Deskloops: A Not-So-Common Cure for Desktop Clutter Syndrome Staying in the Loop Joseph Moran
Remember the days when computing in Windows meant using a single application at a time, two at the most? For most of us, those days went out with the 3½ inch floppy, as a typical person is now likely to simultaneously be working with several documents, multiple Web pages, and various other sundry applications and utilities. In this kind of environment it's not unusual to have perhaps a dozen or more windows open at any one time, a situation that can lead to an inordinate amount of desktop clutter as well as a lot of time wasted in finding and switching between various windows.
Xilokit offers a potential solution in the form of Deskloops, a free utility that runs only on Windows XP. It uses something the company calls Loop Environment Technology (LET) to provide a new and fairly unique way to organize and streamline access to numerous open windows, rather than Windows' way of having all applications compete for the same desktop real estate right in front of your face.
Staying in the Loop
Instead of stacking open applications atop each other, with Deskloops application windows are arranged in a virtual loop so that one application is displayed on your screen and the others exist invisibly off the edges of the desktop. You can almost think of it as a Lazy Susan for your applications. To switch to the next application, you simply move the mouse cursor over to the left or right edge of the desktop and double right-click, which scrolls the adjacent application into view.
You can also continuously scroll the loop by using a single rather than double right-click, and the loop's scrolling speed will depend on where you place the mouse cursor on either edge of the screen. Move the cursor higher and scrolling speeds up, while moving it lower slows it down. When you see the window you want, you can stop the scroll by moving the cursor away from the screen edge. When you open a new application, it gets added to the loop and takes the front and center position.
The process of manipulating the loop works fairly well, though sometimes right-clicking the edge of the screen to call up the next application can inadvertently trigger a context menu from that application or the Windows Desktop. Whenever you scroll through your loop, a transparent 3D image of the entire loop rotates in the center of the screen. It doesn't seem to serve a practical purpose, but it does look cool, and in any event can be disabled if it becomes too distracting.
When you need access to something that's on your desktop (like a shortcut) you can double-click the Deskloops icon in the Windows Tray to bring the Desktop to the forefront; a subsequent double-click will take you back to the loop.
