Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Virtual Desktop from Microsoft

Second useful desktop utility from Microsoft that is better in User Interface and simplicity is the Microsoft Virtual Desktop Manager (MSVDM). This allows 4 virtual desktop screens to group your Windows. It allows you to configure different wallpaper for each virtual desktop. It is easy to switch between virtual desktops. To go to second (top right) desktop just type keys “Win+2”. Typing “Win+W” will show all 4 desktops, like below.

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Another option is to have access to this as part of taskbar. You can get single icon for switching to all screen mode or you can additionally get desktop numbers displayed in the taskbar. That will allow you to click on the number with mouse and go to that desktop.

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SyncToy from Microsoft

There are few freeware from Microsoft that are really good as Desktop utilities, one of them is the SyncToy. Compared to other freeware, I settled on this tool for the simplicity of the UI. You will find this tool useful if you what to sync-up directories  and files between say Computer and external USB hard disk or Computer and your mobile. Then this tool is very handy.

The tool lets you choose multiple profiles, which is set of source and destination drives or folders. Then in each profile, you can have set of devices to sync. For example, in below picture you will see profile to sync between my mobile SD Card and computers. This is mainly to sync-up songs. Button ‘Preview’ will let you get list of differences between folders/devices. Clicking on ‘Run’ will actually perform the sync operation. The operation I found it to be fast. For around 3 GB data, it got sync-ed in around 25 minutes.

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Analog Clock in Taskbar

An essential freeware for those who prefer Analog clocks over the digital. This small and handy tool sits in corner of the taskbar where the digital clock is displayed in Windows. This application also has options to sync-up automatically and manually with Atomic Clock servers. 

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There are few configuration options to change GUI settings, like display seconds hand, skins, days of another month.

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