I right clicked it and I was pleased to see a lot of configuration options.

Virtual Dimension, a simple virtual desktop solution for Windows PCs

The first virtual desktop software I tried is Virtual Dimension, "A free, fast, and feature-full virtual desktop manager for Windows platform".

The author understands what us x-windows users feel when we switch to a Windows machine:

I guess those already used to working with any flavor of Unix and X11 have already understood the interest of such a project. In my opinion, anybody who used it for more than a couple of minutes may find it hard to revert to a single desktop. However, some people, most probably Windows users, may not understand what this is.

Pasted from <http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/>

So I downloaded it &  installed it. Here's what I  found:

The latest Version of Virtual Dimension was  released in 2005 & I  was doubtful it would even  work on my Windows 7  tablet.
 
It did install though and after completion, I noticed a  new icon on my Windows taskbar.



I'm not a manual reader, so I just felt my way around until I had virtual desktops set up and working.

Important to me was that I'd be able to switch virtual desktops using a hotkey. While my tablet  pc is in tablet made I would also like some kind of pager that would  allow me to switch to a different virtual desktop just by clicking on its icon.

Oh, while writing this, I noticed there was such a virtual desktop pager positioned at the top of my screen. But I noticed that it indicated only one virtual desktop.


Clicking on the "Desktops" tab of the configuration page offered me the ability to add more desktops. I added desktops until I had four of them. Appropriately, my pager then showed four desktops.

So far so good. I like how the pager shows me which applications are open on each virtual desktop.

Next, I wanted to know how I could use hotkeys to switch desktops. I like how on a default Gnome install, I can switch to a different virtual desktop by pressing <CTRL>+<ALT>+[left or right arrow key].

I tried that familiar key sequence with Virtual Dimension but it didn't change switch to a different virtual desktop.

Back to the configuration options, I found that the "Shortcuts" tab offered me a plethora of functions that I could assign shortcuts to:

  • Activate desk above
  • Activate desk below
  • Activate next desk
  • Activate previous desk
  • Maximize height
  • Maximize width
  • Move window to next desk
  • Move window to previous desk
  • Move window to some desk
  • Show/hide preview window
  • Toggle always on top
  • Toggle transparency

Wow! That's a lot of options. I just assigned the shortcut CTRL+ALT+Right to the Activate net desk function and CTRL+ALT+Left to the Activate previous desk function.

My Windows 7 machine is now more conductive to productivity.

I haven't found a way to put a small pager on the taskbar, but I was able to float the desktop pager above all other applications.

Overall, I think this is an excellent virtual desktop program.

Here are some of the main features of Virtual Dimension

  • Unlimited number of virtual desktops
  • User defined keyboard shortcuts for many functions
  • Specific settings for each desktop (wallpaper, desktop background)
  • Can have a window appear on all desktops
  • Can switch desktops by dragging mouse cursor to the edge of current desktop
  • Plentiful configuration options

VirtuaWin - full featured and free virtual desktops for Windows

After being blown away by Virtual Dimension's virtual desktops program, I was reluctant to even try out VirtuaWin, but I reluctantly did.

The VirtuaWin web site says you can have up to 9 virtual desktops with VirtuaWin - four is plenty enough for me. It supports Windows 7.

I gave it a try and I was anxious to do so once I read that VirtuaWin has a taskbar based pager which is available as a module. In fact, there are lots of modules available for VirtuaWin. I don't understand what all of them do, but there's a big old list of them here virtuawin.sourceforge.net/modules.php

While downloading, I noticed that VirtuaWin is available as an installer and also as a portable version which is cool because you can put it on a USB drive and use it on any Windows computer to have instant virtual desktops.

I noticed that VirtuaWin, like Virtual Dimension, has a comprehensive settings menu and a taskbar menu to display it.

Right away I liked that VirtuaWin was configured to use the same virtual desktop switching shortcuts as Gnome uses - at least the ones that switch to the previous or next desktop. This made me happy.

As far as I can tell, VirtuaWin offers everything a Linux user would want in a virtual desktop application for Windows. I find myself very pleased with it. From what I can tell, VirtuaWin offers everything that Virtual Dimension does and a little to a lot more.

As far as hotkeys, VirtuaWin offers many more functions that can be configured with keyboard shortcuts than Virtual Dimension does. I will never use most of them but it's nice to know that so many options are there.



Changing desktops with the mouse

Both programs offer something that Compiz Fusion users may be used to. Each of these virtual desktop programs allow you to switch desktops by dragging your mouse to the edge of the screen. This comes in handy when you don't wish to use hotkeys or a pager to switch to the next or previous virtual desktop.

A virtual desktop pager for the taskbar

From what I can tell, only VirtuaWin has a taskbar pager (available as a free addon) that resembles the  taskbar pager from Gnome.

I installed it, and although it took a bit of technical know how to get it going, I was very pleased with the result which was a virtual desktop pager on the taskbar which works the way you'd expect it to if you're used to using a Linux, UNIX or Macintosh system.

The better virtual desktop program is...

Which virtual desktop program to use?

I'm going to continue using VirtuaWin as I have been doing for the last few days. I've become quite comfortable with it and it has played an important role in making my Windows laptop more easy to use.

Although the Virtual Dimension program was easier to install and get started with, it was just marginally easier. Also consider that it hasn't been updated in over 5 years and it seems unlikely that any new features will become available.

If you're looking for an efficient, full featured and free virtual desktop solution for Windows computers I think you'll like using VirtuaWin.

A look at two virtual desktop programs for Microsoft Windows

Windows doesn't have them, and now that I use Windows 7 on my Tablet PC, I  find it hard to be productive without the virtual desktops that I use on my Linux PC.

I had to fix this, so I searched and found two virtual desktop programs that run on Window 7. They're both free programs.