- Vista Virtual Desktop Manager
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Posted by oVan on Tuesday, June 05, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsAs an independent web developer, I never have enough screen real estate. Even with Vista's Flip-3D task switcher, I'm lost in the multitude of open windows. It's not that I don't close my windows fast enough, in fact I use Ctrl-W, Ctrl-F4 and Alt-F4 all the time and have launch shortcuts for about every application, but at times you just have too many windows.
These are some apps that I use on a very regularly basis: Outlook, many windows of Internet Explorer (each with a bunch of open tabs), same story for Firefox, Paint Shop Pro, Lightroom, Topstyle, OneNote, Mobile Device Center, Visual Studio, Outlook Express, Skype, MSN Messenger, UltraEdit, CSE Html Validator. That sure gives an overwhelming Flip 3D view!
So what can you do about the desktop clutter? I'm going to install Vista Virtual Desktop Manager. This way I can group together apps based on the activity (a desktop for development, one for graphics, one for email and rss, ...)
Even though there are plenty of virtual desktop managers out there, and I've tested a lot of them in the past, this one has a compelling advantage: native support for Windows Vista. By making use of the DWM based Aero interface, it gives you full screen thumbnail based preview.
Here's a list of features taken from the website:- Full screen desktop/window manager/preview with full drag and drop managing
- Desktop switch indicator
- An infinite number of desktops
- Watch the windows move in real time as you drag them around in the window manager
- Multiple monitor support
- Window menus
- Tray icons for each desktop
- Configurable colors, fade speeds, hotkeys, etc.
- And much more!
VVDM is currently a beta version 0.41, and can be freely downloaded:
http://www.codeplex.com/vdm
Did you play with it already? Let us know your experience!Labels: desktop, flip 3D, manager, productivity, Virtual, Vista, Windows Vista
- IE6 and IE7 Running on a Single Machine
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Posted by oVan on Friday, December 01, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 commentsFrom a post by Pete LePage:
Many of you have asked how to run IE6 and IE7 in a side by side environment. As Chris Wilson blogged about early this year, it’s unfortunately not so easy to do. There are workarounds, but they are unsupported and don’t necessarily work the same way as IE6 or IE7 would work when installed properly. As Chris said, the best way to use multiple versions of IE on one machine is via virtualization. Microsoft has recently made Virtual PC 2004 a free download; we’ve taken advantage of that by releasing a VPC virtual machine image containing a pre-activated Windows XP SP2, IE6 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit to help facilitate your testing and development. The image is time bombed and will no longer function after April 1, 2007. We hope to continue to provide these images in the future as a service to web developers.
Now you can install IE7 on your main machine for development, and get all the advantages of IE7, like the RSS platform, native XMLHTTP stack, and improved security, while still running IE6 simultaneously in the VPC on the same computer. Most importantly, you don’t even have to buy an additional Windows license. The VPC image runs in a virtual machine that offers all of the functionality of a full IE6 installation without giving it any access to its host machine’s hard drive, registry, etc. You can make as many modifications as you want to the virtual machine without affecting your host installation at all.
Included in the VPC image are:- Windows XP Professional SP2 + high-priority fixes through November 2006
- Internet Explorer 6.0
- Internet Explorer 7 Readiness Toolkit 2.0
While we’ve released a VPC image today with Windows XP SP2, we’re also investigating creating other VPC images, for example IE5, IE5.5, IE6 and IE6 SP1, as well as versions of IE on different language operating systems.
Get more information on Virtual PC 2004
Download Virtual PC 2004
Download the Internet Explorer 6 Testing VPC Image
One more note - VPC 2004 doesn’t run on Windows Vista, but this image will work fine with VPC 2007, which is in beta now. You can get this free beta via Connect.
Happy testing!
PEte LePage
Product Manager
Transmit your pdf docs into charts with pdf to excel software. Also using a pdf server will save you time. Get the details of a pdf file conversion tool and how it was created. If you are using all Microsoft applications then you can convert pdf to doc as well. Here you can get useful tips on purchasing new programs and what to look for.Labels: 2004, 2007, activated, beta, download, free, IE6, IE7, license, PC, RSS, SP2, Virtual, Vista, VPC, Windows, XMLHTTP, XP