goScreen
WEB home page:
http://www.arvotek.net/~andgur/software/goscreen.html
Copyright © 1998-2000 Andrei Gourianov,
andrew-guryanov@usa.net
Translation to
Dutch -
Martin van Es
and Vincent Pathuis
French -
Alan Manach
Hungarian -
Sándor Soós
Icelandic -
Þröstur Jónasson,
http://www.mmedia.is/sporri
Italian -
Luca Croci Candiani,
http://www.nemo.it
Polish -
Jerzy Szymański
Portuguese (Brazilian) -
Jorge E. Hime Somers,
http://www.somers.com.br
Romanian -
Vlad Danciu
Russian -
Andrei Gourianov,
http://www.arvotek.net/~andgur
Slovenian -
Boris Grzina
Spanish -
José Rubén Pérez González
Swedish -
Anders Blom,
http://www.teorfys.lu.se/~blom
Contents
What is it.
What makes it better than other virtual desktop managers.
How to...
goScreen helps you better organize your computer monitor screen area by creating up to 40 virtual pages on it. It adds another dimension to your Windows taskbar. Now you can group your applications by themes and avoid an overcrowded desktop. When you switch pages, all your running Windows programs just disappear from your screen and from the taskbar, but they are right there waiting when you switch back.
Think of your desktop as a sheet of paper. It has one visible surface. Now imagine that there is a number of surfaces, or pages, with only one visible at a time. All the pages are of the same size − size of your monitor screen and are placed "one above the other". That is how goScreen works.
It creates a number of virtual pages on your monitor screen. The only limit is your computer resources. Normally, when a program is started, it is given a button on the Windows taskbar. With goScreen your taskbar gets "deeper" too. So, there is still a taskbar entry for each program, but there are many taskbars − one for each virtual page. That is why, when you switch pages, all the taskbar buttons are being changed as well.
When you start goScreen for the first time, you see several numbered buttons plus <?> and <x> buttons. Each numbered button represents a virtual page. Raised button is for inactive page, sunken − for the active one. Button "with ribs" means that this page is empty, that is there are no running applications on the page. You can change number of pages from 2 to 40. But this is only beginning. The visual appearance is highly configurable. You can change size, font, color, put images on buttons and so on.
What makes it better than other virtual desktop managers.
"Left click" stands for "single click with the left mouse button"
"Right click" stands for "single click with the right mouse button"
Installation.
To install it:
No installation is necessary. There is a single EXE file −
goScreen.exe. Just run it. That is, having unpacked distribution package,
you may immediately try goScreen. Still, for your convenience, there is also a
Setup program.
Distribution package contains: goScreen.exe − main executable,
gsSetup.exe − setup program, several DLL files, each of which contains
language-dependent resources (goScreen is multi-lingual) and goScreen.htm,
which you are reading now.
The purpose of gsSetup.exe is to copy the package files to a
location you specify and to configure goScreen to be started at Windows start-up.
So, run it, specify desired options and press Install.
To uninstall it:
The purpose of de-installation is to remove goScreen files from your
computer and to clean up registry.
Unlike many other programs, goScreen, when uninstalled, leaves no traces in the registry.
It means that all configuration information will be erased. That is, if you plan to
re-install it later - you will have to configure it again. In this case, maybe it is
worth to consider saving configuration information
into a file.
Close goScreen if it is running.
Go to Start - Settings - Control Panel menus and invoke Add/Remove Programs.
Then select Andrew Guryanov's goScreen item and press Add/Remove button.
When setup program starts - press Uninstall.
IMPORTANT:
In case you stop using registered copy of goScreen (at all, or on a
given computer), you have to uninstall it. It is not a problem, if you have never
installed it before. Just find gsSetup.exe, run it and press Uninstall.
To change setup options:
You may want to install goScreen into another directory or change its
behavior at Windows start-up (run it automatically or not).
Close goScreen if it is running.
Go to Start - Settings - Control Panel menus and invoke Add/Remove Programs.
