Dexpot - additional virtual desktops. Dexpot - Additional Virtual Desktops Windows 10 Desktop Apps

Virtual desktops are the creation of duplicate windows, the original desktop with the ability to use any application on it. In Windows 10, such functionality is included in the standard set of the supplied operating system, that is, it does not require additional utilities. Some users have long been familiar with such capabilities from Mac OS and Linux systems with its varieties.

Virtual desktops are a program that helps organize a convenient desktop for a certain type of action.

You can use one table for work, another for games and a third for music, movies, on each of them you can run any task and use different functionality. You can create a lot of such duplicates, but you should correctly calculate the strength of the computer, it’s better like this - 1 running program on the 1st running window, if there are 4 of them, it will already significantly load computer resources.

Features of using "Task View" in Windows 10

The main idea pursued by the company when developing the extension is user-friendliness. Although Windows 10 does not yet have a full-fledged utility, there are flaws, limited functionality, but the fact that it exists at all gives hope for further, more in-depth developments in this area.

How to open virtual desktops?

To use this feature, which in Windows 10 is called "Task View", you just need to call it from the taskbar.

The first time you click, you will only see the inscription at the bottom of the screen “Add a desktop”, and in the future, open desktops and their contents will be shown in miniature, which by and large is enough for comfortable work.

The advantage of "Task View" is the ability to drag windows between different desktops, which is not available in all applications taken from the side. Also, there is no decrease in system performance, which indicates a good program setting.

In order to switch between your open tables, you should either simply open the Task View application or use the Win + Ctrl + arrow keys in the desired direction.

In the case of closing one of the windows in which there are open applications, they are transferred to the neighboring virtual table on the left, except for closing the leftmost one. It should be noted that all features are available from the menu, but for more comfort, you can use hotkeys.

Using hotkeys

Win +ctrl +D- create a new desktop;

Win +Tab– open the “Task View” extension menu;

Win +F4– close the active desktop;

An important nuance is that after restarting the computer, the creation of desktops will have to be started all over again, because they are not saved. Although you have different desktops, the pinned tasks and shortcuts remain the same and can only be changed for all windows. Also, a significant drawback of the built-in program is the lack of support for multiple monitors, it is impossible to turn on another desktop for a separate screen, only one can be active.

For Windows 7, 8, the use of virtual desktops is not provided at all, but, as always, third-party developers will come to the rescue.

The apps we'll look at below can also be used for Windows 10 if you need more functionality. A large number of applications have been developed to implement several desktops, most of them are free, but it makes no sense to consider them all, but we will analyze the highest quality and most popular ones.

Very beautiful and easy to use Dexpot program

A simple, intuitive interface allows you not to bother with studying the instructions and learning how to use the application. For private use, Dexpot is absolutely free. It opens in the taskbar, which allows you to move to another virtual desktop with the same ease as to another open folder. Quite a functional application, most even picky users will be satisfied after use.

Supports the "Full Screen View" feature, when 4 virtual tables are shown in miniature on your monitor and you can manipulate the programs open in them.

There are features such as Application Linking, Desktop Manager, multiple settings and other auxiliary tools. Works like a truly full-fledged desktop, without imposing restrictions on the use of the software product. There is the possibility of expanding the functionality thanks to the plug-ins that are presented on the manufacturer's website.

How to work with the Virgo program?

The main advantages are absolutely free use and very low weight. Due to its simplicity, it is invisible and does not affect the operation of the computer in any way. It has a minimal set of functions, only the most necessary, such a minimalist solution suits many people. All actions in the utility occur due to hot keys:

Alt+n-where n is the number of the window that transitions between desktops;

ctrl+n- where n, window number, active window selection;

Alt+Ctrl+Shift+Q- close the application.

The utility will not show anything tricky and fancy, but it will do the necessary. It is important not to use the same hot keys in programs, because Virgo will process such requests.

There are many other options for implementing this feature in Windows 7, 8, but 2 Dexpot applications were chosen as a functional, extensible and beautiful application and Virgo, which is as easy to learn as possible, minimalistic design and light weight make them favorites.

