Anyone will tell you that even with a really big screen, too many open windows can become too wieldy, partially blocking or even completely covering another open window. In the latter case, you may even forget that a window is open. If you own a Macintosh running the latest versions of OS X, you already have an excellent way to manage too many open windows. It's a feature called Exposé and it's always ready to be activated since it's built right into the Macintosh operating system. Simply press the F9 key and all of the open windows on your desktop literally shrink in size, instantly repositioning themselves so that they can be viewed all at once. The size and position of the windows is directly proportionate to the size of your screen and number of open windows you have on the desktop when you press the

F9 key. Nevertheless, OS X will do what is necessary so that you see all of them tiled neatly, edge to edge on the desktop. When you see the one you want, just click on it. That window comes to the foreground as it and the rest of them go back to their original size and position. But what if you don't use a Mac? Well there's a solution to too many open windows for Windows as well.

Deskloops is a little software utility add-on that also tackles the too many windows open problem but it does so in a very different manner that Apple's Exposé. As the name implies, Deskloops uses a looping metaphor to manage everything. After installing it, you work as you do normally. When you find yourself with too many windows open on your desktop you simply double click the Deskloops icon. The open windows remain the same size but they immediately reposition themselves side by side horizontally and edge to edge. The current open window will be the one positioned closest to the center of the screen with others directly to its left and right edges. To access any of the other open windows, simply move your mouse either to the left or right edge of the screen and right click. When you do so, the windows will begin panning horizontally. Keep them going and the original window will come back into view as it goes full circle. Which is why it's called Deskloops as the horizontally scrolling windows will continue to cycle until you see the one you want.

If for example, you move the mouse to the right edge of the screen and right click, the windows will begin panning to the left, the current window scrolling off to the left with the newer windows appearing at the right edge of the screen. When you see the window you want, just move the mouse away from the edge of the screen and you can work with the open window. You can increase the panning speed of the looping windows by raising or lowering the mouse cursor. All of the looping windows are active so that no matter which one you select, you can instantly work on any one of them.

To further enhance the Deskloops experience, an additional option lets you see an animated, translucent loop that's comprised of all the open windows in the middle of the screen. As you transition from one window to the other, you can see the loop rotating. It's a very effective visual aid when you first use it however I suspect that once you really get it, you'll probably leave that turned off.

There are several other user-selectable options that let you control the default scrolling speed, transparency of the control panels and the like.

But the other really useful function is the Strip. Right-clicking the top of the screen evokes a mini film strip of all the windows in the loop which you can scroll left or right. Click on the mini-window you want and that window appears on the screen. You can also drag and drop the thumbnails on the strip to reposition them within the loop making it easier to transition between the ones more frequently visited.

You can even save your loops to disk so that one click will open the same series of windows. It's also possible to email any loops. The recipient must have a copy of Deskloops to see your strip of windows but that shouldn't be a problem because Deskloops is free.

If you find yourself with too small a screen or just too many open windows, check out Deskloops from Xilokit. It really does put a whole new spin on the solution.

Available for Windows XP.

www.deskloops.com