Hmm, I might actually try this here at work. I can have one desktop with all my work stuff on it - accounts program, outlook email, wages program, etc, always open. Another desktop I can have 'my' stuff, like browser etc.

da5id_nz

To each their own. I never liked virtual desktops at all. Windows minimize, and most of them can be put into the system tray. What more do you need?

Multiple users in Windows does everything else in terms of keeping things separate for different actual people.

downstairs

That's funny. I just uninstalled VirtuaWin 5 minutes ago because I never use it. I guess it's handy for some people, but I didn't seem to get much utility from it.

SenorDunda

@subtle - virtual desktops are nice to keep different tasks a bit separated - I usually have work on one desktop and email, Firefox on another.

@boandmichele - why don't you just setup everyone as a user - then everyone gets their own environment?? There is a user-switching applet you can add to your taskbar.

Jim

@ subtle: boandmichele has one option. Another nice thing about multiple desktops is keeping collections of apps together in one space. On my Mac (formerly using VirtueDesktops, now Spaces... though if anyone knows how to get the transitions from VirtueDesktops into spaces, I'd love to know) I have one for communication (IM, email), one for general use (iTunes, web-browsing, etc), one for FCP, and one for After Effects & graphics apps. It's nice to just get everything out of the way except for what I'm currently using.

conigs

@subtle I use V Desktops to organize my thoughts/tasks I'll have communications programs on one, production software on another and sometimes a web browser on the 3rd, helps me focus on the task at hand if I'm working on a project that I don't have the constant balloons that seem so popular in modern apps jumping up telling me that I have a new e-mail, IM, carrier pidgeon. Even though for my job I have to keep these applications open all the time. I can check them at my convenience now.

CyberCowboy

in ubuntu, my wife has her own workspace, i have mine, my daughter has hers, and the 4th is for any of my video encoding, downloading, etc stuffs.

(i know you can add loads more, but we are keeping the default as of this posting)

boandmichele

I've never really understood why virtual desktops are necessary. What's wrong with alt-tab?

subtle

Virtual desktops also work out great for those of you playing games.

Most people have had to do the dreaded Alt+tab to get out of a game to look up something, or look at their Ventrilo/Teamspeak room to see who just logged on. (NOOOO!!! THE FREEEEEEEZE!)

With Virtual Desktops you can basically scroll between windows like a breeze, and jump right back into the game without much of a lag/glitch.

I used to use VirtuaWin for Star Wars Galaxies to switch between my fiancee's and my accounts for inventory swapping, healing, that kind of thing.

Currently use it mostly for coding and web developing.

A+ in my book.

DWeaver

Hm interesting. I wrote Separate Yourself about different ways to make oneself more productive.

Andyways I, too, am using VirtuaWin and it's definitely useful. It allows me to totally focus on different tasks by intentionally not allowing me to get to them. And currently with 4 desktops, in the middle of my workday flow, VirtuaWin and the processes that I think belong to it take up 17,608 K memory (I have 2 GB).

goingthewongway

I've been using VirtuaWin since forever - actually, I think I registered an account with Lifehacker just for pointing Gina towards it. I use VW to keep work, communication and browsing apart (I do programming for a living).

Just to give you an idea:
Right now I have two 22" monitors (1600x1200 each) and 6 virtual desktops: 1 & 2 for writing code and testing, 3 for file management, 4 for source control and issue management, 5 for browsing & documents and 6 for e-mail and IM. That way I keep my taskbars uncluttered and I always see exactly what I need to see to get my work done. It also helps to keep "mail time" to a minimum; I try not to visit 6 too often.

I use a liniar setup (one by six), with the Windows key for shortcuts (Windows + 1..6 and Windows + W for a list of windows with Assign and Sticky enabled). I also use the WinWM plugin, which brings to Windows XP my favourite mouse gestures from X-Windows - Alt+LeftClick anywhere to drag a window and Alt-RightClick to resize.

VW eats next to nothing in resources, it's rock stable and minimalistic. No need to load the whole .Net runtime for it either - it's pure C++. And it's free. Wholeheartedly recommended.

Laur

@Dom: Uh-oh, looks like we're both wrong... I'm using VirtuaWin now and it looks like it's 20 max. Will update the post, thanks!