If you have any questions on the topic "Virtual Desktops in Windows 7,8 and 10", you can ask them in the comments

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The desktop is the first thing you see on the monitor when the operating system has finished loading after turning on the computer. We can say that this is your main workplace, which can contain controls, objects, your documents and to run programs.

The Windows desktop is divided into 2 parts:

1. Task bar.
2. Label area.

Computer taskbar

The taskbar is located at the very bottom of the desktop. It contains the Start button, the Quick Launch bar, a panel for displaying open documents and running programs, and the notification area.

One of the most important computer controls is the Start button. When left-clicking, it opens, which gives access to all computer controls, installed programs, and operating system settings. This button shuts down, restarts, or enters sleep mode for the computer.

The quick launch bar contains shortcuts to frequently launched programs. Here, it takes just one click of the mouse button to start, which determined the name of this area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe taskbar.

On the panel of running programs, open files and there are icons of currently open windows.

In the notification area, which is also called the "system tray", there are icons of programs running in a quiet, invisible mode for the user, the so-called background mode. As a rule, programs that start automatically when Windows boots up and do not require user action work in this mode. Here is a calendar with a clock, a volume control icon and an icon for connecting to the Internet or a local network. This area also displays pop-up messages that signal an event. For example, about the availability of fresh updates for the operating system, messages from programs running in the background, etc.

Desktop shortcut area

This area contains programs, frequently used files and folders, double-clicking on which opens these objects. Initially, after installing Windows, you will see only a few icons on the desktop: depending on the version of the operating system, these are the icons of the Recycle Bin, My Computer, My Documents, Network Places.

In the process of working with a computer, you yourself can add and remove the shortcuts you need, arrange them as you like. All icons here are on the so-called desktop background, which is called "wallpaper". You can change the wallpaper yourself depending on your taste from the existing Windows set or by setting any photo as a background.

Thus, we can say that practically the desktop is your main virtual workplace at the computer. Just like with an ordinary table, here you have all the tools and materials you need.

I would like to bring to your attention the virtual desktops feature that appeared in Windows 10. Someone will call this a debut feature, but this is rather incorrect, since virtual desktops have been in the functionality of operating systems and software for a long time. Operating systems such as Mac OS have used desktops as a convenience for a long time. Now Microsoft has finally decided to add a virtual desktop function to the new OS, which we will now analyze.

Windows 10 Virtual Desktops and what they mean

I think everyone understands that such functionality in Windows 10 is needed for convenience when working with the OS, since now there are many programs and users can keep up to several windows of these programs open.

In addition, each desktop can serve a specific purpose, such as one desktop for programs and documents, and another for games, entertainment, and websites. In general, you can place whatever you want on them. You can switch between tables very quickly and easily.

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Working with virtual desktops

As soon as you, I think, noticed that there is a button on the taskbar that symbolizes desktops, this is it, and it has a name “Task View”, in a row it is the third after the Start button. As soon as you click on it, all running windows will be displayed in the form of a preview. There will be a button in the lower right corner “Create Desktop”.

If you press several times, then a couple more virtual tables will appear, if there are a lot of tables, then you can switch between them with the corresponding buttons.

Now let's switch to another desktop. It can be seen that there are no running windows on it. You can launch a couple of applications and make sure that they are not on the other desktop. Also, you can move running applications from one desktop to another, for this, right-click on the desktop from which you want to move windows, in the drop-down context menu, select “Move to” and select the desired desktop.

Need to close an unnecessary desktop? Not a problem, we open the running desktops and at the bottom, next to them, you will see a cross, which closes.

By the way, if there were active windows on the closed desktop, they will move to the next one.

Keyboard shortcuts for virtual desktops

To make working with tables more convenient and faster, you can use special keyboard shortcuts on Windows 10.

• Win+Tab- opens desktops. The same is true when we click on the button.
• Win+Ctrl+left or right arrow- allows you to switch between desktops.
• Win+Ctrl+D- Creating a desktop
• Win+Ctrl+F4— Closing the desktop (current)

What is the disadvantage of desktops

The first thing I want to say is that desktops cannot be interchanged, I think if they could be moved, it would be convenient.

