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Virtual Desktops for Win32? 39

Posted by Cliff from the we-need-more-screen-real-estate dept.
OK, I've been doing this for over a year now and I have yet to ask a question of my own. I feel compelled to now. Since I'm now developing for NT (hack! wheeze!) I'm finding that I quickly run out of screen real-estate (believe me...MSDev is greedy for screen space). I'm wondering what good Virtual Desktop programs there are available for the Win32 platform. I'm sure some of you have suggestions out there. I'm interested in hearing them.
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Virtual Desktops for Win32? More

Virtual Desktops for Win32?

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  • Litestep (Score:2)

    by Gleef ( 86 )
    Litestep is good, powerful, flexible, no more unstable than Windows Explorer, and best of all, GPLed.
    ---(litestep.net)--- [litestep.net]
    Litestep info at Floach.pimpin.net [pimpin.net]

    If you run LiteSpawn as well, Litestep becomes even more stable than Windows Explorer.
    http://www.litestep.org/files/fi les/litespawn.html [litestep.org]

    ----

  • I'm a devteam member for the Litestep project. Litestep is a "shell" for Windows. This is basically like a window manager for X, but instead of its main focus being the drawing and interaction of windows on the screen, a shell's main purpose is to present the user with an interface to the programs on the computer (For instance, Windows Explorer is a shell that organizes programs through the Start Menu, desktop icons, and a taskbar).

    Litestep offers a way to totally customize your desktop. The way Litestep works is everything is loaded as an external module (sort of like AfterStep) and given a configuration. Among the available modules is a Virtual Window Manager. It comes with the default Litestep configuration, and also comes with almost 100% of themes available for Litestep.

    Also, Litestep is a GPLed program, and many modules for Litestep are available under the GPL as well. Many thememakers out there will also be honored if you use their theme, splicing it to your purposes.

    For more information about Litestep, visit the following locations:

    • Litestep.Com [litestep.com] (the official homepage).
    • Litestep.Org [litestep.org] (partner of Litestep.Com - more help and news here)
    • Customize.Org [customize.org] (a site devoted to skins and themes for themeable applications for Win32)
    • Skintacular [skintacular.com] (a site akin to Customize.Org)

  • eXceed provides virtual desktops, and it even (if I recall correctly) is kind enough to keep them all listed in the taskbar. It also , as a minor side benefit, provides a full X server for those times (rare though they may be ) that you want to run something on a Unix machine and have it display locally.

    Then again, you can pay an arm and a leg for it.
  • My NT box has a Matrox G200 and it comes with software that does this. I've never used it, although I've got Display Properties open right now thinking about it!
  • Two problems with VERN:
    * crashes, sometimes, and when it does it's impossible to get back to the apps open in the other desktops than the one that was on top at the time of crash
    * hangs up whenever and app hangs up - makes it unusable if e.g. some client database app can't get locks.

    So I've tried VERN and I've been impressed by its versatility, but I'd rather scroll thru the task bar than have to kill my apps when VERN hangs up.
  • Actually, I think all the Matrox cards come with that feature. I used to have a Millennium card and it had virtual desktop features.
  • It is true that the NT 4 reskit has some (sketchy) virtual desktop utilities, but Win2K's does not/will not, AFAIK.
  • Try Nonags - Desktop Utilities - Freeware [datascribe.com.au] there are several very small ones and like someone else said. If you have a matrox they have a virtual screen program included with the card software. In fact alot of graphics cards come with software for virtual desktops now days. Hope this helps.
  • Litestep may have a few quirks, but it makes having to work on an NT box so much better. The windowcentric admins at work my drop a brick everytime they have to touch my box, but who cares. They shouldnt be touching my box anyway:)-

  • Go to www.winfiles.com, search for MultiDesk. You'll find two versions. See the subject to help :).

    In all seriousness, it's decent. 4 desktops by default, -Arrow) combos to swap, and a quick method of moving a window to a new desktop.

    It also runs rather easily under NT. Always a plus.


    Christopher Kalos
  • Check out "Perfect Screens" for a good virtual desktop environment. I got it a couple years ago, and have been using it ever since. Very very handy. I have it configured to autohide at the top of the screen (like the windows taskbar) and have ctrl-left and ctrl-right hotkeys to cycle through them (but thats not much of the features it actually has. check it out:

    Perfect Screens Homepage [softwareutilities.com]

    http://www.softwareutilities.com/psindex.htm
  • I too have been banished to the dark side (win).

