Actual Window Manager adds new ways to handle program windows via new title-bar buttons. In addition, it introduces new general desktop operations. This is a great addition if you feel that the Minimize, Restore, Maximize and Close buttons are not enough for you.
Once you have installed this application, it will sit in the system tray and you will soon notice there are new buttons on the upper-right corner of every window. These new buttons are Minimize to System Tray, Stay Always on Top, Apply 20% Transparency and Move to Virtual Desktop. Additionally, there is a button from which you can access the rest of the program’s functions. This is actually the default setting, but you can click on the program icon at the System Tray to customize many other features, including what buttons to show. The icon there also lets you activate or deactivate specific functions.
The configuration window has a navigation pane, where functions are grouped, but you may still find that there are too many options. This is definitely not the kind of program you feel comfortable with from the start. Instead, it might require you to study its interface a little bit. You will then notice that you can use general settings for all the windows or, conversely, you can specify what actions are available for a specific application. Not all actions have visually noticeable effects as some of them will influence the given program’s behavior. These include changing its priority or running it as a different user.
Apart from controlling window behavior, Actual Window Manager allows you to use multiple monitors with even different screensavers for each monitor, different desktop profiles and various virtual desktops. Although this program includes many of the features you have ever wanted Windows to provide, the reverse effect is that it definitely makes the system more difficult to interact with. So, while many advanced users could welcome the new changes to their systems, I do not think beginners would find them agreeable. Fortunately, you can select only those functions you want to use.
In order to access the multiple functions, you can use keyboard shortcuts, but in my opinion, most of them would be rather worthless because it is virtually impossible to remember all of them.
In general, Actual Window Manager adds functions that many users will find useful. However, one thing I did not really like about Actual Window Manager is that it noticeably reduced my system’s performance, so much so that it sometimes made my system freeze for a little while.
v7.2 [Aug 17, 2012]
Custom grouping of taskbar buttons is now available in Actual Taskbar.
To add certain window into a group, drag its preview thumbnail and drop it
onto the group button (or another window's button to make a new group).
To remove window from a group, drag its preview thumbnail and drop it
onto the empty taskbar space.
To handle groups in a quick and easy manner, the
"Tile/Cascade/Minimize/Restore/Move to Monitor" commands have been added.
These commands can be invoked:
- via group's Jump List
- via caption buttons in the group's preview window
- via group button's context menu (you can invoke it using Shift-RClick
on the group button)
Note: Dragging the preview of a browser tab (Internet Explorer, Chrome,
Firefox, etc.) will add the entire browser window into the group, not just
that separate tab.
[ ] You can add custom title buttons at the level of particular window settings
(either Default or Specific). Also, you can change the order of buttons and
tell apart the groups of similar buttons by adding separators between them.
Note: There's no "Title Buttons Order" group anymore in the "Options - Title
Buttons" panel because now the order can be adjusted for different window
settings individually.
Warning! Custom title buttons are not compatible with the Multi-selection
Edit yet so please avoid any manipulations with them (adding, deleting,
moving) when several window settings are selected to prevent the corruption
of your settings.
[ ] Combo Action feature is added. Now you can add custom title buttons and
custom hotkeys that, being clicked, run the defined sequence of actions
at once. Thus, you can apply an arbitrary combined effect to a certain
window in a single click.
[ ] Window 8: Start button is restored in Actual Taskbars (click on this button
invokes the system Start screen).
[ ] Special multi-monitor slideshow screen saver has been added (see
"Multiple Monitors -> Screen Saver -> Slideshow on each monitor").
[ ] The "Tile/Cascade/Undo" commands has been added to the Actual Taskbar's
context menu.
[ ] Desktop Divider: Now you can switch the layouts on the fly by scrolling
the mouse wheel:
1) while dragging a window
2) over the "Put into" dialog
[ ] Desktop Divider: The ability to copy a layout is added.
[ ] Desktop Divider: The ability is added to copy a layout from one monitor
to another in the Tiles Editor.
[ ] Desktop Divide: The ability is added to auto-generate the grid division of
defined dimensions.
[ ] Italian language is added (translation provided by Davide Pari).
[*] Compatibility with Windows 8 Release Preview is improved:
- correct work with 64-bit Internet Explorer and administrative tools
- correct size on the Multi-monitor Task Switcher on secondary monitors
- correct size and look of the additional title buttons
- correct placement of the multi-monitor background wallpaper pictures
- improved quality of the multi-monitor background wallpaper pictures
[*] Windows 7: Group buttons' look is improved in Actual Taskbar.
[*] The etwork Connection pop-up window appears on the monitor
where the Network tray icon was clicked.
[*] Multi-monitor wallpaper cache folder is cleared upon exiting the program
or closing the Configuration window.
[*] Desktop Divider: In the "While pressed" activation mode, now it's possible
to press the modifier keys after the moment you began to drag a window, i.e.
you can activate/deactivate the Desktop Divider anytime.
[*] Desktop Divider: Tiles Editor better displays the hierarchy of panels
forming the layout: the deeper the panel is - the lighter its splitter
looks.
[*] Desktop Divider: In the Tiles Editor, splitters snap to their neighbours
located on the same horizontal/vertical line.
[*] Now it's possible to disable the classic snapping of windows to Desktop
Divider tiles (see the "To Desktop Divider tiles" option in the "Options -
Window Snapping" panel).
[*] RocketDock is always displayed on all virtual desktops.
[*] Now it's possible to drag items between different Virtual Desktop Switchers
in the Independent mode.
[*] Compatibility with NVIDIA nView is improved.
[*] In the Aero visual theme, now it's possible to resize a window
when the mouse is over additional title buttons.
[*] Minimized-to-screen icons save their positions right after moving the icon.
[*] Windows 7: The "Run as different user" option of the Start Program action
now displays the dialog prompting for credentials (instead of running as
administrator by default).
[-] Actual Taskbar detected the full-screen windows wrong in the Aero visual
theme.
[-] In "Use small icons" mode, group buttons in Actual Taskbar displayed
large icons scaled down instead of the small icons.
