Flip 3D for Task Switching in Windows Vista
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http://live.pirillo.com/ -My brother-in-law Travis emailed to ask me why the new computer doesn’t have that “cool” little 3D popup to help switch between open windows. He is wondering if something is configured wrong, or if it’s because he’s running Vista Home Basic.
What Travis is talking about is called Flip 3D. Using the new Windows Aero technology, available in Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate editions, Windows Flip and Windows Flip 3D render live thumbnail images of the exact contents of your open windows, making it easier to identify the one you want. Windows Flip improves on the ALT+TAB method for flipping between windows, while Windows Flip 3D dynamically displays all open windows in a graceful three-dimensional view.
Personally, I don’t think Flip 3D is all that cool, nor does it make anything easier. I prefer the Expose in OS X. . Type the F9 key and Exposé instantly tiles all of your open windows, scales them down and neatly arranges them, so you can see what’s in every single one. ONE keystroke? It doesn’t get any better than that.
There is a download available of Expose available for Windows called iEx. This basically does the same thing, it just isn’t quite as good as the OS X version.
My advice is to not spend the money to upgrade your copy of Vista, nor to worry about Flip 3D. Honestly, Vista isn’t ready yet for mass marketplace… and neither is Flip3D.
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4 Comments
PCMechTV » PC Mechanic
October 10th, 2007
at 2:48pm
3D Desktop (Beryl for Windows?) This one is more of a bonus for you. Vista does not have any 3D desktop feature within (unless you considerFlip3Dsomething worth having). This is more like Beryl, which unfortunately is only available in Linux. But, a Beryl-ish option for Windows would be Deskspace, by Otuku Software. It does not operate as slick as Beryl, but it is a start. For me, Deskspace was
Steven Hodson
September 26th, 2007
at 4:21pm
for Vista users there is the Mac OS X Expose-like clone called Switcher – http://baostuff.spaces.live.com/ – Bao just released v2.0 of the utility
Brandon Paddock
September 27th, 2007
at 1:54am
You don’t use Switcher?
http://www.insentient.net
ianimate3d
September 27th, 2007
at 10:08pm
I set up expose in OS X to called upon with a simple flick of the wrist by moving my mouse cursor to the corner of the screen that I choose. Once you get used to this and are not accidentally moving your cursor to that corner, it’s actually upped my productivity quite a bit. Moving the mouse cursor to the upper right corner moves all open windows out of the way and allow me a clear view of my desktop, moving the the upper left tiles all open windows so that I can quickly choose the window I need to bring to the front. The less keystrokes needed, the better. Of course if we all had dual 30″ LCD’s this feature might not be needed as much ;)