement this came to me in spring of 1998, and after several weeks of experiments and intensive development goScreen 1.0 was published. I must say that FVWM gave me only initial inspiration. GoScreen has already evolved very far from that initial idea. "