Then select Andrew Guryanov's goScreen item and press Add/Remove button.
When setup program starts - specify desired options and press Install.
Please note, in case you are re-installing it into another directory, you have
to remove files in the previous directory manually.
To transfer configuration settings to another PC:
For example, you have got new PC and would like to transfer goScreen there without
re-configuring it again. Or, you would like to share you configuration settings with the rest
of the world (say for instance, you are system administrator and have to install it
on several computers in your organization). Whatever the reason is, here is how.
Close goScreen if it is running (it saves all the settings).
Run regedit. Find and select the key named
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Andrew Guryanov\goScreen. Select
Registry - Export Registry File menus. Specify the file name to which settings will be
saved. This is actually a text file and you can look on its contents using notepad.
Then copy this file to another PC, make sure goScreen is not running, right click the file
with settings in Explorer and select Merge menu item.
Please note, all the references to other files (paths - it can be Windows
icons, bitmaps, other programs) are absolute. That is, on another PC goScreen should
be able to find these files in same locations. Still, nothing happens if it is unable,
it will just ignore it.
To change the language of the user interface:
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Control bar tab and select a language in the Language combo box.
The language will be changed only after you close the About box.
If you do not find your favorite language in the list - visit
goScreen's WEB page -
there is a chance I have added it recently. This feature is only available due to
invaluable contributions of volunteers, who took time
to translate it. Please join me in praising them.
All language-dependent resources are stored in special DLLs, each
of which has a unique name like gsResXX.dll. Only one such DLL is used at any given time,
so you can remove unused or add new ones. There is only one exception:
never remove nor rename gsRes.dll - the one which provides resources for English version.
To change font used in the About box:
This is actually a Windows-wide parameter.
Invoke the About dialog box, just to see the effect.
Right click your monitor screen and select Properties menu item. Go to Appearance
tab and select Message Box in Item combo box. Change font, press Apply.
Enjoy the effect.
To close goScreen:
Left click the <x> button. Or press Alt+F4 on the keyboard.
Size and position.
To move goScreen panel:
Move the mouse cursor to the non-button area. Press the left mouse button and,
while holding it down, move the mouse. Release the left mouse button to drop goScreen.
If you move it to a screen edge and do not want
to dock it there - hold the keyboard Ctrl key down
while moving.
To resize goScreen panel:
Move the mouse cursor to the top or bottom of non-button area of goScreen until
it changes to a "resize" cursor. Press the left mouse button and, while holding it down,
move the mouse. Release the left mouse button to release goScreen.
To show/hide goScreen icon in ALT+TAB window:
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Control bar tab and check or uncheck Show in Alt+Tab check box.
To make goScreen panel "most topmost":
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Control bar tab and check or uncheck Most topmost check box.
When set, this property means that goScreen panel cannot be covered by other topmost windows.
To dock goScreen panel to a screen edge:
Docking makes goScreen panel invisible while you are working with other applications.
Move goScreen to a screen edge until
it goes a bit out of the screen and drop it there. goScreen disappears immediately
(if you do not want to dock it there - hold the keyboard Ctrl key down
while moving).
To show it up - just move the mouse cursor to the same screen edge.
Or use a keyboard shortcut command.
If your system is capable of showing a window contents while dragging it -
goScreen also draws a rectangle near a screen edge when it is ready to be docked.
Please be careful when using this option: goScreen becomes completely invisible in this case
and it is very easy to forget about it.
To put goScreen icon on the system tray:
Double click the non-button area with the left mouse button. Or
invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Control bar tab and check or uncheck Put on system tray check box.
Also, to detach goScreen panel from the system tray - left click its tray icon and
move its panel somewhere.
It works pretty much the same as docking. That is, its
purpose is to hide goScreen panel while you are working with other applications. But comparing
with docking it has a couple of benefits - you can see a
list of all running applications and
find an application and go to the corresponding screen page
without showing goScreen panel.
