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Favorite Windows Desktop Virtualizers?

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TaoPhoenix:
A while back, Relipse's TranDesk introduced me to the concept of desktop splitters and rocketed to my top 10 list of daily programs (arguably every waking hour!).

Because it's in an odd place (not a Nany), here again is the link:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=4793.0

I tend to really value simple implementations of things that are new to me, so I can let them sink in before scouting what I might want in an advanced tool.

Trandesk is a simple 4-node desktop splitter with pleasant little color coding of the nodes Blue Green Red Yellow. (And you can shuffle them around, possibly requiring Taskbar Shuffle to do it.)

This kind of thing is essential for me because I discovered a few tremendous uses which all interact.

In unclear order of importance:
1. The last node is the "nuclear waste dump" - a key activity flow for me is a screen-shot-er (I got Mouser to add my 1-click killer feature into SC Captor last year), into a Sticky from Tom Revell's Stickies. By itself that flow has rocketed my ability to capture "infostuff" fragments. I tend to leave them all as open stickies sorted into categories of "topics of the week and month" and "parked older stuff". The problem is this threatens to bomb my screen with over a hundred open stickies!
:o

So what I do is simply "park" the master node of Stickies onto my last desktop splitter node. What then happens is the other three nodes (though I try not to do it in all three) can then hold a tightly curated set with the short term projects, and then I just close/re-open Stickies to let them all get carted over to the Dump node. A few other things go there, like Task Manager, Process Explorer, and perhaps a few non-main browser windows of notes. The small downside is this chews up a node.

2. Medical
I am trying to rally my concentration this year, to get established into medical care in New York City. There's just a lot of stuff to do and know. So this swipes up a whole node full of stickies, browsers, and my note taking app MyInfo.

3. "Recreational Campaign" - Things like my Ludum Dare games adventures eat up quite a bit of linked info and notes! So something as big as that basically needs its own node or else I risk getting hopelessly lost!

4. This leaves only one node left for "everything else!"

So I am poking my toe into the water for people's suggestions of *simple* splitters with more nodes. I don't need "full session control" as someone else was saying elsewhere. Just "what I have now but moar nodes!" It's really a plus for Trandesk that it's 1-click" horozontally laid out, and color coded. Unfortunately Relipse said last year he doesn't know where the source code is anymore, and he's no longer around.

So, suggestions? Quick guess says that I don't often need more than 8 nodes, because if I have that much going on, that means I'd be getting over-extended and would simply close stuff down and free up the node as much to "get it out of my head".

Meanwhile, I also have no idea what other interesting things a desktop splitter can do. So I'm in the mood to at least poke at a few suggestions even if it doesn't "win the contest", just to see ideas on how X people tackle the same core function.

Thoughts? Programs? Ben Stein's Money?

(Heh - I just shuffled some stuff and managed to buy myself a little time freeing up a node, but the question remains.)

ayryq:
From the topic title my first thought was WinSplit Revolution, an essential utility for me. But reading your post I guess that's not the sort of thing you're after.

TaoPhoenix:
WinSplit Revolution
-ayryq (April 23, 2015, 07:20 AM)
--- End quote ---

Right, what the splitters do is they completely hide all existing open windows on that node and "pretend" as if you had nothing open at all. It's like getting 2-3 brand new desktop spaces out of thin air.

I think they're more well known to the Linux culture, perhaps a bit less famous on the Windows side.

ayryq:
To clarify this a little, WinSplit Revolution emulates another function I used to have on Linux (from Compiz) which is like a more flexible, keyboard driven "aero snap." So e.g. Ctrl-Alt-6 sizes the active window to the right half of the screen, hit it again and you get the right third of the screen. Every linux distro I've used has had "multiple desktops" out of the box, but I've never been busy or productive enough to need that sort of thing :)

Hopefully someone else will be more helpful.

mouser:
Pheonix you are using a term that is confusing.  As aryq points out, when people think of "desktop splitters" they think of tools that divide up your screen into areas for docking applications, like jgpaiva's wonderful GridMove tool.

The more common term for the kind of tool you are looking for is a "Virtual Desktop" tool (less commonly called a "multiple desktop" tool).

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