When I pose this question to the electronics store people, I get either a blank stare or a look that says, “What kind of an idiot are you?” Here it is: At work, I have dual monitors. The software that came with the video card gives me the option of maximizing an application to the current monitor it is on. I like that. What I would like to know is if any of the wide-screen monitors include software that would let me have two “virtual desktops.” I would like to have two applications open and be able to hit the maximize button and have the application take up half of the screen. Being able to do this would save on the cost of having two monitors (along with an expensive video card). – Sam Cook, Berrien Springs, Miss.
A: Point your Web browser at microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx, where you will find a Microsoft-created set of advanced tools for Windows XP that includes your answer. It’s a program called Virtual Desktop, a free download that has proved to be rock solid among high-power screen-splitting schemes, which are notoriously unstable or expensive.
Virtual Desktop creates a new tool on the Windows task bar at the bottom of the screen that lets users click from a row of four icons to instantly bring up any one of four totally different desktops, each with its own programs running. There also is a fifth toolbar icon that instantly displays a quad view showing each of the four desktops on a large (or small, for that matter) screen display.
To move from desktop to desktop, you can either click an icon in the toolbar, click one of the screens in the quad view, or assign a function key to move from virtual desktop to desktop.
You can assign a different picture background for each of the four desktops to keep them straight in your mind. Let me add that many workers use a lesser feature built into Windows to display two or more program windows running side by side. This permits me to write these columns on one side of my 24-inch monitor while using e-mail, Web browsers and other tools on the other side.
To do this, find an empty spot on the task bar and give a right-click. In the pop-up menu, there are options to view program displays cascaded with one behind the other with a small overlap.
Or the windows can be tiled. The tiled options either go horizontally, with one display below the other, or are stacked vertically. With just two programs open, this splits the screen in half.
Contact James Coates at jcoates@tribune.com.