In version 2.5 and earlier this mechanism worked differently: instead of
putting icon on the system tray it attached goScreen panel to the task bar. I was not
completely satisfied with that solution and replaced it in version 2.6. Which in turn
caused a number of complains from users. Well, now there is a possibility to use
either of this mechanisms. Changing it is a bit tricky though:
Close goScreen, if it is running.
Go to Start - Run Windows menu and type regedit in the dialog box shown, press OK.
Find entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Andrew Guryanov\goScreen\Main and double click the
Attach value. Change the value data from 0 to 1. Now, when you start goScreen next time, the old
"attachment" mechanism will be active. If you do not like it - change this value back to 0.
I understand, it is not easy enough. This is, partially because I still do not like it.
But if you like it - use it.
Visual appearance.
To invoke About dialog box:
Left click the <?> button. Or right click the non-button area and
select Properties menu item. Or press F1 on the keyboard.
To invoke Page Properties dialog box:
Right click a page button and select Properties menu item.
To show/hide goScreen panel window controls:
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Control bar tab and check or uncheck Show window controls check box.
To change goScreen tooltip font:
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Control bar tab and press Font button.
To change goScreen panel color:
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Control bar tab and select a color in the Color combo box.
To change the page button name:
Invoke the Page properties dialog box,
go to the Name tab and enter the name in the Name edit control.
To change the page button icon:
Just drag and drop an icon or an application file or a shortcut to it on the page button. Or,
Invoke the Page properties dialog box,
go to the Name tab and enter the Windows icon or application file name in the Icon edit control.
You can also change the size of page icons.
To change page icon size:
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Page buttons tab and enter the numbers in the Icon width
and Icon height edit controls.
To change page button font:
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Page buttons tab and press Font button.
To change page button colors:
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Page buttons tab and check or uncheck Active page color
and/or Empty page color check boxes. Then press the nearby button(s) to edit the colors.
This option is useful when using only page icons - "ribs" and raised/sunken state may be
difficult to distinguish in this case.
Screen pages.
To change the number of pages:
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Page buttons tab and enter the number in the Number of pages edit control.
You have to restart goScreen for this change to come into effect.
To activate a page:
Left click corresponding goScreen panel button.
You can also install specific
keyboard hot key for each page,
or move from page to page by page switching.
To install a keyboard hot key to activate the page:
Invoke the Page properties dialog box,
go to the Keyboard activation tab and specify key combination you like.
Installing your own hot keys is necessary to avoid possible conflicts with other applications.
And... it is nice to be able to use your own preferences instead of being forced to use someone's
else, isn't it?
To change the screen page background bitmap:
Just drag and drop a Windows bitmap file on the page button. Or,
Invoke the Page properties dialog box,
go to the Background tab and enter the Windows bitmap file name in the Wallpaper bitmap edit control.
You can only use MS Windows bitmaps as a page background. And, be aware, - in case you have Active Desktop
enabled - it is slow. Everything else works much faster.
To change the screen page desktop color:
Invoke the Page properties dialog box,
go to the Background tab and check or uncheck Desktop color check box. Then
press the nearby button to edit the color. And, "expect delays", - it is slow. Everything else works much faster.
To hide the page:
Invoke the Page properties dialog box,
go to the Name tab and check or uncheck Hide page button check box. When hidden, the page
is accessible only by the keyboard hot key (so it should be installed as well)
and is excluded from the page switching mechanism. Use this option
with caution and never forget the access key.
There is another, closely related option - Guard. It answers the question
"What should goScreen do when someone tries to close it, but there are some running applications on hidden pages?" -
just exit or never exit?
Operation.
To move an application from one page to another:
Right click an inactive page button. A menu will be shown with the list
of applications on that page and on the current page. By selecting an item you move the
application to (upward, to the top) or from (downward) the current, active page.
To perform an action (maximize, minimize, restore, close)
for all windows on the active page:
Right click the active page button and select an action.
To find an application and go to the corresponding page:
Right click the non-button area. A menu will be shown with the list of all the
applications on all the pages. By selecting an item you activate corresponding
page, if necessary, and the application.
