Have you been looking for a 3D desktop manager? Err…for the 90% of readers out there who have no clue what a desktop manager is, I’ll pose another question: do you have just too many of those darn windows? Well, you’re trying to listen to music through your media player. Then there is your instant messaging buddy asking you something. On top of that, you’re trying to beat the next level of Tetris online. Shhh, you’re trying to Photoshop something. Then, to top the whole thing off, “you’ve got mail!”.
Your taskbar (start bar) is filling up with programs; then grouping, then turning so small you can barely select them. “Well, I’ll just get a new, huge monitor. Or add a second one onto my current one.”
Hold on there, tyke. Why don’t you save your $300 and spend it somewhere else? I’m going to introduce to you: YodM3D, a 3D desktop manager for Windows XP/Vista. I’m not one of those people that enjoy multitasking, but I still happen to have a lot of windows on my taskbar, especially during peak chat-hours.
Enough with the small talk though, here’s how it looks. I recommend you don’t try this on your 10-year old beige IBM machine (seriously, I’ve tried it, and the two really don’t mix well). YodM3D virtually adds 3 more desktops to your current desktop, making a nice grand total of 4 desktops. 4 times the space.
So, you could have your media player open on one for quick switching, be blogging on the second, have Paint or Photoshop open on the third, and Windows Live Messenger on the fourth. Of course, this might take its toll on your computer; try not to go crazy.
And, lastly, the biggest surprise of all: the controlling of the switching process with your mouse. You can hit the two keyboard hotkeys (ctrl+shift default), and then use your mouse to drag to another desktop. In the options palette, you can change the background image of the switching process (currently the space background). I suggest something more High-Res, as it looks quite pixellated otherwise.
Now no recommendation would be complete without a link! So, here’s a link to download YodM3D:
http://chsalmon.club.fr/index.php?en/Download
If the site is down, as it was at the moment, I suggest either using Google to find an alternative site, or to use a Torrent program (I’m sure most of you should be very familiar with those).
YodM3D seems to be quite the convenient program! I enjoy using it quite immensely, but it has a few minor bugs to fix (see the options screenshot again, and now look at the options text). Still, I like it enough to recommend it to you faithful readers. I hope it works as decently for you as it did for me. Until next time I post (ranging from within one hour to one week), ciao. Have a good one!
Yodm3d beats the pants off most other desktop managers I’ve tried. It’s tempting at first glance to think it’s a wannabe Linux desktop cube, but several things set it apart as much easier to use. The Yodm3d switch motion is crisp zoom out – rotate – zoom in, much easier visually than the Linux cube that zooms while it rotates, then bounces into place. Mouse-driven switching is also way more intuitive and functional with Yodm3d. With Yodm3d you point to a corner to activate the pointer switch mode, then drag the desktop to rotate the cube. With pointer switch mode on, all desktops are draggable. Pointer switch mode stays on until you double click the selected desktop. With the Linux cube, the switch begins when the pointer is at the edge of the desktop. The default setting is to have the entire desktop edge a switch zone, with an annoying propensity for accidental switches. This setting can be changed, but the settings are in an obscure location separated from the other desktop cube settings. But the killer feature of Yodm3d is the desktop switching driven by the window menu activated by the Yodm3d taskbar icon. Select a window from the menu and, bam, you’re there. That sets Yodm3d far ahead of the Linux cube and Apple’s Spaces desktop manager. The only comparable feature in other systems I’ve come across is with the default 2d desktop switching (not the cube) in Linux, where you can navigate to the selected window with its taskbar button. Unfortunately, the default settings for the (Ubuntu) Linux 2d desktop switching are terrible for laptops, and can’t be changed without installing the 3d desktop package. That’s a shame, because the default 2d Linux desktop manager is really much more functional than the Linux cube, and is the only desktop manager that I’ve found comparable to Yodm3d for ease of use, when it’s set up right. Lastly, desktop cubes require some good graphics rendering to look right. Linux has some great features, but high quality graphics rendering isn’t one of them. The jaggy appearance of a Linux desktop cube in motion is just a reminder that the graphics rendering is not on a par with that of Vista.
Conclusion: Yodm3d is the best desktop manager I’ve used. It’s mystifying how little buzz it’s gotten on the mainstream tech websites.
Hi GFC, thanks for your enthusiasm! Unfortunately, this blog has moved – I just haven’t gotten around to deleting yet (thank goodness I found you). It’s successor is my current blog http://cutedge.org, where you’ll find a lot more of my work.
Thanks for stopping by, and hope you enjoy CutEdge.