Comments on On Virtual Desktops

  1. There are a few free software desktop managers for MS Windows

    Hi, the MS virtual desktops can be annoying, but there are many more, some of them free software. I have tried several and those that I quite like are:

    http://VirtuaWin.SourceForge.net/
    http://WWW.Yipton.Demon.co.UK/content.html#DESKWIN

    I currently use VirtuaWin, after trying quite a few.

  2. Thanks for the tip!

    I'll have to check those two out at work tomorrow. They sound fairly good from the web pages.

    It's good to know there are some free alternatives out there. Last time I looked for virtual desktop managers for Windows XP, pretty much everything I found was commercial. It didn't occur to me to search SourceForge, though. (Not that I ever search SourceForge anyway, since half of the projects are forever stuck in the pre-alpha phase and never release any files. But that's an entirely different rant.)

  3. Virtial Desktops and Excel

    If there is an Excel window and you return back to this desktop, Excel's toolbar is missing... And you can only close it and call it again...

    • Comment posted on Thursday 14 Dec 2006 at 5:13pm
    • By Dimo

  4. MSVDM and Excel

    Dimo,

    I don't use Excel too much, but I just tried it out with MSVDM. I see the same problem, but I found that if I minimize Excel, switch desktops, switch back, and then restor Excel, the toolbars come back. I've seen this work with other programs (e.g. Visual Studio), but I have no idea why it works that way.

    Incidentally, I recommend following Blissex's advice and checking out VirtuaWin. I just installed it with the "cool desktop switcher" module this morning, and it's hard to put into words how much better it is than MSVDM. Kudos to Blissex for mentioning it!

  5. No Subject

    You said, "For one thing, that big "MSVDM" label takes up a lot of space in the taskbar, and as far as I know, there's no setting to turn it off."

    I'm sorry that you had to hex edit the title away... because there is a way to turn it off. The method isn't obvious though, maybe that's why you missed it.

    The key is to right-click on the taskbar, and disable the option "Lock the Taskbar". Then you can right click on the MSVDM toolbar, and uncheck the option "Show Title".

    • Comment posted on Thursday 14 Dec 2006 at 5:13pm
    • By Anonymous Reader

  6. Good tip

    That's good to know. It never occurred to me that unocking the taskbar would make any difference. Not that it matters anymore, since I've switched to VirtuaWin, which is about 10,000 times better than MSVDM. The only thing it doesn't have is that nifty scaled-screen switcher, which I never used anyway.

  7. Hmm

    MSVDM seems to like to not display wallpapers after you switch desktops...I get a black screen from switching from one to another, and refreshing the desktop does nothing. To fix, I have to reselect the wallpaper and apply it via Control Panel. I wonder if its just me or if it has something to do with having more than one display adapter.

    Ironically enough, I found this page looking for a solution for the problem. Guess I'll be switching!

    • Comment posted on Thursday 14 Dec 2006 at 5:13pm
    • By Beofres

  8. Thanks!

    I have been using MSVDM (My Sh*tty Virtual Desktop Manager) for a while now, and I just noticed that problem in excel and word both. So, I jumped on google to find out if there was an update of more help on it, found this and I'm switching to virtuaWin also! Sweet! Much luck to you all!

    • Comment posted on Thursday 14 Dec 2006 at 5:13pm
    • By Tymas

  9. It's not just you

    MSVDM loses the background image switching between desktops on all 4 systems I tried it in. I'm giving up on this; MS isn't serious about it, they haven't updated it in 2 years and the bugs are obvious and frequent.

    • Comment posted on Thursday 14 Dec 2006 at 5:13pm
    • By Steve B

  10. Recovering MSVDM desktop background images

    The images are usually kept here: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp

    The files are these:

    MSVDM-Desktop0.bmp
    MSVDM-Desktop1.bmp
    MSVDM-Desktop2.bmp
    MSVDM-Desktop3.bmp
    MSVDM-Preview.bmp

    removing and re-installing the powertoy did not put these back, nor did re-running the Configure Desktop Images. I had to recover the images from a backup. The files are all 1,407 KB. Once I put them back in that location, my VDM desktop backgrounds were OK again and followed the desktop switching.

    • Comment posted on Thursday 14 Dec 2006 at 5:13pm
    • By Mark W.

  11. Its easy for the learning the 'Multi-PC'

    The Virtual desktop is very smart tools in XP. I think this is the concept for the "MultiPC", which is very popular within the contemporary users of the Windows. I think Windows has no objection to make the Virtual Desktop. Its true, funny and useful for us.

  12. RE: Recovering MSVDM desktop background images

    First, I would like to thank the folks for posting the two useful tip about "hidding the name" and "missing excel menus." ...I will be posting this information with links to this page on my blog.

    It's a shame that Microsoft doesn't provide better documentation for MSVDM. I was hacking the background images myself, until I found right mouse click on the MSVDM toolbar > Configure Desktop Images. This option allows you change the background images for each desktop.

    NOTE: YOU MUST RIGHT CLICK "ON" THE MSVDM TOOLBAR TO OPEN THE MENU OPTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MSVDM.

    • Comment posted on Thursday 14 Dec 2006 at 5:13pm
    • By Sloan

  13. Multihead

    And how well does it work with multi-headed displays? Go on, just guess.

    • Comment posted on Thursday 14 Dec 2006 at 5:13pm
    • By James Beckett

  14. Awesome!

    Badly?! (in reply to above - just a guess)

    Just a note to say how GREAT VirtuaWin is in comparison to XP's poor attempt at virtual desktops, too right linux has been doing this well for years - whose betting something similar will appear in Vista? (not that i've looked)

    The best bit is moving the mouse across the screens - slightly disturbing at first but its great once you get use to it :))

    • Comment posted on Thursday 14 Dec 2006 at 5:13pm
    • By Tim Burgess

  15. Wallpaper disappearing fix....

    I know this is an old post but -

    After reading this, I realized that my wallpaper files were being deleted from the TEMP directory(C:\Documents and Settings\*USER NAME*\Local Settings\Temp) by CCleaner. I put those files int he exclude list and it works fine now. I no longer lose the background images.

    Just thought it might help some people.

    • Comment posted on Thursday 27 Sep 2007 at 2:30am
    • By Matt H

  16. you can solve if the wallpapers disapear

    Hi, if after a cleaning, you have lost your wallpapers, you can do the following: at first you select none for all the four wallpapers in "configure your desktop images", after that you close reboot your system and you choose again your wallpapers, and that´s all, it will work again.

    • Comment posted on Saturday 31 May 2008 at 3:28pm
    • By Charlie

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