This single icon serves several purposes. First, you can double-click it to configure Desktops’ switcher hotkey. Second, you can single click it to launch individual desktop sessions as well as display a graphical image of the four desktops, very similar to the type of image you see for the Taskbar thumbnail preview. Third, you can hover over the icon and a popup will identify which number desktop is currently displaying. Let’s take a closer look.
When you double-click the Desktops icon. Default switcher hotkey is [Alt] and the number, but you can specify any combination of the four hotkey modifiers and either the numbers or the functions keys as the desktop specifier. You can even configure Desktops to launch at logon.
When you click the Desktops icon, you’ll see the thumbnail preview. To switch to an open desktop, you can simply click its image. As you can see, this is also the way to launch individual desktop sessions — you just click a blank image. When you do, the desktop will essentially boot up and the Desktops will instantly make it the current desktop.
Clicking the Desktops icon will display a graphical image of the four desktops, very similar to the type of image that you see for the Taskbar thumbnail preview.
You can hover over the Desktops icon, and a popup will identify which desktop is currently displaying.
What’s your take?
Have you experimented with Desktops from the Windows Sysinternals team? Did you use the Virtual Desktop Manager from Microsoft’s PowerToys For Windows XP set? Have you used another third-party virtual desktop tool? Please drop by the Discussion Area and let us hear from you.
A new virtual desktop tool from Microsoft’s Windows Sysinternals team | Microsoft Windows | TechRepublic.com