goScreen 5.1

goScreen

Version Reviewed: 5.1
Price: $28, 30-day free trial
Home: http://www.goscreen.info/

I tried goScreen 2 or 3 years ago and was unimpressed. No backgrounds, for one.

But now it is much better. Still feels unpolished in terms of aesthetics, but desktop switching functionality is solid, which is more important, and the configuration and operation is easy to understand.

Still testing this one. That's a good sign!

VirtuaWin 2.11

VirtuaWin

Version Reviewed: 2.11
Date Reviewed: 2005-10-15
Home: http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/
Cost: Free (GPL)

Promising, but weird. It is barebones by design, but there are a number of "modules" that can be plugged in.

There is a very nice little system tray icon from which the whole desktop manager is controlled. The icon shows which desktop is active, and makes it very easy to switch between the desktops. It's easy to set up hot keys for each desktop. (I used Win-1,2,3,4.)

I can't really tell what desktop model the author had in mind. Windows move between desktops a lot, and I don't know why. Seems like dragging things near the edges of the screen will move them around, and moving the mouse toward the edges of the screen takes you to different desktops -- this is annoying.

It's possible I just don't understand the intent. The documentation is sparse and in semi-broken English.

Not all the modules have been kept updated or maybe never worked. I tried some and was disappointed:

• SwitchDesk, a wallpaper module, doesn't seem to work with VirtuaWin 2.11. It just exits with an error during a desktop switch.
• SmartCoolName, which allows names to be assigned and displayed for each desktop, just drew a weird little rectangle on the right side near the task bar with no obvious content.

Source code is available for all this stuff, so maybe I could just fix them to work the way I like! That's attractive.

I'm not giving up on this yet, but it moves to the back of the line. I'd rather not have to write stuff myself -- this is supposed to be a tool I can use, not a new hobby to suck up time.

MSVDM: Virtual Desktop Manager PowerToy (1.0)

This one is such a disappointment. It looks like it has a lot of the right features and is fairly simple, too.

But, it is very, very buggy. It loses tasks frequently -- they just disappear from the task bar and can't be found.

It allows setting of wallpapers, but frequently shows the wrong wall paper, or no wallpaper after a switch.

It has a very nice overview mode that takes a scaled down snapshot of each desktop. Rumour is MS patented this.

If they want to patent something, they should at least make it part of something that works! It is unconscionable to just "take" an invention and sit on it like this, especially an invention that's pretty obvious.

I really wanted to like this, but it's just too buggy. MS released this Power Toy two years ago, and hasn't released fixes or updates. They aren't serious about it; it's a real shame. A working version would be wonderful as a standard part of Windows. Heck, I'd even pay $19.95 for it if it worked properly.

The Ideal Windows Desktop Manager

1. Provides between 4 and 9 desktops.
2. Inobtrusive, easy switching between desktops
3. Separate wallpaper for each desktop (or not, configurable)
4. Individual task bar icons for each desktops
5. Task list that summarizes all available tasks, regardless of desktop.
6. Easy movement of a window/task between desktops.
7. Sticky windows, i.e. one that is visible on all desktops.
8. Overview of what's on which desktop
9. Names for each desktop (optional)
10. Configurable resolution for each desktop (optional, bonus points)
11. Assign a desktop to a monitor, for multi-monitor system.
12. Saveable desktop layout. That is, to activate a layout is to start all apps that make up the layout, and set their windows to remembered size and positions. Assign a layout to a desktop, name them.
13. No weird artifacts or flashing.
14. Must not "lose" tasks or at least must provide a way to recover them if lost.
15. Imperceptible performance impact.

Overview

I have been looking for a reasonable program to manage multiple desktops on Microsoft Windows for years. I don't know why, but I haven't found a good one yet. This blog will chronicle my sporadic search, and provide comments on each desktop manager I try.