Virtual Desktops

Do you ever feel like you need more desktop space? Well, I certainly do. Check out my desktop:
It may look strange but what you are seeing is my entire desktop. It consists of 9 spaces. The basic idea is that by dividing up your desktop into multiple "virtual" desktops, you can maximize desktop organizations, efficiency, and use. Looking at my desktop you will notice that, starting in the top left and moving right, I have open Firefox, iTunes, VMware Fusion, Finder, iCal, iPhoto, a blank space, iMail, and VLC Player. What I have done is seperated out my desktop over virtual space so that its size is effectually 9 times larger than it would be without the Spaces. This is what it would look like if you had 6 "phyiscal" desktops:

That's ridiculous... nice command center!

Lets say I had a bunch of applications open on a single space. How would that look?

Thats just an example I found on Google Images- Notice how buried each window is?

It would obviously be a messy looking desktop and require you to switch between windows, minimize and maximize applications, and all sorts of painstaking things. Using a virtual desktop is like having an organized desk. It lets you put things in its proper space to be used when needed. Obviously, if all the things you used on your desk were stacked on top of each other, it would be pretty difficult to be efficient and use your desk space well. Anyway, I am able to virtaulize my computer desktop through a Mac Application called Spaces (click link for more info on that gem). But what about PC's?

FOR PC USERS: There are a host of virtual desktop managers out there. Many cost money, some are free. I have gone out and found 3 that I think are easy to use, work well, and - of course - are FREE. The apps I found are below. All you have to do is download the files and install the programs. They will require some up front configuration but that should be simple enough to figure out.

1. VirtuaWin
2. DoubleDesktop
3. VistaVirtualDesktopManager

I have installed all three and found VirtuawWin to be the best. It can virtualize up to nine spaces and it looks pretty good. Double Desktop is a very simple dual desktop manager. I chose it because its really lightweight and very easy to use. Lastly, I included Vista Virtual Desktop Manager because it is lightweight, does a little more than Double Desktop, but will not let you virtualize quite as many desktops as VirtuaWin. I won't go into a tutorials for each but if you have any problems getting your virtual desktop set up, let me know and I will be happy to help. Lastly, I will be honest, these are harder to use than what comes with the Mac - but they do their job and thats what matters!

Note: if you start using a virtual desktop manager, I suggest starting with 2-4 spaces and then increasing as you may find need. I started with 4, went to 6, and now I use 9. It requires some getting used to, but once you do, you will find that you are much more organized and efficient! Enjoy!

Holy Bonus! It's: SpaceSuit

Bonus: SpaceSuit is basically an add-on to OS X's Spaces. It allows you to customize EACH space with its own wallpaper. Its really very simple and kind of fun because now each space can look different. It also allows you to title each space so you could call one space "Work" and the other "Movies" and another "E-Mail" or whatever. Kind of a nifty add-on to an already nifty application. Too bad Spaces doesn't just come with that capability... oh well.

Spaces

This post, unfortunately, is not one you can use unless you own a Mac. But wait! Its really cool so you should still read it. This post is all about Spaces.

What is Spaces? Spaces is software that comes attached to Mac OSx 10 (Leapord, for our purposes). The basic idea is that it splits up your desktop into numerous spaces. Other operating systems do this too (like Linux) and in really spiffy ways too. But the way Mac does it is pretty sweet. So here is a case example for you: Lets say that during your typical session in front of the computer you will listen to music, watch some Youtube videos, check your mail, balance your budget, and find directions to a store downtown. All of these tasks will require that you open some sort of program and maybe even keep it running. You might even be a huge multi-tasker (like me) and want all of the programs open at once so you can do them at your leisure. Okay, as you all know, having a lot of windows open in can really be a mess on the desktop. You wish there was a way to divide these tasks by function so that you can clear away some of the clutter. Well, Spaces does that for you. Spaces allows you to create a variety of desktops that you can select between seamlessly. Here is a snapshot of my Spaces. Right now I am using 6. I used to use 4 but it just wasn't enough anymore... Click on the image to make it big.


As you can see, I am checking out my favorite blog, doing homework behind that, listening to music on iTunes, I am gettting ready to type up a paper for calss, I have my calandar, mail, and chat up, I am checking out Google Earth, AND I am running Windows XP. All of this is taking place at once, on seperate "desktops" and I can switch between the without a problem (the screen shot is the screen that allows me to select which desktop I want to go to). Holy Cow, huh? Its pretty sweet. The best thing about it is I don't have a clutter of windows on one desktop but as many windows I want, spread accross however many Spaces I want. I love Spaces.