Introduction

Too many opened windows on your desktop at once? Get rid of the clutter and confusion on your desktop with XPDesktop. XPDesktop is a tool to let you organize your desktop resource effectively and personally.  For example, you can configure one desktop for your email while another desktop for the web search and each desktop can use different wallpapers. This makes you feel like you are working with multiple monitors at the same time. Moreover, window can be moved among all desktops.


Number of  XPDesktop

XPDesktop allows you to create up to 9 desktops. Each desktop has an icon in Windows

   status area. Clicking anyone of those icons to switch to that desktop immediately.


Main Menu

Right-clicking on anyone of desktop icons, a popup menu will be displayed.

The menu items include:

Desktop Browser

Desktop Settings

Window Transparency Settings

Hotkey Settings

Options

Create a New Desktop

Delete a Desktop

Help

About XPDesktop

Exit


Desktop Browser

Selecting "Desktop Browser" menu item from main menu to popup the browser. All desktops and its open

windows  can be seen in the browser window. On the bottom of Desktop Browser there are four buttons allowing user to manipulate the Desktop Browser’s appearance:

•	Collapse All

•	Expand All

•	Refresh

•	Close

 The following operations you can perform in the browser window:

Switch desktop

Rename desktop

Move window

Window item attributes

Activate a window

Window states

 Window Transparency Settings

Window resize

Close window

Properties


Switch desktop

Switch desktop by double-clicking on a desktop item. But if one of the Desktop Settings, “Popup Properties box when double click on a tree view item”,  is checked, double click a desktop item will open its properties.


Collapse All

Click this button will collapse all tree view and only the desktop icons show up on Desktop Browser.


Expand All

Click this button will expand desktop browser to tree view.


Refresh

Click “ refresh”  button to update current desktop browser view based on opened windows of desktop.


Close

Click this button to close Desktop Browser.


Rename desktop

Change the name of a desktop by either left-click on the desktop item or popup a right-click menu. Then when you hover the mouse pointer over the desktop icons in Window status area, the new desktop name tip will be displayed.


Move window

Drag a window item and drop it on another desktop range, this window is moved to the destination desktop.


Window item attributes

Each window item consists of its state icon, window icon,  window  handle id and window caption.


Activate a window

Double-clicking on a window item, the specified window will be activated and showed on the top of current desktop.


Window states

Each  window can be set to show on all desktops , show transparently or none of them.

•	Show On All Desktops : Clicking  “Show On All Desktops” will toggle this window to  be shown on all desktops or not.  A red diamond icon at the left side of a window indicates this window showing on all desktops.

•	Transparency: Clicking  “Transparency” will initiate the transparent appearance of a window or reset it.  A blue diamond icon indicates this window has been set to show transparently.

•	A mixed red-blue diamond icon at the left of a window indicates this window has been to set both show on all desktops and show transparently.


Window Transparency Settings

The “Window Transparency Settings” can be initiated either form the main menu or from the right-click menu of a desktop item or a window item.

To set the transparency degree of a window, you can click the "Window Transparency Settings" and move the setting slider to modify the opacity of a window.  Click “OK” to save the change and click “Transparency” from the right-click menu to initiate the setting. A blue diamond will show on the left of the window to indicate this window has been set to transparency.  To reset the transparency, you can click  “Transparency” again. The blue diamond will disappear.


Window resize

By right-clicking on window item, there is popup menu showing up, in which the "Restore" will show  window in its normal size, "Minimize" will iconize the window and "Maximize" will show the window in full screen.


Close  window

On Window 98/Me, you can select the "Close" menu item to close specified window.


Topmost

A window can be set to show on the top almost by selecting the "Topmost" menu item.


Properties

A window’s properties can be obtained by either selecting “Properties” from the right-click pop-up menu or double click the window.

A window properties include: the selected item type,  the desktop of this item is belonged to, Window Handle,  Process ID, Thread ID and Window attributes which are “Show On All Desktops” and “Transparency”


Desktop Settings

There are five Desktop Settings:

•	Use unique wallpaper for every desktop

•	Enable desktop preview

•	Auto-switch desktop after a new desktop is created

•	Switch to destination desktop after a window is moved into it

•	Popup Properties box when a tree view item is double clicked

•	Use unique transparency level settings for every desktop


Use Own wallpaper for every desktop
Use unique wallpaper for every desktop

you can select either use same wallpaper on all desktops or configure different one on each desktop.


Enable desktop preview

If this item has been set, then click any desktop icon can have a glimpse of its desktop view.


Auto-switch desktop after a new desktop created
Auto-switch desktop after a new desktop is created

you can choose auto-switch to the new desktop as  soon as it is created or stay on the old desktop.


Switch to destination desktop where after a window move to
Switch to destination desktop after a window is moved into it

you can choose to switch to the destination desktop to which a window is just moved or stay on the old desktop which a window is just moved out.


Popup Properties box when double click on a tree view item
Popup Properties box when a tree view item is double clicked

you can choose to popup properties box when double click on a tree view item of Desktop Browser. If this item is not set, then double click a desktop item will collapse/expand its tree view and double click a window will activate it.


Use unique transparency level settings for every desktop

you can select either use same transparency level settings on all desktops or configure different one on each  desktop.


Hotkey Settings

For user’s convenience, XPDesktop provides the following hot keys and user can re-assign the key codes:

•	Switch Desktop

•	Toggle Window Transparency

•	Show Window On All Desktops

•	Minimize Window

•	Maximize Window

•	Restore Window

•	Create Desktop

•	Delete Desktop

•	Popup this dialog box

To trigger hotkey setting, check the  “Enable Hotkeys”, then click “Apply” or “OK”.

To restore the default hotkey setting, click “Default” button.


Enable Hotkeys

Toggle this setting will enable/disable all hotkeys setting which can be self-defined or using default settings.


Default

Hotkey default settings are:

•	Switch Desktop	: Ctrl + Shift + D

•	Toggle Window Transparency	: Ctrl + Shift + T

•	Show Window On All Desktops	: Ctrl + Shift + S

•	Minimize Window	: Ctrl + Shift + 0

•	Maximize Window	: Ctrl + Shift + 9

•	Restore Window	: Ctrl + Shift + 5

•	Create Desktop	: Ctrl + Shift + M

•	Delete Desktop	: Ctrl + Shift + E

•	Popup this dialog box	: Ctrl + Shift + H


Options

There are three options for XPDesktop:

Auto load XPDesktop at Windows startup

  Keep Transparency settings after exiting XPDesktop

Add XPDesktop functions to system menu


Auto load XPDesktop at Windows startup

 If this option is checked, XPDesktop will be  loaded automatically after Windows bootup.


Keep Transparency settings after exiting XPDesktop

Check this option, windows  will keep their transparent status even XPDesktop exits.


Add XPDesktop functions to system menu

This option will add two items: “Move to” and “Transparency” to system menu.

•	Move to : allow user to move current window to selected desktop.

•	Transparency: toggle this setting to set the active window transparent or not.


Create a New Desktop

Clicking this item from main menu  by right-clicking a desktop icon will create a new desktop and a new desktop  icon will show on taskbar.

The desktop ID is the existing desktop number plus one.


Delete a Desktop

Clicking this item from main menu  by right-clicking a desktop icon will delete the current selected desktop and its icon.


Help

Clicking this item from main menu  by right-clicking a desktop icon will initiate this Help utility.


About
About XPDesktop

Select or right-click  this item from main menu, the “About”  window will show up.


Exit

Clicking “Exit” from main menu  by right-clicking a desktop icon, will close all desktops.