mDesktop

Even though advancement in technology brings innovations in the way you manage your desktop and working items, this small space still gets crowded or clogged either with too many windows or icons. Luckily, there is an abundance of applications such as mDesktop that target this issue and enable you to work on multiple desktops.

Only a few seconds in and the application manages to make a proper first impression. It's fast, smooth, stealthy and gives you the possibility to enable up to ten active desktops in order to satisfy even the most sophisticated requirements. What's more, there are no visual effects or transitions, with functionality being enhanced, thus using considerably little system resources.

You can start using mDesktop as soon as the setup process is complete, but you can also spend a little time customizing controls for more comfort in long-term use. The settings window is the only one you encounter. It puts several options at your disposal so that you can customize general details, desktop names and active windows.

Not all desktops are available from the start, the application letting you choose how many to enable. Several key combinations can be attributed in order to jump to certain desktops, cycle through, transfer active windows, or toggle the visibility of the system tray icon.

However, the number of combinations is limited to one of the keyboard's special keys, along with either the desktop's corresponding number or a button representing the action, such as arrow keys for navigation. This is not necessarily an issue, because it only gives you a few combinations to remember and the application's commands are triggered first in case of hotkey conflicts.

You can rename each desktop as you see fit, for easier identification. The system tray icon helps in this regard, the active desktop number being displayed by default, with a list of available desktops popping up when interacting with the icon.

What's more, you can create a list of windows to keep active on all desktops. There is no possibility to visually customize each instance, nor is there a way to view active windows for each desktop unless cycling through each.

All things considered, mDesktop is a small, but incredibly practical desktop enhancement that can greatly increase efficiency and probably reduce stress when working with a handful of windows. It properly functions on the latest Windows iterations and no experience at all is required to configure and put it to good use.