Everyone is familiar with their computer’s desktop. It’s what we stare at as we type, or surf the web, or do any work on our computer. It contains our menu, and our windows, and our icons, etc. Before long, windows stack up on top of windows, and icons litter the entire desktop, and it just becomes one great big mess. We’ve all probably learned to deal with it over time, and may not even notice how frustrating it can be since we’re so accustomed to it. But there can be a better way, and everyone has access to this for free.

What if you had more than one desktop? What if you could easily switch between 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 desktops? What if each desktop could hold its own set of icons and windows? Imagine having your browser open on one desktop, the document you’re typing open on another desktop, your Twitter client open on another, and so on. Imagine just jumping from one to another with just a click, or a flick of the mouse.

Linux users are used to having multiple desktops, and that’s where I first stumbled across it. The video below is a screencast I just took of my 6 desktops. (I could use more or less if I wanted, but 6 works great for me right now). Five of the desktops always have one or two main windows open that I use regularly. The sixth is always a clean slate with nothing open, so I can do whatever I want with it. Actually, I can do whatever I want with any of the desktops. I mean, it’s not like I can’t open and close new programs and windows on any of them at any time. But I personally like to keep them mostly the way you’ll see in the video below – nearly all the time. Play the video now, quickly, to see what I’m talking about. It’s less than 30 seconds long. (Sorry about the low quality of the video).

That’s my computer, and a quick glance at all six of my desktops. This ability to segment my work and keep a visually clean desktop at all times, keeps me much more productive – and much less frustrated – than I used to be.

You can have it too. It doesn’t matter if you run Windows or Linux or Mac. They all have free programs you can run to give you multiple desktops. I’m not very familiar with the various ones available for Windows and Mac, but I’ll list a few for you to investigate on your own. I just quickly searched for these, so there may be others that are better out there.

For Windows, you can get Microsoft’s own PowerToys virtual desktop manager that lets you have up to 4 desktops. And yes, it’s free, or you can try Dexpot, which lets you have up to 20 desktops.

As far as I know, Mac, like Linux, comes with multiple desktop capability built-in, but there are programs available to manage them more efficently and/or give extra functionality. One such program for Mac is Desktop Manager, and the one I use for Linux is Compiz, which also does a ton of other things besides handle multiple desktops.

I recommend trying out multiple desktops for a week or two and see if it makes your workday a little saner and a little more productive. I know it’s helped me a lot, and I would hate to have to return to the old days of using just one desktop. Hopefully, this is one little productivity tip I can pass along to you to make your work days a little smoother.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: desktop, Linux, Mac, Microsoft Windows, Virtual desktop, virtual desktop manager
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