Copyright: VirtuaWin 1999-2006 jopi


VirtuaWin Help
VirtuaWin V3.0 Help

General

Install/Uninstall

Functions

Setup Dialog

WinList module

Configuration Files

Custom Icons


General

VirtuaWin is a virtual window manager for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP with up to nine desktops. It’s quick and easy to use with no fancy graphics, just an icon in the system tray indicating current desktop.

VirtuaWin is Copyright (c) 1999-2005 Johan Piculell, Copyright (c) 2006 VirtuaWin (VirtuaWin@home.se) and is licensed through the GNU General Public License. Read the COPYING.TXT file for the complete license.

We take no responsibility for data losses or damage caused by VirtuaWin.

For latest version, visit: http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net

Comments/questions/bugreport please use the forum/ bug tracking system on:  http://sourceforge.net.projects/virtuawin

 virtuawin@home.se


Install/Uninstall

The installation and un-installation of VirtuaWin is fully automated.

To install, run vwsetup.exe, and for uninstalling, quit VirtuaWin and choose the uninstall icon.

However, if you add custom icons or modules, the un-installation won’t be able to remove the “icons” or “modules” folder so you have to remove them manually.

There is only one key added to the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/VirtuaWin

It might not disappear after un-installation, so you might want to remove it manually.

No other things are added to your system, all VirtuaWin files are placed in the installation directory of VirtuaWin.


Functions

These are the basic functions of VirtuaWin:

•	Use the configured keys and or mouse to switch to a new desktop.

•	Left double click on the system tray icon to bring up the setup dialog or right click and choose setup to show the setup dialog. See Setup Dialog.

•	Left click on icon to show the window list, click on a window title that you want to keep on all desktops (sticky). There is optional usage of this list, see Setup Dialog.

•	Right click and choose gather to make all windows visible on the current desktop.

•	If the system tray icon flashes after a desktop switch, this means that an application did not respond and VirtuaWin are not able to hide/show it.


winlist
WinList module

The WinList module is a default module that are used for recovering windows that might be lost by VirtuaWin due to some reason.

Press the configure button for the module to bring up a list of all windows that exists. Note that there are many system windows that are hidden by default, which are also shown in this list.  It is possible to undo the latest action if the window list dialog is not closed.

Note that both the application title bar text and the classname is displayed and if the title cannot be found, the module will display only the class name and “None” as title.


Setup Dialog

The setup dialog consists of 5 different setup tabs with keys, mouse, modules and other various configuration options under them. It is possible to use the Apply button to try out different settings. If Cancel is pressed, all changed from the last apply will be undone.

General Tab

Desktop Layout

•	With Desktop Layout you can configure how many desktops you want and how they shall be positioned. You can have up to 9 desktops. If you for example set this to 9 wide by 1 deep, you will get a horizontal row of nine desktops. The “original” icon will be used if you set 2 by 2, otherwise numbers will be used. See also Custom Icons.. Please note that if you set the size to fewer desktops any windows on the removed desktops will be automatically moved to desktop 1.

Cursor Keys

•	Enable cursor key desktop navigation. If checked, it will be possible to change desktop with the desired modifier key(s) together with the arrow keys. Chose any combination, a message box will show if another application already has registered the hotkey combination when the OK or Apply button is pressed.

Desktop Cycling

•	Enable desktop wrapping. If checked, it will be possible to cycle through all desktops in both directions, meaning that from the last desktop in any direction, it’s possible to go to the first again by continuing in the same direction.

•	Enable desktop cycling hotkeys. If checked you can use hotkey combinations to move to the next or previous desktop. To set the hotkeys press desired key combination in the two fields, the + WIN key checkboxes make it possible to add the Windows key modifier to the desired hotkey. A message box will show if another application already has registered the hotkey combination when the OK or Apply button is pressed.

Direct Desktop Access

•	Enable direct desktop access hotkeys. If checked you can use hotkey combinations to go directly to each desktop. To set the hotkey for a desktop, use the Desk # button to change to the desktop and then press desired key combination in the field and set the + WIN key checkbox. A message box will show if another application already has registered the hotkey combination when the OK or Apply button is pressed.

Mouse Tab

Mouse Support

•	Enable mouse support. If checked, it will be possible to change desktop and drag windows to other desktops with the mouse.

•	The Delay slider configures how long it will take to switch desktop when the mouse goes to the ends of the screen. You can set a value between 50 - 4000 ms.

•	The Mouse jump length field tells how many pixels the mouse pointer will jump into the new desktop on a mouse switch. Values between 0-999 are possible, but don’t set this value any higher than the resolution on your screen. A value of 0 is also not recommended, somewhere around 10-60 is probably a good choice. This value has a different use if you check the No mouse move box, see below.

