I have decided that I am going to experiment replacing Codetek’s VirtualDesktop application with Apple’s Exposé. I have really liked what I have used of Exposé so far, but my efforts to grow accustomed to it have been stymied by CTVDs lack of compatibility with Exposé. Even the latest beta’s of CTVD leave much to be desired when it comes to Exposé compatibility.
But compatibility aside, I think Exposé might be a “better” solution to the screen real-estate problem than virtual desktops. I’m not certain yet, and it will take a period of forced acclimation, but I’d like to give it a shot. I know, however, that if I become used to this then using Windows is going to be even MORE painful until I find some kind of Exposé-clone for XP.
I have been saying since I installed Panther that Exposé was one of the greatest additions to the traditional WIMP UI in awhile, but time to put my money where my mouth is.
Update: I am already finding myself in “Desktop Switching Hotkey Hell”. I feel like I have phantom movement of an amputated limb. This won’t deter me, though, I will at least see this through for two weeks.
Who would’ve thought?
http://www.winexpose.com/
I’ll have to give it a swing the next time I have the PC booted. That said, I can’t imagine their use of the word Expose in this context is legit… I guarantee that Apple trademarked the word.
Yeah, there’s also no demo available, which kind of sucks, although $10 isn’t a huge amount of money.
There is NO way that I would buy this software without trying it first. WinXP has no direct analogue to “Quartz Extreme” on the Mac, so i’d expect without that that the animations and updating would be hokey. I wouldn’t spend money without knowing what I was getting into in that respect.
I agree, a demo would be real nice for this… their online flash demo just doesn’t cut it.
I have to confess I don’t use Expose as much as I thought I would, despite falling head over heels with it at first site. I do use F11 to reveal desktop many times per day. The fact that the Mac now does Cmd-Tab exactly like Windows has greatly reduced the need for F9 (for me), since most of the time all I need is to switch between 2 or 3 apps.
In contrast, I did really use BeOS’ virtual desktops, so I suspect that, as cool as Expose is, I would use virtual desktops even more.
See, I often have a shitload of windows open… Firebird, NetNewsWire, a few Terminal windows, sometimes an iCal window, and my screen gets pretty cluttered quickly without virtual desktops. But my thinking is that Expose may change that. Jury is still out on that one.
In contrast, I did really use BeOS’ virtual desktops, so I suspect that, as cool as Expose is, I would use virtual desktops even more.
I’ve used virtual desktops on every OS I’ve used save Windows (I’ve never found a decent implementation on Windows, they are always clunky). But I am seriously thinking that Expose might be “the better way”.
Ditto that, I’ve got 11 apps open right now, and many with multiple windows, but somehow I just find that Cmd-Tab in left hand and mouse in right is just the ticket (did you know you can mouse click on icons while in Cmd-Tab?)
BTW, I bound “All Applications” (F9) to the thumb button on my mouse, which is extraordinarily useful.
I gotta say, that’s a brilliant idea. But my Logitech control center doesn’t allow arbitrary keybinding. What do you use for that?
You can just choose “Mouse Button 4” in the Expose panel of System Preferences (you can bind mouse buttons at the bottom).
In addition, I bound “thumb button + modifiers” for the other two expose modes.
Ah, cool. Except it doesn’t seem to work for me – tried button 3, 4, 5… none do anything. I wonder if the Logitech preference is intercepting the signal or something.
I didn’t find the Logitech software at all useful, so I uninstalled it very quickly. You might have to go into the Logitech software, though, and assign the thumb button to create a button event….
No thumb on this mouse, and the Logitech software doesn’t let you assign arbitrary actions to the middle button – you can only select simple things from a list (like “middle = double click”). Guess I’ll uninstall it.
But I think you can assign the middle mouse button to “Middle Click”, which is “Mouse Button 3” in system parlance.
…
WinExpose provides the same functionality as Apple’s Expose only for the Windows based machine. Now They changed product name to WinPlosion and domain to http://www.winplosion.com
Re: …
I am not saying this as a Apple snob, because I am not one in any sense of the word, but I had the opportunity to play with WinExpose on a friends machine and it sucks ass. It is slow, hokey looking, and simple things like being able to bind events to mouse buttons are just missing.
I wouldn’t have bought a product from a company who is too ashamed to put up a free demo, but after playing with it, I wouldn’t buy it even WITH a demo. I just hope that someone actually makes an emulation of this functionality under windows that doesn’t suck.