To "send back" windows from other pages:
Left click the active page button.
Or, click keyboard hot key which corresponds to the active page.
To show a window on all screen pages:
Right click the active page button, go to the Stick menu item and select a window. A sticky window
is shown on all screen pages.
Another option is to specify rules as for how to find window(s) which should be sticky.
goScreen can distinguish windows by who has created it and by window title or title pattern.
It is good idea to have an application for which you are going to define a rule running.
In this case you can just select appropriate information from the list and maybe modify it slightly.
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Stick tab and define a rule.
Exact title means that window should have this exact title,
All - all the specified words should be present in the title, Any - any one of the specified
words should be in the title. If you specify empty string as a title and say it is Exact - this means
a window with no title (which is very rare case). At the same time, if you say All or Any -
this means a window with any title.
Another option to differentiate windows is by an application which has created it. When you select
a title from the list of available (running on the active screen page), this application is shown in
the Process combo box. If you clean this entry - that means a window with the specified title (pattern)
which has been created by any application.
So, defining a rule, think what is more appropriate for you in each case. For example, you have
a text document (MyText.txt) opened in Notepad. On the goScreen "rule" panel you will be able to find
the window title (MyText.txt - Notepad) and the application which has created it (Notepad.exe). Now, what do you want?
If you want all the documents opened by Notepad be sticky - specify "Notepad" in the Title edit control,
select All, and select "Notepad.exe" in the Process (and click Add button, which adds this rule
to the list of defined). Otherwise, if you want MyText.txt document, which, potentially, can be opened by many
different text editors, be sticky - specify "MyText.txt" in the Title, select All and clean any text
in the Process edit control.
On Windows NT, for goScreen to be able to see the names of running processes you need PSAPI.DLL.
This is a standard Microsoft DLL, but not all NT computers have it installed.
This DLL is not included in the goScreen package.
To assign a window to a specific screen page:
Another rule-oriented feature (see previous paragraph please) is assignment of a window
to a specific screen page.
One possible scenario is as follows: imagine that you have multiple applications starting at Windows start-up
and would like to have them running on different screen pages. How to tell goScreen to relocate them
to a "proper" page? The answer is - define assignment rules.
Another scenario may be like this: a mail program which runs on one
screen page notifies you that there is a new message - "Would you like to read it now?".
You open the message, read it and go to another page without closing it. Now, where have you left that
message? Takes time to recall. Possible solution would be to define a rule for goScreen to relocate
all messages to the page where the mail program is running.
Invoke the Page properties dialog box,
go to the Applications tab and define a rule.
What is important to note here is that applications are not relocated automatically,
that is not unless you ask for it. From the other hand, such a request is simple: each time you
switch screen pages or invoke clean command, all the windows on
the active, or previously active, page are being examined and sent to appropriate page(s), if necessary.
Say for instance you want all windows created by Notepad.exe to be assigned to page 3 and have
defined the rule for it. When on page 2, for example, you can open a text document in Notepad,
edit it and still be on page 2. But when you switch to page 1, goScreen will relocate your
Notepad window to page 3. So, next time you go to page 2 you will not find your document there.
Do not tell me it is inconvenient (if you think it is - do not define any rules for it). Now,
instead of remembering where you have left that window, you are supposed to remember
where that window should be next time you want it.
To assign a window to several screen pages:
What if you specify rules, described in previous paragraph, for several screen pages?
- goScreen will show such windows whenever you go to any one of pages for which you did it.
For example, you have specified the rule "keep all windows created by notepad.exe on this page" both
for pages 1 and 3. Being on page 1, you start notepad. Then you go to page 2. Notepad is left on page 1.
Then you go to page 3. goScreen relocates notepad from page 1 to page 3.
It is evident, that if you specify such rule for all screen pages, the result
will be the same as if you have made such window sticky.
To create keyboard or mouse shortcuts
to goScreen command:
Invoke the About dialog box,
go to the Keyboard or Mouse tab and specify key combinations you like.
