Ask Slashdot: Which Multiple Desktop Tool For Windows 7? 359
First time accepted submitter asadsalm writes "MacOS has spaces. Windows had no out-of-the-box utility for multiple virtual desktops. Which Multiple Desktop Tool should one use on Windows 7? Sysinternals Desktops, mdesktop, Dexpot, Virtual Dimension, VirtuaWin, Finestra are the few options that I have shortlisted." So, if you use both Windows and multiple desktops, what's your favorite method?
VirtuaWin over Sysinternals, Dexpot, & Virt Di (Score:5, Interesting)
I have tried Sysinternals, Dexpot, and Virtual Dimension. But I am a pretty die-hard fan of VirtuaWin at this point. All other multiple desktop managers have been too slow, bloaty, cause problems with some windows, or just don't have the right features, (which for me is keyboard control and simple ways to move windows from one desktop to another). VirtuaWin wins on speed and stability alone.
Nvidia Drivers (Score:4, Interesting)
My preference and a follow-on question (Score:5, Interesting)
As an answer, I've used Virtual Dimensions and Dexpot a lot. Last I used one, I preferred Dexpot.
Now, a slight variant of the question. Are there any truly multi-monitor aware virtual desktops. I mainly am looking for the ability to run the two screens as independent virtual desktops and change them independently.
mDesktop works great... (Score:2, Interesting)
I've been using it for several months now under pretty heavy load. I use 4 desktops with 3 applications that are persistent across all 4 desktops, as well as a unique application on each desktop. I switch across desktops constantly (see every couple of minutes or less) throughout the day. It is lightweight, efficient, and has never caused me a problem/crashed/etc, even though it is still technically a beta (I think). It works just like a virtual desktop should, as far as I'm concerned.
Why am I not just doing it in linux you ask? Because work requires me to be in windows... :P
goScreen (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been using goScreen (http://www.goscreen.info/) for this purpose for years. I'm not sure how it stacks up to the other utilities you mentioned, but it is highly customizable. My current configuration allows me to use the window map to switch desktops by holding control and dragging my mouse to the right edge of the screen, and I can also switch to any application currently running on any desktop by right clicking on the right edge of the screen. There are of course, tons of other ways you can configure and use the program. I'd wager it can be set up to match almost any desktop switching environment you are currently accustomed to.
There are however a few downsides. For one it's not free, in either sense of the word. For another, it breaks Windows 7's desktop slideshow feature, switching you to an unsaved theme with only one wallpaper in the rotation every time a program changes your desktop resolution. Last but not least, every time you switch desktops, it changes the order of the windows in the taskbar. None of these are major issues for me, although I do really wish they'd get fixed at some point.
Windows has it built in... (Score:3, Interesting)
Windows has it built in. Go to the start menu, do "switch user", and, bingo! A whole new desktop...
It's good like most of "Dr. Mark's" work (Score:0, Interesting)
I've used it myself, & per my subject-line above? It's good stuff, like much of his work is (iirc, he's been doing "hybrid design" work too, where parts of his work are 32-bit & 64-bit driver underpinnings too, allowing for low-level ops on BOTH a 32-bit &/or 64-bit OS platform).
* No, he's not "perfect" & not "my hero" (though I admire his work)!
We have also had our disagreements before too! That doesn't mean I don't respect he, even though we had differences over time...
(I.E.-> Over memmgt & what-not where in the end? VISTA had to reduce their cache loading aggressiveness even, proving my point that dedicating "ALL FREE RAM TO CACHE" in Windows, wouldn't work, & where memory optimizers can unfreeze/unhalt exchange servers + more... & I've even earlier, pre that debate @ Windows IT Pro, corrected the design of one of his apps in pagedefrag.exe (hardcodes to both registry hive locations, pagefile.sys location, & more + how/where to overcome that in NT Native API code, beneath the UserMode stuff we generally access, etc./et al)).
He's not perfect, nobody is, but he does DAMN fine work when he does (processexplorer.exe being the "prime example").
HOWEVER, most of all?
He's been 'that good' since the mid 90's too, & his Carnegie Mellon education/PhD has generally "shown thru" since then... education of that level, & "living the job" always shows thru.
APK
P.S.=> We both did wares for sale on contracts to Sunbelt software in the mid to late 1990's, & that's how I first was made aware of he & his works... Microsoft 'snapped him up' too, & that says WORLDS really, & on his blog I had to congratulate he on that much! Not everyone can get there, I was turned away after a 3-4 part inerview in 2003 in fact, proving I had more to learn is all!