The main drawback, as for me, is that after rebooting a computer or laptop, desktops are not saved.

And finally, the last drawback is that in Windows 10 you cannot customize each desktop to your needs, in other words, ten desktops will have the same shortcuts, wallpapers and icons pinned to the taskbar.

I think that in the future, the function of virtual desktops will be improved and most of these shortcomings will disappear, the system itself is still raw and it is not necessary to demand the incredible from it yet. And that's all.

The Dexpot program is designed to create additional virtual desktops on the user's computer. Using this program, the user can create up to 20 desktops on his computer, each of which will have its own settings.

After installing the program, you will essentially have several virtual monitors on your computer, each with its own settings. You can easily switch between desktops to perform any actions on a specific desktop of your computer.

Each such desktop will have its own shortcuts, an individual background image. Thus, you can expand your environment by distributing program shortcuts and folders on different desktops, launching or installing programs on a specific Desktop, with your own settings.

The Dexpot program is free for non-commercial use. The program is translated into Russian and is easy to manage. The program runs on the Windows operating system, and even fairly ancient versions of the operating system are supported.

You can download the Dexpot program from the official website of the manufacturer - the German company Dexpot GbR. From the download page it will be possible to download the regular version of the program, which will need to be installed on a computer, or a portable version - Dexpot Portable, which does not require installation on a computer.

Dexpot download

Portable (portable) version of the program for creating desktops is launched from a folder. Next, consider installing the regular version of the Dexpot program on a computer.

Install the Dexpot program on your computer. The program will be installed in Russian.

After the installation is complete, the Dexpot program will be launched on your computer.

Launching Dexpot

The Dexpot program icon will appear in the notification area. When you hover over it with the mouse cursor, the inscription will be displayed: "Dexpot - Virtual Desktops for Windows".

After clicking on the program icon with the right mouse button, you can open the already created Desktops from the context menu (by default, 4 desktops have already been created in the program), or go to the program settings.

Dexpot Settings

You can go to the program settings by selecting the "Settings" item in the context menu.

In the "General" section, you can select the desired number of desktops. The Dexpot program creates 4 desktops by default. You can change this number to another one in the "Number of desktops" section. In total, with the help of the program it will be possible to create up to 20 desktops.

Here you can select the Desktop that will start by default. To do this, in the program settings, you will need to select the appropriate number of the Desktop.

In the "Starting the program" subsection, you can activate the "Autostart with Windows" item. In this case, the program will be launched along with the start of the operating system. After starting the system, the desktop that you selected in the program settings as the initial desktop will be opened.

Otherwise, you will be able to work with virtual desktops only after launching the Dexpot program. If you rarely use virtual desktops on your computer, then you may not activate the "Autorun with Windows" item so that the program does not use the resources of your computer uselessly.

After changing the settings, do not forget to click on the "Apply" and "OK" buttons.

In the "View" section, you can configure the settings of the icon, which is located in the notification area (tray). Here it will be possible to configure the parameters for opening windows using the keyboard key "Ctrl" and with a simultaneous mouse click.

In the "Components" section, by going to the "Table Manager", "Table Viewer", "DexTab - Taskbar Switcher", "Full Screen" tabs, you can configure the program settings if you are not satisfied with the default settings.

In the "Controls" section, you can set up hotkeys for the keyboard and for switching with the mouse.

By going to the "Switching desktops" section, you can in the "Desktop Elements" tab, configure the display of elements that will be displayed on the Desktop.

In the "Desktop Elements" tab, you can enable the display of icons (icons) on different desktops, the display of a background image, the display of taskbar elements.

To customize the background image on the Desktop, you will need to activate the "Customize background image" item. You will then be able to select an individual background image for each virtual desktop.

In order for all desktops to display active, currently running applications, you will need to in the “Taskbar” subsection, activate the item “Keep all buttons on the taskbar visible”. All currently running programs will be displayed on the taskbar in all desktop windows. You can easily open a running program on any desktop.

In the "Desktop Icons" subsection, you will need to activate the "Customize Icons" item so that each desktop has its own shortcuts. Otherwise, the same shortcuts will be displayed on all desktops. Then click on the "Advanced" button.