Installing your own keyboard hot keys and mouse hot zones is necessary to avoid
possible conflicts with other applications.
There are four page switching commands: Previous/Next, Back/Forward. They let you to
go to the previous or next screen page in numerical order or in order of usage.
Other commands include:
Current - "send back" notification windows from other pages,
Show - show goScreen panel when it is hidden,
System tray - put goScreen icon on the system tray,
Reveal all - relocate all windows from all screen pages to the current, active one,
Restore all - restore all windows on the current page,
Mimimize all - minimize all windows on the current page,
Maximize all - maximize all windows on the current page,
Close all - close all windows on the current page,
Clean all - Reveal all + Close all. That is, relocate all windows from all screen pages
to the current one and then close them,
Display - Display the number of the current screen page.
Information.
To see the list of applications running on a screen page:
To see the list of all running applications:
To see the hot key for a screen page:
To see hot keys for all screen pages:
Sometimes, when I move goScreen panel, it disappears. And I cannot find it.
It is not a bug. Please take a look at this.
FrontPage 2000 does not redraw itself properly when I switch screen pages.
Sorry, FrontPage guys are guilty. I use
standard Windows mechanisms and if their application does not handle it properly,
they should fix it, not me. After all, it is not me who redraws their window. And one
of the basic requirements for a Windows program is the ability to redraw itself properly
under any circumstances.
Anyway, I have found one workaround. Unfortunately it does not work when FrontPage is maximized.
But at least something to help you live with it.
Close goScreen, if it is running.
Go to Start - Run Windows menu and type regedit in the dialog box shown, press OK.
Find entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Andrew Guryanov\goScreen\Main and double click the
Invalidate value. Change the value data from 0 to 1. Now, "normal", non-maximized FrontPage
windows will be redrawn properly.
This option noticeably degrades goScreen performance. So, do not use it if you do not need it.
Some MS Office 2000 applications (MS Access, for example) have the ability
to show a separate task bar button for each document window (Tools - Options - View tab - Windows
in Taskbar checkbox). But when in this case one relocates MS Access from one screen page to another,
corresponding task bar buttons are left on the previous page, and are not relocated to the new one.
The problem with things like this is that different developers use similar mechanisms
for different purposes. I of course can make goScreen treat it as a single application. But
it will create problems with other applications. And I am unable to distinguish the cases: when
to make it this way, when - the other. From the other side, once something (a window) has a task
bar entry, it means that it is pretty independent entity and one should treat it accordingly.
So, I feel like Microsoft violates here MS Windows principles. Again, I can make MS Access work "good",
but it will make some other applications work "bad". Having to choose, I choose what I believe is more
appropriate.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event the author of this program is liable to you for damages, including any general, special, incidental, or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the program. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you.
This is a shareware program. You may try it for a period of one month.
After that all the navigation features "expire". To restore them you should register your
copy. As a result of the registration you will be given a special numeric key that "unlocks"
the program. Also, all future versions will be free for you.
There are two types of registration IDs that you may acquire: personal
and corporate. Personal ID may be used by one person only, on a single computer at a time.
Corporate ID may be used on all corporate computers. Your name (name of your corporation)
is an important part of your ID and cannot be changed later.
For obtaining a corporate license you have to contact me first.
For on-line registration click here:
https://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=1596-1
Alternatively, send $20 US, or $30 Canadian (no other currencies please) to the following address:
Andrei Gourianov
PO Box 40057, RPO Marlee
Toronto, ON, M6B 4K4
Canada
(Please, before sending anything by mail, visit goScreen's WEB page
to verify this information)
Send cash (preferable) or cheque (no Eurocheques, please). Make the latter payable to Andrei Gourianov. Do not forget to specify your name and e-mail address. As soon as I receive your letter, I will send you your personal registration ID by electronic mail.
Should you have any questions, comments or problems
please do not hesitate to write me to
andrew-guryanov@usa.net
Andrei Gourianov
May 14, 2000.