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Virtual Desktops on Windows?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the a-more-comfortable-environment dept.

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?"

10 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Virtual Dimension by no-body · · Score: 5, Informative
    does it for me pretty good:

    http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/

    the power toys - or whatever the junk is from M$ - sucks!

  2. Virtuawin? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Never really used it, but it might do what you want... http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/

  3. Virtuawin by christophe.vg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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

  4. Microsoft TCO by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  5. You might try some alternate shells... by Mr.+Gus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  6. Re:Virtuawin? Absolutely! by ewhac · · Score: 4, Informative
    VirtuaWin is a mandatory component of any new machine I set up for myself. I have it installed at home and at work, and I use it constantly. Windows is nearly unusable without it. And it's Free Software. Highly, highly recommended.

    Schwab

    --
    Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
  7. Re:To better help answer the question... by myc_lykaon · · Score: 4, Informative
    I have use it constantly (at work) for the last 2 years.

    1) It's slow, very slow.
    2) Dialogs (such as VS.NET pops up a dialog when a file has changed) pop up on the visible screen, not on the screen occupied by the parent. You can waste time wondering why your app appears to have locked up - it's just waiting for you to clear a dialog on another desktop.
    3) MS Excel looses all it's toolbars if you flip between virtual desktops.
    4) Some apps don't behave well to being switched and the window contents 'slide' down inside their container.
    5) If an app on one of the other desktops wanders off into the long grass and consumes lots of CPU, it's the devils own job to switch desktops. I find after starting using MSVDM I use taskmgr much more frequently.

    That said, it's definately the best of a bad bunch.

  8. Re:To better help answer the question... by commadore_sponsz · · Score: 4, Informative
    I'm using it at the moment and, whilst it does give you virtual desktops, it has its problems:
    • I have yet to find a way to send windows to another desktop - they stay where you open them. This can lead to dialogue boxes on a different desktop to it's parent program.
    • Some programs don't get on well with it, Excel 2003 loses the tool bars and one of our in-house apps hangs if you change desktop.
    • If a program freezes it will lock things up when you try and change desktop - ctrl-alt-del is the only way I've found to get round this and killing the stuck process can kill explorer and bring everything back to destop 1.
    • It can be slow to change desktops and will often re-arrange the order of windows and their buttons on the task bar when you return to a desktop.
    It's better than no vrtual desktops but not by much. However, it does have the virtue of not showing up on our internal software audit scans as a verboten software install.
  9. BlackBox for Windows? by SpiritOfGrandeur · · Score: 3, Informative

    I currently use bbLean. It has not been updated in awhile but it is reliable.

  10. Wiki Article by Corbets · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.