Gina Trapani

I just installed this and I am having trouble making it work the way I want it to. It doesn't behave at all like the Gnome or KDE desktop switchers. I want to click on a desktop area and switch to it, without having to cycle through menus, otherwise there's no point. The plugins are ooooooold too (one is from 1/8/2000), and most are not compatible with the current version.

I'm a veteran UNIX/Linux user and have not found anything that comes close to the easy, simple, intuitive desktop switching found in either of these OSs.

By the way, in response to other posters asking why virtual desktops are necessary: for many casual users, they are not, for programmers and power-users who have lots of terminal windows and groups of applications, it is essential.

OnipSemaj

Lifehacker says: UP to 160 Desktops

The VirtuaWin website says: up to 9 Desktops....

Which is it?

Dom

Does anyone else have an issue with all of the taskbar icons being shuffled when you switch desktops? I like to keep my taskbar icons in the same place at all times (makes it easier to "quick click" to the app I'm looking for)... but VirtuaWin seems to shuffle them. This is a deal-breaker for me.

Also, I do have Taskbar Shuffle installed, but it's too much of a pain to reorganize 15-20 taskbar icons every time I switch to a new desktop.

Burianski

@Posco Grubb: Sure, I can see it working for some. But to me all a virtual desktop app does is hide buttons in the taskbar. What more is it doing after I minimize all and maximize the app I want to work on?

Also- I've never been an alt-tab guy. The taskbar is all I use.

downstairs

I'll add that I really like VirtuaWin for its simple functionality and restraint from feature bloat.

When just checking email and browsing the web, I don't use additional desktops, but when I'm doing work from home, the multiple terminal windows go on one desktop, web browser goes on another desktop, and email client on a third desktop. A single hotkey switches among them all.

Posco Grubb

seems like a solid program i will download it and try it out, i actually used something like this on my machine when i had vista ultimate installed in it but that one was like u press the key combo and it zoomed out to show a like 4 sided cube that u can click and rotate and then u have 4 desktop spaces it worked really nice but i cant rember the name of it for the life of me sorry.( I believe it was meant to immitate a feature of linux?)

Bezike

@subtle: @downstairs: Virtual desktops are a useful way for managing many windows, many applications. After you start more than a handful of applications and open several documents, Alt-Tab can get very tiring.

Just as you organize household tasks to different rooms (laundry is done in the laundry room, cooking is done in the kitchen, hygiene is taken care of in the bathroom), so also various computer tasks can be separated out to different desktops. To switch tasks in a house, you move from one room to another. To switch tasks on the computer, you just switch desktops -- no mucking around with Alt-Tab and minimizing/maximizing windows.

Of course, if your computer use does not involve much simultaneous use of multiple applications or multiple documents, then this does not apply as much (kinda like living in a studio apartment?).

Posco Grubb

i use this at work and use one desktop for actual work and the other one for my aimless browsing. it works better than alt+tab when the boss comes over because i dont have to worry about alt+tab just going to another window and still seeing the espn.com site.

Khamel

If you have an nVidia video card you have nView Desktop manager. Does all you will need for multiple desktops with hotkeys.

jczarni

..

da5id_nz

I am trying it now and am liking it. I've got it set with the accounts program in one desktop, Outlook in another, etc, with the windows set to 'Always on Top' so I know the accounts program will always be there when I switch to it's desktop. I see that there is also a plugin to auto boot the programs you want when you first enter a desktop after the program starts.

da5id_nz

I've tried all sorts of VDM's and i always like them right away, and then i get annoyed by the small bugs in every one of them.. except the one that microsoft actually made...

[www.microsoft.com]

i don't understand why microsoft never actually added their desktop manager to the OS.. check out their VDM powertoy. 4 windows, seemless integration into the taskbar, very quick, has a window preview, quick switching with winkey+1|2|3|4, control over desktop wallpaper on each.. nothing fancy, it just works and it's super reliable.

i also highly recommend the alt-tab replacement and image resizer powertoys.. both of which should just be part of the winXP os in the first place..

sirfice

I made an earlier comment that there is nothing that comes close to native UNIX/Linux desktop switching. Well after looking into what some others have used, I found my solution.

