The more space you have to lay out your materials, the easier it is to get a job done. Modern operating systems make multi-tasking with overlapping windows on one screen possible, but that requires some amount of task switching and window resizing to get to what you need. A recent survey by Jon Peddie Research4 showed that multi-monitor computer setups can increase a computer worker’s productivity by 20 to 30 percent.
To use physical multiple monitors, your computer has to have multiple video cards or one video card capable of multiple monitors. If you don’t have that capability, use virtual desktops instead to separate your work into four distinct workspaces and focus on one at a time.
In Windows XP, download the free Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop Manager (MSVDM) from the Download link at the end of this post. After installing MSVDM, right-click your Windows taskbar and select Toolbars → Desktop Manager. The MSVDM toolbar displays
buttons labeled 1 through 4. Switch to another desktop by pressing a button, or use the Quick Preview button to see all four desktops in quadrants on your screen as shown in the fig. below:
Assign a different desktop background to each desktop to distinguish them visually. To do so, right-click the MSVDM toolbar and choose Configure Desktop Images as shown in the fig. below:
Click here to download