After that, a window will open in which you will be asked to select a folder for setting desktop icons: separate for each desktop, or public for all desktops. To display different shortcuts on different desktops, select the option - "Create a separate folder" for each desktop", and then click on the "OK" button.

In the settings of the "Plugins and modules" section, you can connect additional plugins to the program, set or change the password for the program.

After selecting the appropriate plugin, a brief description of the purpose of this plugin will appear next to it. You can configure the operation of this plugin by clicking on the "Configuration" button, selecting the necessary settings for this.

For example, the Dexcube plugin allows you to run animated 3D effects for transitions between desktops.

Change background for desktops

In order to change the background on a particular desktop, you will need to select the "Customize desktops" context menu item.

In the Desktop Setup - Dexpot window, you will need to select the appropriate Desktop and then switch to the Background tab.

In the "Background" tab, using the "Browse" button, select the image on your computer that you want to make the background image of this Desktop. Then click on the "Apply" button and then on the "OK" button.

Running desktops in Dexpot

You can use several methods to navigate to a specific desktop.

Press and hold the "Alt" key on the keyboard, and then press the number key that corresponds to the number of the specific Desktop. For example, the key combination "Alt" + "1", etc.

After pressing the "Windows" + "W" keys, a panel with desktop windows will open on the computer screen. Hold down the "Windows" key, while pressing and releasing the "W" key, navigate to the desired desktop. Then release the keyboard buttons.

By right-clicking on the Dexpot program icon in the notification area, you can launch a specific desktop from the context menu.

Another way is to launch the virtual desktop from the taskbar. After hovering the mouse cursor over the program icon, which is located on the Taskbar, a panel with thumbnails will appear that display the desktops created in the Dexpot program.

After clicking on the thumbnail image of the desktop, you can go to the virtual desktop you need at the moment to continue working on the computer.

Transfer folders and shortcuts between desktops

You can easily transfer folders or already existing shortcuts to another desktop.

In the notification area, right-click on the Dexpot program icon. Select "Desktop Manager" from the context menu. A panel with monitor images will appear in the lower right area of ​​the screen, which will correspond to the number of desktops created on your computer.

To transfer a shortcut, folder or file to another Desktop, this data will need to be dragged with the mouse to the image of the corresponding Desktop. Then you can again click on the "Desktop Manager" item in the context menu to turn off the display of the panel.

There is another way to transfer folders and shortcuts. To do this, first select the “Desktop windows” item in the context menu, and then in the window that opens, in the “Windows” or “Icons” tab, switch to the desired desktop. Select a shortcut, folder or file, and then drag it to the appropriate Desktop on the left side of this window.

Article Conclusions

With the free Dexpot program, it will be possible to create additional virtual desktops in Windows, each with its own settings, which can be used on your computer.

On this topic, I was inspired by this poll. Here we will consider programs that allow you to create virtual desktops.

Lots of pictures!

Users of Mac OS and Linux may even laugh that this is not in Windows, but I ask you not to breed holivar, yeah, so you listened to me. So, without further ado, let's get started:

Desktops

Website: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881
Size: 60(!) Kb
Free

Downloaded, launched, agreed with the agreement and the program is ready to go.

There are not many settings. Switching was configured by default. After some time of work (several hours, I use netbeans+browsers+music), the desktops were switched not so briskly. Switching was accompanied by a black screen, which was sometimes not pleasant. I think the reason is that one desktop = plus 1 explorer process.
In the control panel, only programs that are open on the current desktop are displayed. When clicking on the tray icon, the desktops were displayed. They are static, and it will not work to follow what is happening :)

Icons can be positioned however you like, on each desktop, all of them 4 they keep their position. Can they move, I do not advise you to delete it :) That's all the functionality, if you need several desktops, you will be satisfied.