So - I have to give credit where it's due, & that generally means you're PRETTY DAMN GOOD @ programming/analysis/design in comp. sci. related fields, especially @ a programming level! apk
Not just desktops (Score:5, Interesting)
Mission Control, née Spaces / Expose, is not just about desktops. Multiple desktops are cool and all, but the better part is what used to be called Expose. Hit F9, and you get a choice of all apps running; select the window you want. Hit F10, and you get a choice of all windows from the current app. To me, that's way more useful than multiple desktops. I don't even bother keeping my desktop neat, anymore. I get the screen I want with one key, one click.
Dexpot kind-of works like that on Windows, but not as smooth. It also had issues with screen locking, but that might be just my machine.
Questionable (e.g. incorrect) Citation... (Score:4, Interesting)
If they really agreed a desktop pager would be in the OS.
The call you cite goes back to Win 2k, but 11 years later we still have no official Microsoft support. If you follow your own citation and become "historically aware" -and- read the call description, you will realize that this call -does- create a desktop, but its intended use is to create the desktop you get when you have logged in using control-alt-delete etc.
That is, it doesn't create a "virtual desktop" within the existing framework of display objects for an active user with an active desktop, it creates "a new desktop" as the instance of the regular old desktop that the user gets when he logs in.
You will also notice that it allocates "the desktop" from "the shared heap common to all desktops". This is an example of how the Window archetecture useses common intermingled resources all the way to the bone, as I stated. One of hte reasons that Wndows is so poor at security is that these common resource pools let programs "peek over the fence" or "toss data over the fence" at each other.
So contemplate how "CreateDesktop" and "CreateVirtualDesktop" would be different calls... Blindly providing citations to similar seeming API entry points does not a platfrom technology prove.
FFS, Bloody Linux (Score:4, Interesting)
Ok, most Linux WMs have a virtual desktop manager built in, the Gnome one (or even the CDE one going back to HPUX or Solaris) are perfectly adequate, but for a Windows user you might as well suggest kicking themselves repeatedly in the nuts if that's the only advice you have to offer. Windows doesn't have a virtual desktop option built in, but Linux does, awesome, that's 1:0 to Linux but still totally fucking useless.
For my part, I've been looking for a similar solution. I've played with one or two but not found anything particularly useful. The OP's post was useful in itself in that he posted links to the ones he's checked out himself. A quick look suggests that Virtual Dimension looks good - I'll be checking this out myself. I have 3 monitors, two of which are generally dedicated to email and my knowledge base. PuTTY sessions generally sprinkled across the three. Being able to switch my entire screen environment for particular tasks would be useful.
Extra info for Linux fucktards: I'm a 20-year Linux admin and systems programmer who pretty much HATES Unix window managers and prefers Windows as my main desktop platform. I've used lots of Unix desktops and frankly they're mostly a disaster in my opinion.
And those of you who have posted useful info in response to the OP's question: thanks, very useful.
Blackbox for windows (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally I use blackbox for windows, although you need to spend a lot of time configuring your UI the way you want it. The default is abysmal for anyone who is used to the traditional windows UI, it's possible to get it to be pretty close to the traditional windows UI (except better).
There are many versions of blackbox for windows. The one I use is bb4win:
http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/
Re:There are no "GODS" in coding gents... apk (Score:5, Interesting)
No more than there is, say, the best musician or athlete - everyone has strengths, weaknesses & what-not...
Say what you will, but Russinovich is is my ultimate nerd idol. Listening to that man talk about Windows, and go into such amazing detail about how it works, all the way down to the bare metal and then back up through the processor, into the kernel, back out into user mode... it's positively fascinating.
:P
Honest to goodness, the one thing that, not only career-wise but even down on a fundamental level of sheer personal enrichment for the thing I love most, would seemingly allow a quantum leap in what I want to learn would be an apprenticeship under him and the other technical fellows at Microsoft. Just as many here would probably say the same of themselves and Torvalds, I suspect!
Now I'm getting impatient, waiting for the next iteration of Windows Internals to show up at my door. Get moving, Microsoft!
bblean (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The best answers to questions (Score:4, Interesting)
I haven't written any code using these functions (I doubt many people have) but they are there.
Correct. It is used by Windows itself for the logon/lock screen, for the "switch user" (since XP) feature and since Vista for the elevation prompt. The latter is a security feature designed to isolate the prompt so that processes cannot trick the user into clicking the "ok" button.
I've actually used that API to create a program which could restrict my sons computer usage. When 3hrs had passed the desktop would switch to a "warning desktop" telling him his time was up. It could then switch back to his game with only minimal interruption, allowing him to conclude before the "block" desktop turned up and/or the computer shut down. (As it turns out I never actually deployed it as I believe more in offering alternative quality time and brokering agreements. It worked much better. But the geek in me needed to explore it).