X-Desk v1.4 Monday, April 28, 1997 INDEX 1) What is X-Desk? 2) Distribution 3) New features for v1.4 4) Installation 5) X-Desk Settings 6) Usage Notes 7) Bugs 8) License Agreement 9) Notes 1) What is X-Desk? X-Desk is a free Windows 95 desktop manager that allows your workspace to be divided into six 'virtual desktops'. X-Desk allows you to unclutter your workspace by running relatively few applications on each virtual-desktop instead of running all of the applications on a single desktop. This program would be most useful to those who typically run several applications at once and find that their workspace is difficult to navigate because of so many application screens and icons floating around. Navigation between desktops is provided by pop-up menus in the Win95 taskbar icon area or by using selected hot-keys. 2) Distribution This software is free of charge and may be freely distributed (Freeware). 3) New Features for Version v1.4 1) Hot-keys can be used to switch from desktop to desktop. 2) Applications running on the current desktop can be moved to any other desktop. 3) A menu option is available to move all applications from desktops two through six to desktop one. 4) Various X-Desk user-defined preferences can now be set. 5) In popup menus, application icons are now displayed adjacent to text describing the application. 4) Installation 1) If necessary, uninstall previous version of X-Desk. 2) Extract the files from the .zip archive into a temporary directory (if you already haven't). 3) From the temporary directory, run 'Setup.exe' and follow the on-screen instructions. 4) By default, X-Desk will install a shortcut to the executable in your StartUp folder so that X-Desk will automatically load whenever you start a new Windows 95 session. 5) X-Desk Settings New for version 1.4 are user-defined options that govern the operation of some of X-Desk's behavior as a desktop manager. When X-Desk is started, a 2x3 grid icon will appear in the Win95 taskbar. Right-clicking the taskbar grid icon displays X-Desk's main pop-up menu. Selecting 'Settings...' from the menu displays a dialog box enabling the setting of several X-Desk options. These options are described below: -- 'Hot-Key Behavior' (O) 'Switches to new desktop' The hot-keys directly take the user from one desktop to another, depending on the exact hot-key pressed. (O) 'Shows Pop-up menu' The hot-keys display a pop-up menu (similar to that activated by right-clicking the taskbar grid icon) in the upper left corner of the screen from which the user selects the desktop to switch to. -- 'Meta Key' The Meta key is the first key of the hot-key combination. X-Desk allows you to choose between ALT and CTRL keys as the meta key. (O) 'CTRL' The hot-keys for this option are CTRL+ARROW_KEY, where ARROW_KEY is any of the four keyboard arrows (UP, DOWN, LEFT, and RIGHT). (O) 'ALT' The hot-keys for this option are ALT+ARROW_KEY, where ARROW_KEY is any of the four keyboard arrows (UP, DOWN, LEFT, and RIGHT). -- 'Left-(Double)Click Behavior' (O) 'Left-Double-Click advances desktop' Left-Double-Clicking the taskbar grid icon causes the current desktop to switch to the next desktop (e.g. from 2 to 3, 3 to 4...). (O) 'Left-Click Advances desktop' Left-Clicking the taskbar grid icon causes the current desktop to switch to the next desktop (e.g. from 2 to 3, 3 to 4...). (O) 'Left-Click displays shortcut menu' Left-Clicking the taskbar grid icon displays a simple pop-up menu from which the user selects one of the six desktops. --- [x] 'Always Show "Always On Top" Windows' Some applications (like application launchers, for instance) are meant to be visible to the user at all times. Selecting this option will (I hope) keep applications with this property visible on ALL desktops. Depending on the application with this property, selecting this option may or may not be successful in keeping the application visible on all desktops. If in doubt as to whether to use this option, unselect it. 6) Usage Notes When X-Desk is started, a 2x3 grid appears in the taskbar icon area, each member of the grid representing one of six desktops. The currently active desktop is highlighted in yellow, while the remaining five desktops are in gray. The desktops are numbered from left-to-right, top-to-bottom (i.e. desktop 1 is in the upper left corner of the grid, desktop 6 in the lower right). Resting the mouse pointer on the grid displays the current desktop number. -- Navigating Between Desktops with Pop-up Menu: Right-clicking the mouse on the taskbar grid icon causes X-Desk's main pop-up menu to appear. The pop-up menu items show the available desktops to switch to (Desktop 1, Desktop 2, ..., Desktop 6). If one or more applications are running on a desktop, a right-facing triangle (>) appears next to the menu item, indicating that a sub-menu is available for this menu item. If no right-facing triangle is present, no applications are running on that desktop (the desktop is empty) , and you may switch to the empty desktop by simply selecting the menu item. Selecting a menu item with a right-facing triangle displays a sub-menu listing applications running on that desktop. Selecting one of the applications in the sub-menu switches to the desktop containing the application