Virtual desktops are basically virtual copies of the Windows desktop that can be customized in a different way. From a different wallpaper image to desktop items, open program windows and taskbar programs. That’s handy if you want to use separate workplaces for what you do on your computer. One example could be a general desktop, and another for Office programs and work, and a third for entertainment and multimedia contents.

NSpaces comes preconfigured with four desktops; The standard desktop and three virtual desktops. Options are available to increase or decrease the amount of virtual desktops.

The program supports two different ways of switching between desktops. It is first possible to open the launcher and click on one of the desktops, or to use one of the preconfigured keyboard shortcuts to switch. The first option displays the selection menu that you see on the screenshot above, the second option is faster as it switches to the new desktop directly without that intermediary step.

All desktops are configured with a right-click on the program icon in the system tray (visible on all desktops) and the selection of nSpaces.

The Rows and Columns buttons are used to increase or decrease the number of virtual desktops on the system. Parameters for each workspace are configured here as well. Each virtual desktop consists of a label that is displayed in the switcher window, a wallpaper image or background color, a list of apps that are launched on the selected desktop and a hotkey to launch that desktop with a single keystroke.

New labels were not saved correctly during tests, but that was the only issue that I had with the program.

A separate settings window is available from the right-click context menu as well. Probably the most interesting option here is the ability to set a password to protect virtual desktops from unauthorized access. A password prompt is displayed on program launch if a password has been set in the settings.

NSpaces is a free program for Windows. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7 operating system. The program requires the Microsoft .NET Framework. There is unfortunately no version information posted on the developer website. (via)

The software basically opens the horizontal borders so that it is possible to place windows or desktop icons on that space.

The free edition, which I review here, is limited to expanding the desktop horizontally. There are paid versions of the program that add more options, like allowing vertical movements as well.

Back to the free version. The program needs to be installed. Installation should not pose a problem though. Once you start the program, you activate the program’s functionality automatically.

When you move the mouse to the right or left screen border, you will notice that you scroll to the left or right of the desktop beyond the usually visible desktop space.

You can place windows there which are only visible when you move the mouse into that area, just like a virtual desktop but without the necessary clicks or keyboard shortcuts to switch.

Some maximized windows do not scroll, which means that they stay at the exact same location when you scroll the desktop space to the left or right. You can change their size to move them. There might be windows however that won’t move regardless of that. I have tested the feature with popular software such as Firefox, VLC, Thunderbird, Steam and Google Chrome, and they all supported the program’s functionality.

The scroll lock key on the keyboard locks the current screen position, so that it is no longer possible to scroll left or right. This is handy if you do not need the functionality right now or want to work with a fullscreen application.

You can exit the program at any time from the system tray. Just right-click the icon there and select Exit. The context menu has a second option, to collect all windows. This is helpful if you have lost the overview and want all windows to show up on the current desktop position.

Here is a video demonstrating the functionality.

You can download the free version of the program from the developer website. I have tested it under a 64-bit edition of Windows 7. It is compatible with other versions of Windows as well. (via)

The desktop manager provides several methods of accessing the parts of the desktop that are not visual. It displays a slider in the upper right corner of the screen that can be used to access another part of the desktop. The second and probably most comfortable solution is to use the mouse-wheel while clicking the left or middle mouse button to scroll left or right. The third and final option is to open the quick nav bar by clicking on the slider and use the navigation bar to access another part of the desktop directly. The desktop scrolls seamlessly by connecting the end and beginning together.

By default only the Windows Taskbar stays in place all the time to provide access to its functions. All other windows and applications will remain in place which means that some of them will not be accessible when in the wrong part of the computer desktop.

This can be changed in the options of the 360 desktop manager so that applications will always be in the visible area of the computer screen. New desktop layouts can be downloaded or created at the official 360 Desktop website. Downloaded desktops can be loaded directly in the application or by dragging and dropping them afterwards in the 360 Manager.

It is furthermore possible to manage so called widgets in the 360 Manager which can only be created on the 360 Desktop website by registered users. Widgets can be pretty much any element that is available on a website like video clips, eBay listings or RSS news feeds which will always be displayed when the desktop manager starts.

After creating a free account at myGOYA and signing in using the https protocol you can see an overview of your virtual system drawing up how many messages / e-mails / contacts / calendar records you got and free space available on the web hard drive. MyGOYA provides 512 MB free space for e-mails and the same amount for all other data again. Should be quite sufficient for a light-weight and portable operating system.

After firing up the virtual system, which takes just few seconds, you can do many things that you’d be able to do on your own system like storing files, managing e-mails and contacts using built-in client, chatting with other users, planning events with a calendar, playing media files, scheduling tasks and so forth.

The system is also connected with other Magix’s free services like photo album, website/blog maker etc, creating a huge complex of services and tools that you can use along with the virtual desktop itself. Widget support with 4 widgets at present could become more relevant if there are more of them in the future.

The last feature I wouldn’t like to forget is related to the “tab mania”. Rather then being solid and permanent, each desktop is in fact a tab that you can close whenever you like or create a new tab – desktop whenever you need.

Another web-based desktop environment fills in the collection of services of this kind. Using the solution from Magix is fast and simple and it might get pretty popular when all minor bugs (usually German / English translation) are fixed.

There aren’t really a lot of information about the requirements but I was able to access myGOYA with Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera.