Free virtual dektop managers

[gshatadal]

I just downloaded the virtual desktop manager which is part of the
powertoys feature of XP. Though it is a big improvement on not having
it, it still lacks some features present in some of the X Window
managers (e.g. Gnome and KDE) like sticky windows, creating as many
virtual desktops as wanted (I think there is a limit but it is a large
number like 32 in Gnome compared to the fixed 4 in the XP PowerToy
version), moving windows from one desktop to another etc. Does anybody
know a good freeware tool for XP which can mimic the virtual desktop
capabilities in Gnome?

Thanks.

 

[Semolina Pilchard]

I just downloaded the virtual desktop manager which is part of the
powertoys feature of XP. Though it is a big improvement on not having
it, it still lacks some features present in some of the X Window
managers (e.g. Gnome and KDE) like sticky windows, creating as many
virtual desktops as wanted (I think there is a limit but it is a large
number like 32 in Gnome compared to the fixed 4 in the XP PowerToy
version), moving windows from one desktop to another etc. Does anybody
know a good freeware tool for XP which can mimic the virtual desktop
capabilities in Gnome?

I don't know whether this will do everything that you want, but it
seems very flexible. I haven't tried it myself but it's a small
download and you may feel it's worth experimenting with.

MegaScale MultiDesktop Manager
http://www.muukka.net/multidesktop/

MultiDesktop Manager is a desktop manager program which allows you to
create multiple desktops and switch between them. MultiDesktop Manager
will run only on Windows NT 4.0/Windows 2000/Windows XP/Windows Server
2003 or later.

MultiDesktop Manager is freeware.

 

[andrei]

Find them all at

http://www.download.com/sort/3150-2346_4-0-1-3.html?

Regards
Andrew

 

[Semolina Pilchard]

I don't know whether this will do everything that you want, but it
seems very flexible. I haven't tried it myself but it's a small
download and you may feel it's worth experimenting with.

MegaScale MultiDesktop Manager
http://www.muukka.net/multidesktop/

MultiDesktop Manager is a desktop manager program which allows you to
create multiple desktops and switch between them. MultiDesktop Manager
will run only on Windows NT 4.0/Windows 2000/Windows XP/Windows Server
2003 or later.

MultiDesktop Manager is freeware.

Following-up to myself here. Bad practice - I apologise

I downloaded this thing and gave it a whirl. I don't think that it
will fulfil the needs of the OP, sadly, but it is a competent piece of
software. It's almost, but not quite, a solution for which no problem
exists. It enables one to run several instances of the same shell or
several different shells, nearly invisibly to each other, and switch
between them via hotkeys.

Personally, I have a use for this: it's good to be able to run two
shells and switch between them when you're working on one of the less
developed and intuitive shells. Someone who wished to be able to hide
what they were doing with a couple of keystrokes would find it useful,
too, I think.

It isn't well documented. It doesn't seem to hold user settings
between sessions, but I might be missing something. I can see no
limitation to the number of shells or instances one can run, beyond
memory. I'm not at all sure what will happen if one shell is sent
into a machine-freezing endless loop, but I suspect it won't be able
to recover from that.

It's also fully network capable.