And then came Windows 7. It’s supposed to be the operating system that fixed everything. It is, in a way. If you’ve ever used it, you’ll find a LOT of significant enhancements, fixes and features that we needed. But not virtual desktops – which have been coming with most Linus distros practically forever. The good thing about Windows is that if something doesn’t exist built-in, there’s always an add-on that will do what you need to do.

Herein we shall review and test some virtual desktop software for Windows 7. All tests were performed on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

Vista/XP Virtual Desktop Manager

This software had most of the features of the other programs, plus two neat preview features, which puts this at the top our list.

Pros

• A quick little desktop switcher at the bottom right hand corner of your screen

• Ability to preview your desktops as thumbnails when you roll over the taskbar icon

This little desktop previewer shows up when you roll over the taskbar icon

• A quick display message (which disappears in a second) tells which desktop you switched to as soon as switch

Just moved from desktop 2 to desktop 1

Cons

• I didn’t see any window management features built into the shell. Meaning that you couldn’t simply right-click on a window and send the window to next desktop like with other software. However it does have some awesome hotkey functionality built in so you could send a window or move desktops pressing arrow keys or the number pad.

VirtuaWin 4.1

VirtuaWin 4.1 “just works” with Windows 7.

Pros

• Simple window management (middle-click on window to use)

Middle-click Menu on VirtuaWin 4.1

• Works with multiple screens

Cons

• Somewhat confusing interface (can you make sense of this? I couldn’t)

Confusing...

• Does not support window previews. I like the ability of having desktops viewable as thumbnails when you click on the icon.

Virtual Dimension 0.94

This is, by far, in my opinion, the best virtual desktop software we have reviewed for Windows 7.

Pros

• Extremely simple and easy to use interface
• Set rules for the desktops if you want some window always to be on some desktop.
• Allows you to see some windows on all desktops(e.g. IM Client).
• Supports desktop visual previews with icons

Desktop Thumbnail Preview

This little preview window sits at the corner of your screen. To bring it up, click the little Virtual Dimension icon to the far right of the taskbar. You may want to configure Windows to make the sure the Virtual Dimension taskbar icon is always visible by clicking the “Customize” button in the taskbar popup:

• Simple window management (right-click window to use)

Nice simple Virtual Dimension menu

• Simple and easy to understand interface

Nice and simple

Cons

• Not so fast window management (since switching windows between desktop requires 3 clicks instead of 1).

Crystal Desktop ($14.95)

Although we could not review this software, the company claims that it works with Windows 7

Crystal Desktop Interface

Pros

• Set rules for the desktops if you want some window always to be on some desktop. It’s very simple.
• Exception list allows you to see some windows on all desktops(e.g. IM Client).
• Every desktop may have its own wallpaper, shortcuts, resolutions.
• Convenient user-friendly interface
• Little resource consumption
• Set rules for the desktops if you want some window always to be on some desktop.
• Exception list allows you to see some windows on all desktops(e.g. IM Client).

Cons

• The pricetag
• The little switcher app some may find to be intrusive

Other software that didn’t work with Windows 7

Desktops 1.0 didn’t work properly, even though its an official Microsoft software and claims to work with Windows XP and higher.

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