Microsoft through the Sysinternals team has released Windows Desktops, which provides Mutiple Desktops within Windows XP and Windows Vista. Sysinternals created quite a few applications and utilities for the Windows Operating System that Microsoft evntually acquired them.
I’ve always loved Linux and its fluid Mutiple Desktops in Fluxbox. Even Mac OSX and its mutiple desktops is very mature and a time saver when working with mutiple applications. I know there are a few applications that allowed the use of mutiple desktops on windows, but this is an official release from Microsoft’s Sysinternals team.
Just some heads up about what you can and can’t do with Windows Desktops. First off, if you select the ALT modifier and the function keys (F1,F2) then watch out for ALT+F4 😀
Also, you if you make a change to your quick launch, like add or remove anything. Then you won’t see it on your other desktops. You will have to reboot your machine, restarting Windows Desktop doesn’t resolve the issue. If you like using FireFox and want to use it on two different desktops, it won’t work out of the box. You can open another Firefox Window, but you can’t move it in-between desktops. Firefox uses profiles, unfortunately if you want to launch another Firefox profile you need to actually create a new profile. The hiveminds.co.uk has an article “Running Multiple Versions of Firefox on Windows” which will assist you with creating a new profile and getting up to four different Firefox processes.
Download Windows Desktops from microsoft.com/sysinternals
Here are some pictures of Windows Desktop in action.