One feature of Linux that you may have liked that is you can switch between different virtual desktops. You can do so for Windows by using a free program named ‘Desktops’. Desktops from SysInternals creates four virtual desktops. Plus you can switch between them very easily and fast.
Sysinternals Desktops
Windows Sysinternals develops some very useful and good applications for windows. Whether you are an IT Pro or a general Windows user, you can use many of Sysinternals utilities. You don’t need to install the application as it is a stand-alone application.
With Desktops you can create virtual desktops; it actually creates three additional desktops, to the one you are running. It is very tiny being just a 60 KB download. Unlike other virtual desktop utilities that implement their desktops by showing the windows that are active on a desktop and hiding the rest, Sysinternals Desktops uses a Windows desktop object for each desktop.
You can make the application auto-start with your Windows. The application doesn’t get minimized to the taskbar; it is just minimized to the Notification Area. You can specify the hotkeys so that you can switch between virtual desktops very easily.
If you forget on which desktop you were working, you can see its icon in the system tray. The icon will indicate which desktop you are working on.
The interface of the program is very user-friendly. There isn’t much on the interface – no menus, no more buttons – except “OK” and “Cancel”, etc.
You can minimize it to the system tray after you are done with your settings and clicking on OK. Do remember to check the check-box which says “Run automatically at logon” so that at every login, you don’t need to open the application.
You can download it for Windows by visiting SysInternals. You can also run Desktops from SysInternals Live.
what a coincidence. I was playing with this just last night.
Gotta say I prefer VirtuaWin, also free (http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/) – it has more useful features, including hotkeys to move the current window to a different desktop; a “preview desktop” extension; a setting to pop a window from anther desktop onto the current one if something happens (like mail arriving from the boss); hotkey to dismiss windows back to their original desktops when you’re finished dealing with an event, and lots more. I find myself missing those capabilities when I try simpler virtual desktop utilities, including the native Win7 virtual desktop.
I’m having compatibility issues with other applications. Specifically, I use a print screen tool (called Greenshot) extensively. The difficulty I have is that I can only run one instance of Greenshot. Greenshot runs at logon by default and it works fine on desktop1. However, try and use it on a different desktop and the Windows print screen function fires. If I try to run the Greenshot exe on a different desktop, I get a message indicating that “an instance of Greenshot is already running”.
Is this a problem with Desktop.exe or Greenshot.exe? Apart from that, I’ve tried VirtuaWin and this product is better. If this exe instance can be fixed, Desktops will be a great product.
Thanks
Steven
Hi Steven,
Thanks for posting your comment about VirtuaWin, didn’t know that app. Is indeed much better! :-)
I had issues with both Greenshot & VirtualBox (VirtualBox consumes all host memory when Desktops is used) and I don’t have any issues with VirtuaWin! :-D
Greets,
Dennis