    I use goScreen, its a pager rather than a virtual screen thingy (is there a cool name for a virtual screen/desktop program?)

    anway, goScreen has tons of great features in its latest incarnation (2.6) and it gives you a 30 day trial.

    check out Andrew guryanovs' [aracnet.net] site

  • My understanding is that Windows NT (not 9x) has virutal desktop support built-in, just not enabled by default. The Resource Kit has some virtual desktop tools, although admittedly I haven't had the best luck with them.
    --
  • A while ago, (before I had heard of litestep) I also wanted virtual desktops in win95 so that it would be more like X. Everyone's favorite publisher, Ziff Davis, had published the source code to something that did this in one of their issues of PC magazine. Get ZD Desk and C++ source code here:

    http://www.zdnet.co m/pcmag/pctech/content/16/14/ut1614.001.html [zdnet.com]

    If that doesn't work, I think Mijenix PowerDesk or something like that had virtual desktop support.

    ----
    I'm not stoned, I just chugged a pack of fUN dIP!
  • www.litestep.com is another good resource for Litestep.
  • I can second this recommendation. While I have to use NT, they make life bearable. And Steeve is a cool, friendly author who's put a *lot* of work into these (and other) programs. I registered them several years ago and they've been rock solid.

    Vern creates a virtual desktop you can split up into any number of cells in an x-by-y grid, the cells are sizable.
    Vern can:
    - autohide,
    - show 3d miniwindows (icons of the apps),
    - mouse wrap on screen edges,
    - move among cells when moving windows;
    - set the wallpaper and desktop color for each cell;
    - support multiple monitors;
    - glue apps to the desktop (they move when you change cells
    - activate cells via a hotkey
    - show all process with window handles, positions, class information, style bits, etc.
    - adjust process priorities,
    - hide and show windows

    Blanch is a similar toolbar of cells, icon sized that launch programs. It can have multiple pages of icons; supports drag-n-drop; has a basic chron facility, a basic clock/chime facility; and can autohide.

    They're not skinnable (Steeve isn't as much a sucker for eye-candy as I am :), but for power with efficient operation on NT (especially if you're in an office of MS-heads), I love them. Litestep is an excellent choice as well. I run that when I can and at home when not futzing with Linux.

  • Here at my office the Unix guys that have been forced into reading Excel documents and Visio drafts have found that the package 'Exceed' meets their demands quite well. It is made by Hummingbird software [hummingbird.com] and allows for a virtual desktop as well as X connectivity. It's a commercial package, but one that (IMHO) is worth getting. It *may* support ssh as well, but I'm not sure.
  • Windows NT has had the ability to do virtual desktops built in since NT4 (and it will continue in NT5 and beyond). This means that there are API calls that create desktops, change desktops, etc. Microsoft just has not written much (anything I have used) that actually uses this functionality. This means that writing a virtual desktop shell is significantly easier than first believed, it still does not mean that Virtual Desktops exist on it. (since nothing uses them).

    Rick Wash
  • Actually, There is a variant of the standard Litestep, called "litestep Now!" that is easier to install and looks more like windows, i don't have a link though.

    You can find other options at http://floach.pimpin.net [pimpin.net]
  • Try Litestep - www.litestep.org - It's a NeXTStep clone that offers a virtual desktop similar to the kind of virtual desktops in linux. Also, some video cards may come with a virtual desktop program as part of their driver/software package.
  • The ReflectionX package comes with a virtual display program like you are looking for. It has a little mini-viewer like fvwm95 does, but I think you can turn it off, and just change screens by moving the mouse.

    We use Reflections here at work, but I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for something cheap. The X server it comes with is top-notch, and it also comes with many standard unix servers; ftp, ntp, ident, finger, lpd, tftp, httpd, etc..

    Oh yeah, this is made by WRQ.
  • Have you ever tried litestep. I heard that it supports virtual desktops among other unix like things for your desktop. it is a little of a bitch to set up though.
  • I've been using Powerbar from http://www.plemsoft.com [plemsoft.com] for well over a year now and loving it. Highly customizable, great virtual desktop support, and buckets 'o' features. Stable on 95/98/NT, too.
  • You should give a Matrox G400 Max a try, it has dual ports for just this sort of thing...very cool.
  • I've used VERN [oneguycoding.com] and BLANCH, [oneguycoding.com] shareware from One Guy Coding [oneguycoding.com], for a couple of years now.
  • Check it out here [stardock.com].

    It does a lot more thank just virtual desktops!

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