•	Taskbar warp. If checked, it will be possible to move windows to a new desktop with the mouse if you have the taskbar visible. This is a good thing to enable if you don’t auto hide your taskbar. VirtuaWin will locate the position of your taskbar, and also reload the position if the taskbar is moved.

•	No mouse move. If checked, the mouse will not move to the opposite side of the screen when going over the edge. The Mouse jump field will represent the number of pixels that the mouse will “jump back” for avoiding multiple jumps.

•	Use modifier key. If checked, you can choose a key that must be held down if the mouse should move to a new desktop. This is useful for avoiding accidental desktop switch when using Mouse support.

Modules Tab

The original installation of VirtuaWin includes only one module, WinList module. More info about modules is available on http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net. There you can also find more modules to download. There is currently a max limit of 10 modules that VirtuaWin will handle.

•	The list box will display the modules that are currently loaded.

•	Press the Reload button for unloading all modules and re-read the module directory.

•	Pressing the Configure button, or by double clicking, will bring up the setup dialog for the selected module, if the selected module has one.

•	Pressing the Enable/Disable button does exactly what it sounds like. Note that you need to restart VirtuaWin in order for enabled modules to become active again. Disabling modules works instantly.

Misc. Tab

Desktop State Handling

•	Use desktop assignment. If checked, VirtuaWin will restore saved desktop belongings that an application might have. Read the following topics to get better understanding of this.

•	Assign only first window. If checked, only the first instance of an application that has a saved desktop belonging will be assigned to a desktop. Otherwise all instances of this application will go to the same desktop.

•	Assign window immediately. If checked, a new window which has an assignment will be moved to its assigned desktop immediately. Otherwise the window will only be moved when the desktop is changed.

•	Save assignment on exit. This will have the effect of pressing the Save Assignment button every time VirtuaWin exits.

•	Save sticky on exit. This will have the effect of pressing the Save Sticky button every time VirtuaWin exits.

•	Pressing the Save Assignment button will save the desktop number for all running applications. This will later be used for putting them back upon restart to the same desktops.

•	Pressing the Save Sticky button will make VirtuaWin remember the sticky windows upon restart. It will make the windows sticky as soon as it is found. For example, if you make Windows Explorer sticky and restart, the first Explorer started will become sticky.

Window Menu Contents

•	The Window Menu Contents group allows you to choose the content of the window list menu. Sticky toggle is used for toggling stickiness of windows. Direct access can be used to access any window directly, meaning that you will go directly to the desktop where the application is. Assign is used for moving a window to the current desktop, useful for placing out windows to different desktops. It is possible to choose any combination and if more than one function is selected, the menus will be displayed side-by-side. The menus will only contain the windows that are possible to affect during the time, for example, assigning a window to the same desktop that it already belongs to is pointless and therefore the window will not show up in the window list.

Hotkeys

•	Enable window menu hotkey. Chose a hotkey combination that can be used for bringing up the window menu at the mouse location. This is convenient for handling windows over several desktops without using the mouse. A message box will show if another application already has registered the hotkey combination when the OK or Apply button is pressed.

•	Enable sticky toggle hotkey. Chose a hotkey combination that you want to use for toggling the stickiness of the active window. A message box will show if another application already has registered the hotkey combination when the OK or Apply button is pressed.

•	Enable dismiss window hotkey. Chose a hotkey combination that can be used to dismiss the current window. If the current window is a popped-up window which is being temporarily displayed on the current desktop (see Expert option Assign popped-up hidden window to current desktop) it will be moved back to its original desktop, otherwise the window will be minimized. A message box will show if another application already has registered the hotkey combination when the OK or Apply button is pressed.

Expert Tab

Advanced Options

•	On desktop change preserve: Setting this option to Taskbar Order will make VirtuaWin maintain the window order in the taskbar when changing desktops; it does not attempt to restore the Z order. When Z order is selected VirtuaWin will maintain the order that windows are on top of each other, this is the same order as used by the Windows Application Menu (Alt + Tab). When used, the order of windows in the taskbar is not preserved and there is a desktop changing performance hit of around 5% compared to Taskbar Order. When Taskbar & Z Order is used both orders are restored but at about a 10% performance cost.

•	Release focus on desktop change. If checked, the focus will be set to the desktop when switching desktops.

•	Hide minimized windows on desktop change. If checked, minimized windows will behave as the other windows. If not checked, they will remain in the taskbar of all desktops; this can be used for changing a window’s desktop (instead of dragging with mouse).

