Vista and XP get Linux-like multiple desktops
Saturday, September 20, 2008 by Phoon | Discussion: Personal Computing
Microsoft has quietly released a utility that allows you to create multiple desktops on Vista or XP. Some unexpected stuff comes out of Microsoft’s labs. Microsoft’s Sysinternals team has released a virtual desktop manager for Windows XP and Vista that allows a user to create up to four separate desktops on the one OS.
From the creator of the Sysinternals suite...
Reply #3 Saturday, September 20, 2008 10:58 PM
Reply #4 Sunday, September 21, 2008 12:32 AM
I just started to use Stardock Virtual Desktops and like.
It would be nice to have seen more screenshots of what this offering from Microsoft does.
Reply #5 Sunday, September 21, 2008 8:14 AM
Not much to it. Just options to set your hotkey that switches desktops. No fluff at all.
It only uses 1.7MB of RAM too.
Reply #6 Sunday, September 21, 2008 10:23 AM
Well....I tried it...no great shakes, duplicates processes, and just how do you "uninstall" it?
SVDT's much better imo.
Dr.J.
Reply #8 Sunday, September 21, 2008 11:57 AM
Microsoft has actually offered a virtual desktop app for years as part of the windows powertoys.
Reply #9 Sunday, September 21, 2008 12:32 PM
I didn't like that one, for a number of reasons, all of which escape me at the moment. All I remember for sure is it wasn't capable of doing what I wanted it to do. But their implementation this time around seems to be much different.
Reply #10 Sunday, September 21, 2008 2:37 PM
It serves the purpose of allowing multiple desktops. Yeah, i didn't notice that it launches a separate explorer.exe with each desktop. Does SD's app do the same thing?
Reply #11 Sunday, September 21, 2008 2:41 PM
Uncheck the "Run automatically at logon" checkbox, then delete the exe.
Reply #12 Sunday, September 21, 2008 2:47 PM
FWIW, this works quite differently than other (including Stardock) offerings. It creates up to 4 "desktop object", versus either "moving" or "hiding" windows. As a result, there is no way to move windows from one virtual desktop to another.
I've been using it for a couple of days and find that it makes an interesting complement to SVD.
Also, FWIW, the entire Sysinternals offerings are available as a single download and are quite worthwhile IMHO.
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/SysinternalsSuite.zip
Reply #13 Sunday, September 21, 2008 3:15 PM
I don't work for these guys, just a fan...
AltDesk: http://www.astonshell.com/altdesk/
Lightweight and skinnable
Reply #14 Sunday, September 28, 2008 3:21 AM
The thing is right ... I use linux regularly, and I use the windows port of the *NIX window manager BlackBox on windows ... and they both have multiple desktops ... and I hardly ever use them.
Sometimes (very rarely) on Linux, when I'm coding something for a project, I find it useful to have Emacs open on one screen, XChat open on another, and the references on a third, but this only happens when I'm working with an interpreted language like LISP or python and I have so many files and interpreter windows open in Emacs i need it full-screen ... but to be perfectly honest, I find alt-tabbing and/or exposè clones to be far more efficient workflow-wise.
Multiple desktops only really improve your workflow if you command it with the keyboard, and in that case, you really oughto look into a tiling WM of some sort.
Reply #15 Monday, September 29, 2008 11:54 AM
Yeah. I used to use VWMs in Litestep myself, but honestly I rarely used them. Now I've got "real" multiple desktops (dual monitors) so theres no reason at all now for me. 
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Reply #1 Saturday, September 20, 2008 10:40 PM
Interesting. Do you believe this is any better than SD's Virtual Desktops?