Virtual desktops for Windows

Robert Hallock 16 Feb, 2009 at 12:49pm ET Article published in Tech

While *NIX users have long had the luxury of virtual desktops, Windows users have been somewhat out in the cold until relatively recently. The advent of Windows XP spurred development in this regard, and the ensuing years have granted considerable traction in the world of virtual desktops. Like most software categories, there is always one application that stands head and shoulders above the rest, and we really feel that Dexpot takes the cake in this category.

Dexpot allows a Windows user to create virtual desktops that can be accessed with a hotkey. This simple premise is enhanced by a rich desktop manager that assures certain applications always go to a virtual desktop of your choosing.

It might not be for you, but virtual desktops are definitely for me. I enjoy the ability to separate my applications to avoid a trainwreck of clutter on one desktop.

Comments

16 Feb 2009 ~ 2:42pm drasnor ATI users have had this feature for-ev-er in the form of Hydravision.

-drasnor
16 Feb 2009 ~ 3:11pm MachineDog I want the cube. :o
16 Feb 2009 ~ 3:17pm chrisWhite I've used Dexpot and several other Windows virtual desktops and I've never actually adopted any of them to my Windows workflows, at their best they seem clunky, prone to crashing or not flexible enough to do what I want. I'm a huge Spaces users on my Mac so I'd love to see these apps improve on Windows but I don't feel like we're there yet.
16 Feb 2009 ~ 3:59pm foolkiller Microsoft actually has their own Virtual Desktop plugin available, while it's kind of clunky, it does work pretty decent and it's free. You can find it on the XP Powertoys Page.
17 Feb 2009 ~ 8:49am kryyst In Linux and OS X I use Virtual desktops all the time. Yet in windows I've tried various tools to do it and for whatever reason they never seem to work right or you really notice a performance hit.
17 Feb 2009 ~ 9:09am jared

kryyst wrote:

In Linux and OS X I use Virtual desktops all the time. Yet in windows I've tried various tools to do it and for whatever reason they never seem to work right or you really notice a performance hit.

Couldn't agree more. The hacked support just doesn't compare to the native support in OSX/*nix.