From: "Andy100", on Friday, May 07, 2004 12:56 PM, asked
Is there a program (freeware if poss) which will do the following:-
Create icons on the desktop which, when clicked on, will open up another
desktop with certain icons (programs) in it.
i.e. Icon 1 - When i click on it, it brings up some window which looks like
a desktop and has all my 'paint' program icons on it.
Icon 2 - When i click on it, it brings up some window which looks like a
desktop and has all my 'audio' program icons on it.
Icon 3 - When i click on it, it brings up some window which looks like a
desktop and has all my 'security' program icons on it.
There are programs that implement multiple desktops, or
an over-size desktop. (Sorry, I don't know where to find them
off the top of my head. Check the PricelessWare site.)
But you may not need them.
Have you considered using either folders or folder shortcuts
on your desktop?
In Windows (I'm not sure which versions, I'm using Windows 98),
there are two possibilities I can think of that might do what you want,
without a special program.
1 - Folders on the Desktop
Use the right-click on an empty space in the desktop to get
a "context menu",
choose the two-step choice "New > Folder".
You can create a folder on the desktop,
name it whatever you want (as long as it doesn't conflict
with a name that's already used),
and stuff whichever program shortcut icons you want into that
folder,
either
by left-click drag-and-drop,
`or
by right-click drag-and-drop and
choose Move instead of Copy,
or maybe
by right-clicking on the program shortcut icon
to get its context menu and choose
Send To > Any Folder
if that works in your system
(it may be the result of a freeware Windows addon
that I don't remember).
**** Note **** the Internet Explorer icon
doesn't appear to be a shortcut,
and
resists being moved,
but you can do
right-click [context menu] > Create Shortcut
to create a program shortcut icon for it
on the desktop, then
move that shortcut icon into a folder.
2 - Folder Shortcuts on the Desktop
Using Windows Explorer, you can
create folders on a harddrive
somewhere other than the desktop,
right-click [context menu] > Create Shortcut
to create a folder shortcut icon on the desktop,
then move program shortcut icons into that new folder.
using either
drag-and-drop to the folder shortcut
(at least I think that worked for me),
or
the Send To, if that works for you,
or
drag-and-drop into the folder
or folder's files display
in a Windows Explorer window.
(3 - Desktop Toolbars from Folders)
An advantage of method 1, folders on the desktop,
is that you can drag the folder to an edge of the screen
and "Voila!" it's a menu bar with icons.
???? That's funny. I thought that used to work. -sigh-
Okay, I guess I'm wrong. I don't think it ever worked
for method 2, folder shortcuts on the desktop.
Oh, hey, I just got that to work, with _both_ folders and
folder shortcuts. Drag the folder into an edge of the
screen and a toolbar of the folder's contents, with
named icons, appears. The toolbar can be removed
by right clicking on its "handle" to get a context menu,
then choose "Toolbars" and uncheck the name of your
folder in the list of toolbars.
Uh, but it doesn't seem to work with some folders,
I'm guessing the special Windows folders. At least,
I'm not getting it to work with "My Documents", nor
with a folder shortcut to "My Documents". Weird.
But it just worked with the My Computer icon. ????
(I think I need to go lie down.)
And it works with "Network Neighborhood".
So why not with "My Documents"????
Why is "My Documents" acting different than
all other folder icons on my desktop? :-(
Oops. I just dragged "My Documents" completely off
the right edge. !!!! Oy! I'm such a klutz.
Okay. I got it back using the PC Magazine utility IconLock,
only because I had it installed and had already saved my
desktop icon configuration.
I wonder what I'd have to do to retrieve that icon otherwise.
Maybe just open the desktop folder in Windows Explorer
and move things around there?
Oh, hey, a Ctrl-Z [undo] restored "My Documents" to the
visible desktop, but with that little white arrow on the
icon. IconLock's "Quick Restore" put it back in place,
and without the arrow. ????
Try again. Okay, messing around in Windows Explorer
(I don't know whether it mattered, but I changed
the "View" mode from "Details" to "Small Icons",
to "Large Icons" and back to "Details".)
brought the icon back to the visible desktop, but with
the white arrow. -sigh- IconLock "Quick Restore", again.
(_I_ don't understand ...)
Messing around some more, It's possible to "attach"
more than one toolbar to an edge, at least by dragging
a second folder into a toolbar. Dragging the combined
toolbar to another edge is strange. Also, choosing one
"dragbar" to drag one of the two concatenated toolbars
to another edge works.
Oh, Right-click the toolbar's "dragbar" and the context menu
has a
"Close" option to close the toolbar,
and a
"Toolbars > New" option
(I'm not messing with that right now).
Possible advantages of method 2 are
I think the folder shortcuts don't consume as much
resources as real folders on/in the desktop,
and
they allow you to shift some of the storage load
to other harddrives if you have them.
A disadvantage of using either folders or folder shortcuts
is that I don't know how to lock down the icon arrangement
(order and placement in the window, size of window, etc.)
in and for a folder or folder shortcut.
There is a PC magazine utility, IconLock, that allows you
to save and restore the desktop icon arrangement.
But I don't know of a similar utility for Windows Explorer
windows.
(Sorry, I know some of this is out of order. My fault.)
Does that help any?
Aloha,