and activates that application. Additionally, a menu option entitled 'All Desktops' on the main pop-up menu allows the user to view applications running on all six of the desktops. Selecting an application on this menu switches to the desktop that contains the selected application (assuming the application is not on the current desktop) and activates that application. Also, in the 'All Desktops' pop-up menu, each application listed is followed by a number in parentheses, indicating the desktop that the application resides on. -- Moving Applications Between Desktops: Applications on the current desktop can be moved to any of the other five desktops by selecting the current desktop (indicated by an 'X' to the left of Desktop menu item) in the popup menu described previously. Assuming there are one or more applications on the current desktop, the sub-menu of the current desktop menu item displays a list of the applications. For each application, a sub-menu can be activated with the heading 'Move To...', followed by a list of desktops. Selecting one of the desktops moves the application from the current desktop to the menu-selected desktop. Applications can only be moved from the current desktop to other desktops. -- Moving All Desktop Applications to Desktop 1: There may be times when it is desirable to move the applications of all desktops to a single desktop, such as when ending your Windows session. To move applications from all desktops to desktop 1: a) make desktop 1 the current desktop; b) select 'Move All Here' from the 'Desktop 1' pop-up sub-menu. The menu option 'Move All Here' of the 'Desktop 1' sub-menu is only displayed when desktop 1 is the current desktop AND there is at least one application on desktops two through six. -- Navigation Between Desktops Using Hot-Keys: Depending on the hot-key option chosen in the X-Desk settings (described previously), the hot-keys can be used to directly switch to another desktop or to display a pop-up menu from which a new desktop is chosen. With the 'Switches to new desktop' selected in the 'Settings...' dialog, the hot-keys switch to a new desktop according to which hot-key was pressed and which desktop is currently active. Using the taskbar grid icon as a reference, the LEFT and RIGHT-arrow hot-keys (modified with the Meta key) are used to switch the desktop laterally in the grid, while the UP and DOWN-arrow keys switch the desktop vertically in the grid. With the 'Shows pop-up menu' selected in the 'Settings...' dialog, pressing any of the four hot-keys will display a pop-up menu in the upper left corner of the screen. The pop-up menu displayed is an abbreviated version of the X-Desk main pop-up menu, displayed by right-clicking the taskbar grid icon. The operation of this menu is as previously described. 7) Bugs X-Desk may not work well with *all* applications. Although the author has successfully used X-Desk v1.4 with numerous applications, it is impossible to verify if X-Desk is compatible (i.e. works as intended) with every conceivable Windows application. X-Desk may experience problems with non-typical applications, such as application launchers, or other desktop managers. However, the author has not detected any instances in which X-Desk v1.4 causes a system to 'freeze' or otherwise to perform in a drastically abnormal manner. However, your milage may vary. The only documented bug occurs when using hot-keys to navigate between desktops. In order for the hot-keys to be recognized by X-Desk, a window (any window) must have the keyboard 'focus' (e.g. a window's title bar is highlighted and keyboard entry is directed to that window). It is possible under some circumstances that no window will have the keyboard focus. In this instance, X-Desk cannot recognize hot-keys and will not react to the hot-keys. The only way around this is to force the input focus to different window. This can be done by clicking any window (or, say, the taskbar) to change the input focus to a window that can receive keyboard input. Alternatively, hitting the ALT+TAB key combination will also change the input focus and should do the trick. The above problem occurs very infrequently and should not pose much of a problem for the typical user. 8) License Agreement THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE PROGRAM, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS LICENSE, UNDERSTAND IT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS TERMS AS THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN US, SUPERSEDING ANY PROPOSAL OR PRIOR AGREEMENT, ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN US RELATING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS LICENSE. 9) Notes A special thanks is in order to those who have used X-Desk v1.3 and have offered their suggestions for improvements to X-Desk. Many of these suggestions (in one form or another) have made their way to v1.4. Since the author has other things to do besides play around with X-Desk, this is likely to be X-Desk's last release. Nevertheless, if there are any major (and I mean major) bugs found in v1.4, I might consider updates to version 1.4 - but for bug fixes only. Questions, comments or installation problems may be directed to: Darby Riley darbyr@seas.ucla.edu