If you’re like most computer users, chances are that when you’re working on a major project, you have multiple applications running at the same time. When you do, your taskbar can get quite full and you can find yourself spending a lot of time locating and switching between applications. In this situation, even Windows Vista’s stacking taskbar buttons aren’t much help.
Microsoft’s Windows Sysinternals team has developed a lightweight and very dependable virtual desktop manager called Desktops that allows you to create up to four virtual desktops on your computer. This allows you to spread out your applications on the various desktops. By doing so, you can work more efficiently by grouping applications for related tasks on separate desktops. For example, you could have one desktop for programming tools, one for database work, one for e-mail, and one for surfing the Internet.
As you may remember, Microsoft’s PowerToys For Windows XP set included a similar utility called Virtual Desktop Manager. While the new Desktops utility performs the same function as the Virtual Desktop Manager PowerToy, it uses a much more efficient resource management system and was designed to work in Windows Vista.
In this edition of the Windows Vista Report, I’ll introduce you to Desktops and show you how it works.
A new virtual desktop tool from Microsoft’s Windows Sysinternals team | Microsoft Windows | TechRepublic.com