Thursday, April 7, 2011

Virtual Desktop Software

Thanks to a helpful post from Snox I was able to find this neat little program called Dexpot.  Basically it creates the feel of workspaces ("Spaces" if you're in OSX I believe) and acts almost exactly the same.

It allows you to run multiple virtual desktops and switch between them with user customizable hotkeys, there is also a full-screen preview selection (shown in the image below) or the ability to add a taskbar selector (in the bottom right of each of my virtual desktops below. Most windows have the ability to right click at the top and you will be able to access the Dexpot context menu to switch which VD you want the window to be attached to, or if you have the taskbar selector enabled you can drag and drop windows.

The only quirk that I don't enjoy is the fact that if I open songbird in VD1 and then accidentally in VD2, if I close the window in VD2 it will also close the window in VD1, this may be an issue that is specific to Songbird or it may apply to any program that only allows one window/instance.  Future testing will answer this question.



If you wanna try Dexpot or some other VD Software check out one of the following links

XP/Win7 support
Dexpot
VirtuaWin

XP only
Microdesk
Virtual Dimension
Microsoft Virtual Desktop Manager

Note: some of these softwares support back to Windows 9x, for those of you with a box running a legacy OS
Posted by The Penguin Initiative at 8:33 PM
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10 comments:

  1. sfxworksApril 7, 2011 at 8:40 PM

    I might actually use this for my minecraft server. Thanks man

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Penguin InitiativeApril 7, 2011 at 8:51 PM

    No problem man. That's the main reason I wrote that last post actually haha. The server window was getting on my OCD Desktop Environment nerves.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fix PC Games AdminApril 8, 2011 at 4:38 AM

    so it's something like Virtual PC or VMWare? should be great +followed

    ReplyDelete
  4. derApril 8, 2011 at 5:04 AM

    This is exactly what I missed in Windows!
    +followed

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Penguin InitiativeApril 8, 2011 at 6:41 AM

    amBored not quite. It just duplicates your desktop environment so that you can organize your windows into program categories and such. Right now my 4 desktops are labeled Work/Internet/Media/Games

    and you can set each desktop to attach to a specific monitor as well!

    ReplyDelete
  6. -M-April 8, 2011 at 3:01 PM

    Is this similar to the workspaces in Ubuntu? You know the ones that you can change with ctrl+alt+arrow right/left?

    ReplyDelete
  7. miousApril 8, 2011 at 3:34 PM

    Awesome, I have been looking for this for my windows. Gotta try it out, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  8. SnoxApril 8, 2011 at 5:19 PM

    Nice :D

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Penguin InitiativeApril 8, 2011 at 7:29 PM

    Exactly the same -M-, with a little bit of configuration I was able to get it respond almost exactly like the workspaces in Ubuntu.

    ReplyDelete
  10. JacksSmilingRevengeApril 10, 2011 at 5:55 PM

    I've always been curious about VDS'
    Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete

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