•	Invert Up/Down. If checked, the up/down control keys and mouse behavior will be switched. This is nice to use when you have hot keys set on the numpad. For example on a 3x3 desktop setup, use hot keys 1-9 on the numpad and invert up/down. Then every desktop will be mapped to corresponding key number and the control keys/mouse will behave as expected. Hard to explain, try it out…

•	Hide system tray icon. If checked the system tray icon will be removed. To see the setup dialog just start VirtuaWin a second time and the setup dialog will appear.

•	Remember sticky state throughout session. If enabled the sticky setting of all instances of the same application is kept the same. For example, with this option enabled mark an Explorer window as sticky then all Explorers will be sticky. This option only has an effect if the sticky state is saved. See “Desktop state handling”.

•	Assign popped-up hidden window to current desktop. If enabled a popped-up window (see option Treat a raised hidden window as a pop-up below) will be moved to the current desktop. When disabled the widow will be temporarily displayed on the current desktop until either the desktop is changed or the window is dismissed (see the dismiss window hotkey) at which point the window is returned to its original desktop.

Workarounds

Options in this group should only be changed if VirtuaWin is not functioning correctly.

•	Force refresh after desktop change. If checked, VirtuaWin will do a refresh after a switch to a new desktop, similar to pressing F5 with “desktop focus”. Useful if applications are leaving traces after them (I have only seen this problem with PhotoShop). Otherwise, uncheck it to get rid of the annoying flicker.

•	Enable taskbar detection. During startup, VirtuaWin will try to locate the taskbar to be able to use taskbar warp and alternative hiding. If you use an alternative shell, e.g. LiteStep, then you wont have a taskbar an probably want to disable this.

•	Enable alternate hiding method for tricky windows. If enabled, some special troublesome windows will be moved instead of hidden to avoid strange effects like disappearing Explorer windows. Uncheck this if you don’t want to use this hiding technique or if you have disabled taskbar detection.

•	Enable XP themed taskbar support. Enable this if you are using XP styled desktop and cannot move windows to a new desktop over the taskbar.

•	Treat a raised hidden window as a pop-up. If a window which belongs to another desktop (so it is currently hidden) is raised to the foreground, with this option enable it will be treated as a popped-up window which means this it will not be re-hidden and may be moved to the current desktop depending on the following setting. If this option is disabled all such events are ignored and all windows not on the current desktop will remain hidden.


Configuration Files

With the exception of userpath.cfg all configuration files are located in the user’s ‘Application Data/VirtuaWin’ directory. When a user runs VirtuaWin for the first time all configuration files located in the VirtualWin installation directory are copied into the user’s own VirtuaWin directory within their Application Data area. The following configuration files are used by VirtuaWin:

userpath.cfg

If present in the installation directory it contains a single line defining the directory containing the user’s configuration files. This file can be used to solve problems caused by user permissions and roaming profiles. The string within the file can user environment variables by using the format ‘${<varable-name>}’ (e.g. ${HOMEPATH}) and can use the built in variable ${VIRTUAWIN_PATH} to use the VirtuaWin installation directory. For example, the following could be used if a fixed path with the same setup for all users was required:

c:\VirtuaWin_config\

The following uses a fixed path but allows different configurations per user:

c:\VirtuaWin_conf\${USERNAME}

Note that VirtuaWin will create the directory if it does not already exist.

virtuawin.cfg

Main user configuration file, most of the Setup Dialog settings are stored in this file.

assignment.cfg

Contains a list of window classname to desktop assignments.

module.cfg

Contains the list of currently disabled modules.

sticky.cfg

Contains a list of window classnames which are to be automatically made sticky.

tricky.cfg

Contains a list of window classnames which are to be treated as tricky (i.e. use alternative hiding method).

userlist.cfg

To force windows change desktops that won’t do this by default (for example ICQ), add the name of the window or the classname to the userlist.cfg file in the install directory. The classname is the preferred method. You can find classnames with tools like Spy++ or the WinList module. Don’t add windows here if you don’t have to, because it might decrease the performance slightly. Please let me know if you need any more help on this subject.


Custom Icons

It’s possible to use custom icons on the system tray. For using this feature you need to get a tool for creating the icons and add them to the “icons” directory in the install directory of VirtuaWin.

VirtuaWin uses up to 9 icons, depending on how many desktops you use. The icons must have a size of 16x16 pixels. The naming of the icons must be 0.ico to 9.ico.

The 0.ico is used when the user disables VirtuaWin, the other are the positioning icons. If any icon is missing or have the wrong name, VirtuaWin will replace that icon with system default.

VirtuaWin associates the icons with desktops from left to right row by row, meaning that if you have a 3 by 3-desktop area the icon positions will be:

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

And a 2 by 3 will be:

1 2

3 4

5 6

If there are custom icons present, they will be used in both 2 by 2 and all other desktop sizes. Check http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net for other icons, and mail me if you make your own icon set.