There are some things that when we first see them we wonder how they will ever be useful, but we now take them for granted. The GUI, the Mouse are great examples. Another is Exposé. But one that hasn’t been as widely accredited is virtual desktops, or more specifically Desktop Manager. It is a small open source app that allows you to have multiple desktops in OSX.

Some people may be put off by the fact that it’s Alpha software, but I have been using it for over a year and I haven’t had a single problem with it. It has now become natural for me to switch desktops, often having iChat and Safari on one desktop, Photoshop on another and maybe Xcode on the next. But you aren’t limited to the 3 desktops I have. Desktop Manager let’s you have unlimited desktops (well, they are limited, but just by the ram in your machine). Switching desktops is as easy as using a keyboard command, which is of course, fully customisable. You can also just move your mouse to the edge of the screen to switch desktops. The same ease of use can be applied to moving Windows between desktops.

But not only does it do all this, it does it well. You can have a pager showing previews of all your desktops either on your desktop or in your menubar. But if like me, you choose to have neither then all you are left with is a small menu bar item. This let’s you access the preferences, change desktop, move windows or quit desktop manager. The preference screen is very well laid out and it’s easy to find what you are looking for.

Another cool little feature is the ability to use Quartz Extreme effects when switching desktops, which is really cool if you want to switch between desktops using the rotating cube effect. One thing that you may come across when using Desktop Manager is that you lose the ability to move windows between desktops after a Dock crash. This isn’t Desktop Manager’s fault as it needs to use the Dock to manipulate the windows, just like Exposé. You can easily fix this though by quickly restarting Desktop Manager.

Overall, this app may take you a while to get used to, but when you do get used to it I assure you it will become a natural extension to your everyday computing experience. And being free, you have no excuses not to try it out.