VirtuaWin

The program works faster than its previous counterpart, I liked that it does not spawn explorer.exe processes, a switcher without “dark flashes”. Much more settings:

It's nice that there are additional modules (more than 20), I especially liked VWPreview. Nothing special, the same functionality is in the above program, but I liked it. This is the output of desktops. But not in a small window, but on the whole screen:


Installing them is easy, download, unpack, throw exe "shnik into folders with modules, update the list of modules in the program settings :)

You can switch not only with hot keys, but also by holding the cursor at the edge of the screen for a long time or by dragging the window + holding at the edge. Convenient for the distribution of windows, according to tasks.
The tray icon also has some functionality, by clicking on it with the mouse wheel you can also switch between desktops, and when you click the left button, we have a menu that can be used to show one window on all desktops or “drag” from one table to another.

If you wish, you can write your own modules, there is a Module SDK for this. Code in C. The author does not mind helping with answers to questions, the program does not stand still.

WindowsPager

The size of the program bothered me a bit. Especially against the backdrop of the previous ones. After 10 minutes of use, it becomes clear that the size is somehow inflated relative to the functionality.



WindowsPager also works without installation, but it differs in that there are no settings. More specifically, windows. I tried to find it, but probably too bad. But ... I found them :) Dug out in windowspager.ini
There you can set the number of "virtual tables". Switching between them (ctrl + win + arrows) and a few more not very necessary settings.

The program is special, as I understand it, it does not use cool Windows APIs for virtual desktops. It just ... hmm ... moves the window off the screen :) But there is also a "killer feature", the windows displayed in the control panel can be moved.


And also with the help of the context menu of the menu "swap" windows and fix them.


There is a video on the main page of the site, if you want you can watch it.

Dexpot

Liked the site. It differs from the previous ones, there is a feed. Download stable version 1.5, unpack, run:

I'm sure that more than half of the readers know what kind of library this is;) We return to the site, read carefully:

Okay, we are not proud, we will download, although it is not pleasant, we could put another 1.5Mb into the archive ourselves. Although it is strange that Win7 is not listed among the system requirements of these files. Downloaded, installed, launched… hmmm… We are still not proud. We send the machine to reboot. Dexpot refuses to work. There is no library in the System32 folder, although when the files were installed the required library flashed.
Google. Downloading. We fill. Testim. Pride has waned. Downloading 1.6Beta… hmm… already the installer.
Suddenly:


Installed fine and even started up.

There are a lot of settings, the programmer tried, but the previous bad experience had already knocked him down. Although I am weak in Russian in Krakozyabsky, the English version also did not help much. What I liked about the program is the opportunity set your own shortcuts for each desktop. There are also a few dubious features, such as setting individual permissions. The feeling of the harvester does not leave. Close Dexpot.

Virtual Dimension

What is a little annoying is that the program stopped its development already in 2005. Downloading. We install. We launch. In a small window, we will be able to observe the icons of running windows and applications.

This panel is unusual, but I liked the program. Settings in moderation. You can customize each desktop individually, at least set the wallpaper according to your mood.


It works without glitches and does not slow down, it leaves a pleasant feeling after itself, so if it lingers on your computer, I will be glad that it helped :)
Another indisputable advantage of Virtual Dimension is the ability to customize the window, for example, such as “always on top” or “transparency”:

Finestra Virtual Desktops (formerly Vista/XP Virtual Desktops)

Website:http://vdm.codeplex.com/
Size: 1745Kb
Free

The last update of the program was in February 2011. The program is distributed in the form of an msi installation package, which cannot but rejoice my cluttered test Windows.
Downloading. We open. We install. We launch.

First of all, we climb to study the menus and settings:


As you can see, there are a lot of settings, but in moderation. They are well distributed and clear enough. The developer most likely looked at Spaces and Exposé, but without stupid copying. The switcher between tables is sometimes buggy, and the plan can "blink" the background window, and then draw the overlapping window, but this is tolerable.


What has already become de facto for such programs is the display of all desktops at once:


We press Win + Z, animation, and we see our tables. Windows can be moved directly from one table to another. Works fast, but again upsets that the windows freeze. Well, I want to watch 4 films at the same time. We study further the menu and find:

In this window, we can hide and display the windows we need. I really don't know where most of the points came from.

Other

Thanks

P.S.

UPD: If you know the principle of operation of such programs or any separate one in particular, share this knowledge, we will all be very interested.