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MS Virtual Desktop Manager powertoy messes up Madcap Flare.
When returning to a virtual desktop containing Flare, the Flare window
displays the center pane (editing) and the toolbars, but loses the left
and right panes (Project Organizer, Content Explorer, Concept Explorer,
etc., stacked in accordion tabs on the left, and Find in Files, Find and
Replace, and dynamic Help on the right). That is, the panes remain,
but they are blank... unpopulated. Selecting and de-selecting the
various items from the pull-down menu does not bring them back.
Refreshing the screen does not bring them back. Minimizing and restoring
Flare does not bring back the contents of the two side panes. Only
closing and re-launching the program seems to do the trick. I've
uninstalled MSVDM powertoy from my 32-bit Windows XP Pro SP2 computer.
I think the review is finally done. :-)
I'm back to my regular dual-monitor single desktop, enhanced with the
improved Alt-tab powertoy.
- Kevin
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
techwr-l-bounces+kevin -dot- mclauchlan=safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kevin -dot- mclauchlan=safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-
> l.com] On Behalf Of McLauchlan, Kevin
> Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 11:57
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: [TOOLS] Review/user comments of MS Virtual Destop Manager
> powertoy
>
> Perhaps the following observations will be useful to somebody on the
> list.
>
> Last week, I talked about the crowding of my Windows desktop, and the
> difficulty of finding stuff that I want to navigate to, versus the
> inconvenience of frequently closing everything that's not related to
the
> current (this five minutes) task. Several people admitted similar
> concerns. Some had suggestions.
>
> A list-member recommended a couple of Windows XP Power Toys -
> unsupported goodies developed by Microsoft programmers as fun
projects,
> and provided on the MS website, but without official support. In
other
> words, they work as advertised, and don't break anything, but
Microsoft
> doesn't promise anything - they are provided "as-is".
>
>
>
> One was Taskswitch, a simple enhancement of the "Alt-tab" function to
> add thumbnail views of application instances, so that [Alt][Tab]ing to
> another task becomes less of a guessing game. That one works fine,
with
> one exception...
>
>
>
> The other PowerToy is Virtual Desktop Manager. At first glance, MSVDM
> looks like it should be the answer to the Linux/UNIX multiple desktop
> capability, as I (appreciatively) experience it via KDE (and
> occasionally via GNOME, when I'm in a frivolous and non-KDE mood).
>
>
>
> However, after using it for a week, I find VDM lacking and annoying...
> at least for anybody who is accustomed to spreading their work and
play
> among two, four, or more semi-independent desktops within a Linux
> graphical session.
>
>
>
> VDM does create multiple virtual desktops that are visually separate
> from each other, with one visible at any one time and the others
hidden,
> until you select a hidden one via its little numbered icon in the VDM
> section of the Windows toolbar. That part seems good and acts much
like
> I'd expect from years of experience running four desktops in my Linux
> KDE sessions.
>
>
>
> VDM appears to have two modes: Shared Desktop or... not.
>
>
>
> If Shared Desktop is on, all the windows/tasks from all your desktops
> are represented in the taskbar at the bottom of every virtual desktop,
> AND if you click one of those tasks/icons, the associated window
springs
> to life... on the current desktop. It does so whether it was already
> part of that desktop or part of another. This action rather defeats
the
> desire to organize your tasks/windows in groups, per desktop. The
> correct action, according to me, would be to switch desktops while
> presenting the desired window/task.
>
>
>
> If you switch off Shared Desktop, then the tasks become
> confined/isolated to the desktop on which they were originally opened.
> However, the taskbar below each desktop now reflects only what lives
on
> that desktop. As well, the [Alt][Tab] function works only within the
> current virtual desktop. You have to remember which other desktops
hold
> your various tasks and windows. Unlike in KDE/Linux, there's no
option
> (that I've found) to right-click a window frame and "send" it to
another
> desktop where it's better suited. If you want to move a window
between
> desktops, you need to switch on Shared Desktops, go to the desired
> desktop, click the task for that window, to launch it in its new
place,
> and then switch off Shared Desktops again.
>
>
>
> In addition, the KDE virtual-desktop switcher shows little thumbnails
of
> your desktops, so you have visual reminder of what's on each one,
before
> you click to transfer-your-viewpoint/bring-up-a-different-desktop. As
> well, if you elect to have all your apps/tasks appear in every KDE
> desktop taskbar, they'll tell you which desktop they belong to.
>
> As well, there are hot-key options for jumping instantly among your
> desktops, AND you can have a different background color or photo for
> each one, as an aid to recognizing where you are at any moment. I
> haven't found anything like that in VDM. Change one background, and it
> changes... but jump to another desktop with the original background,
and
> the original background is still there (sounds good so far) then jump
> back to the changed desktop... and the original background (that's on
> all the other virtual desktops) is back. I'll experiment a little
more,
> but I think that's the way it is. Changing a photo background to a
> less-graphically-demanding single color requires doing so for each and
> every desktop.
>
>
>
> Furthermore, even with its additional capabilities, KDE seems to make
> more efficient use of video memory. VDM has been quite slow to
populate
> the new desktop each time I jump. My video card has 256MB of its own
> memory, and I'm not doing anything graphically fancy with any
> application (no games or videos or 3D rendering on my system)..
>
>
>
> Some of these things that I've been highlighting as deficiencies might
> be just my lack of familiarity with the program, but the "Help" is
just
> three paragraphs, leading me to believe that I've seen all the
> capability and flexibility that exists to be seen.
>
>
>
> Anyway, if I hadn't been using the KDE/Linux implementation for years,
> perhaps I would not find the VDM implementation so clunky.
>
> Granted, KDE is a full desktop environment with all sorts of
integrated
> functions, and an open api and interface. VDM is a little add-on to
> Windows, created as a gift, in someone's part-time off hours. So, the
> comparison is not fair. VDM might be useful to Windows-only users who
> have never experienced "the real thing" and don't have a nagging
> comparison always at the back of their minds. On the third hand, KDE
> (and all of Linux) costs no more than did MSVDM - which is to say,
free,
> gratis, zero - and KDE gets frequent updates. It also works on 64-bit
> machines running 64-bit OS, which MSVDM doesn't.
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