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Virtual Dimension: A free desktop manager for Windows
By Michael Pietroforte | 5 Comments | Permalink | Trackback | Previous | NextI always wonder, why Windows doesn’t come with a tool that allows you to work with multiple desktops like under Linux with KDE or Gnome. There are many desktop managers for Windows though, but the good ones cost and the free ones are often too slow. Virtual Dimension is a fast Open Source tool with many features.
Virtual Dimension allows you to work with as many desktops as you need. To switch between different desktops, you can define a shortcut key. You can also right click on its icon in the Windows tray, to select the desktop. A double click on the icon opens a small window that shows all your desktops with its opened applications. You don’t get a preview of the desktop though as with most desktop managers.
All you can see are the icons of the opened programs in each desktop. This is better than a preview since the window opens faster, and it also helps you to choose the right desktop more easily. A right click on one of the windows that represent the desktops lets you choose among the applications. This way the desktop will open with the corresponding program.
The only thing I dislike about Virtual Dimension is that it doesn’t show the number of the opened desktops in the icon tray. Most desktop managers have this feature. Sometimes, I am unsure as to which desktop is currently open. Virtual Dimension allows you to display an OSD (On Sreen Display) window with the desktop number. However, the OSD closes automatically after a while. You can configure the display time though. If you enter 0 ms, the OSD will always stay open. I recommend using a low transparency level; this way it won’t interfere too much with other applications.
Via LUX.ET.UMBRA
Why dont you try Microsofts own Virtual Desktop Manager?"Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy."it’s a little simple but it’s ok for what it is… http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
Hi Soeren. Thanks for the hint. I used Microsoft’s desktop manager for a while, but then uninstalled it. I can’t remember what I dislike about it. I think, it was the slow preview function. It certainly has less features than Virtual Dimension.
I just started using this. You can use the configuration tool and click “display” then choose a color. The active desktop color is different than the rest and you can use the “aways on top” simultaneously to see which is active.
I’m late to this post (several years late!), but the Microsoft Desktop Manager doesn’t *work.* Sometimes, when an application did some work and stole some CPU cycles (like an update check or refreshing an opened file that’s been modified on the file system), the application would relocate to the active desktop. Having self-moving crap became irritating and counterproductive after awhile, and because of this broken behavior, I ended up choosing the vastly superior Virtual Dimension. I think development on Virtual Dimension is dead, though. It would be nice if it got an update.
Virtual Dimension doesn’t consume much memory, currently taking less than 5MB on my system… highly recommend it over other multiple-desktop managers. No need to squint and see desktop thumbnails since it’s fast flipping through and to the actual desktop you want to work with. Works great with multiple monitors too!