If you want a setup that works almost exactly like KDE/Gnome (click [1][2][3][4] to get a desktop), use Dexpot ([www.dexpot.de]). It's not automatically configured like this, so after you install it, right-click on the tray icon and select "Settings", then click the Appearance category on the left side. Under the Tray Icon group, select "one icon per desktop". Voilà! You have an unobtrusive desktop switching that sits in your system tray. I am very happy now.

OnipSemaj

Sounds interesting. I wonder if you could time limit certain desktop setups with a password. It's funny how many applications there are these days to try to firewall concentration from superfluous distractions. What I've been doing is setting up an entirely different profile for serious work and another for aimless time wasting. It's effective. And you can get creative and prevent quick switching.

philosopher_dog

@Khamel: ditto! hehe. I am finding it heaps better than alt+tab; it changes so fast. I've got the desktops set up "in a row" though, because I'm finding it annoying to have to go up and down on the arrow keys as well. One dimension is enough for me :)

da5id_nz

Its also a good "boss key", leaving your browser open to lifehacker on one desktop, and all of your stuff on another.

holymogwai

It's very low on resources, configurable and also very stable, but I don't use it that much. Changing from 2x2 to 4x1 desktops and configuring it a bit made me try it a little more, but still far from incorporating it in my routine. Alt-Tab is still my #1 shortcut for task switching on *ugh*Vista (task thumbnails are ok, but Win-Tab is just eye-candy).
Does anybody know how if desktop stuff can be assigned to only one virtual desktop? I never have more than 4 or 5 files/shortcuts on the desktop, but it would help to sort out the spaces.

dedalusjmmr

I have explored several of these virtual desktop apps, and I have not found one that works well with Taskbar Shuffle. After setting all of my taskbar buttons, switching desktops completely reorganizes them back to their default settings. Anyone know if one of these apps works without re-ordering the taskbar windows?

Thanks

AltReality

@chef: right click on the msvdm in your taskbar and make sure "shared desktops" isn't checked..

sirfice

Another vote for Dexpot. Awesome, flawless (?) easy to use, supports keyboard shortcuts to change the desktops, and/or to move windows to different desktops.

Mandar Vaze

@rlee : VirtuaWin doesn't know (or care) about different wallpapers on different desktops. There are some plugins for it - I personally never used them, so I wouldn't know.

@OnipSemaj: There's a plugin for what you want as well. When on Linux, I was hooked to WindowMaker, and its handling of virtual desktops; I find VirtuaWin closest to that.

@Gina: VirtuaWin can handle a maximum of 9 desktops (according to virtuawin.org )

@inboxmarketing: I am currently running VirtuaWin on a multimonitor XP x64 workstation without any problems.

Laur

@OnipSemaj: Thanks for that link, love that program. With Power Menu you can "transfer" open programs etc. from one desktop to another. [www.abstractpath.com]

Mezmorizingmage

I've been using Dexpot and VirtualDimension and been pretty happy with both, especially with the former. One of the main gripes I have with VirtualDimension is that, while you can have a different wallpaper for each desktop, they all have to use the same Center/Tile/Stretch choice. Dexpot does not have that limitation. Does VirtuaWin?

rlee

@sirfice: I'm having problems with the Microsoft switcher, as some apps will stay up and focused when switching between desktops, which completely kills my reason for using the app in the first place.

Chef

The sexxy desktop switcher with the 3d cube for XPis called Deskspace! it aint free though but looks lovely!

I also used an app called virtuwin that permits screen bumping to change desktops, I loved that feature. whack the cursor twice against the left side of your screen to switch that way or bump twice on rhs to switch that, was way cool.

Then I got two 22" lcd's and it all got a bit weird.

If anyone knows of a good multi desktop that works well with twin monitirs let me know!

inboxmarketing

@sirfice: I used Microsoft's powertoy XP desktop manager years ago (until switching to VirtuaWin) and it had a prety huge bug. I can't remember it exactly - but it made Microsft Excel crash, which I used that a lot at work that year and was a big no-no.

CheGordito

It's great stuff, especially for college students, you can have your chat clients, your youtube, whatever on one, your paper on another, and nobody is the wiser.

Eschguy

I use Altdesk, although it's not free, it does exactly what I need.

[www.astonshell.com]

spr33