Routine Order

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP: Virtual Desktop Manager: Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy. This is so cool - not!

There are so many other clones out there, little apps, some freeware, some not that provide the same feature - that of having more than one “desktop” in Windows.

Linux operating systems have had this feature for ages, and were it not for my multiple desktops, I would have lost sanity a long time ago. The windows “power toy” only shows you a list of four buttons on your taskbar - click the number to go to the desktop with that number, in Linux, you see small screencaps of the four virtual desktops, and in some window managers, you can drag and drop items from one virtual desktop to another using icons in the pager. You also can specify default virtual desktops for different applications and have all your startup programs to start in particular locations on the different virtual desktops.

Windows, apparently, has a little catching up to do in some areas, before it measures up to, say, Ubuntu.

Mirek’s Free MWSnap Windows Software is a small yet powerful Windows program for snapping (capturing) images from selected parts of the screen.

The current version is capable of capturing the whole desktop, a highlighted window, an active menu, a control, or a fixed or free rectangular part of the screen. I find it very handy for creating presentations, tutorials etc. You can configure keyboard shortcuts for the different kinds of screenshots you take, and it will save the picture files in a directory with serial order numbers!

MWSnap also contains several graphical tools: a zoom, a ruler, a color picker and a window spy, and a fast picture viewer or converter. Installation is real simple, and it works beautifully - did I mention you can even minimize it to the system tray, so it’s running in the background - ready to take screencaps when you bid it to? MWSnap is freeware, so no bugging “register now” or “buy now” messages, ever!