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Mosaico was available as a giveaway on October 6, 2010!
Mosaico is a virtual desktop manager that can help you save time and optimize your work at PC. Mosaico saves the position of the windows on your desktop so that you can restore them anytime later. Mosaico can also arrange windows so that they fill the whole screen surface, giving you more information at a time.
Note that best idea will be rewarded with a lifetime license for each and every Soulid Studio commercial product for now and forever. Use Idea Informer widget to submit your feedback and do not forget to fill in your name and e-mail – otherwise the Developer will not be able to contact you in case you are the one to win!
Windows XP/ Vista/ 7
6.70 MB
$ 29.95
TurnOffScreen makes it possible to turn off the computer screen by clicking a button on the desktop. It is also a screensaver that automatically shuts down the monitor when PC is idle. TurnOffScreen is considered by Windows as a screensaver. When your PC is left idle for a certain amount of time, for example when you are far from it or just listening to music, the screensaver is triggered and TurnOffScreen switches the screen off automatically. TurnOffScreen does not rely on third-party device driver, as it is a screensaver itself. So it works when it is supposed to do.
honestly, i have no idea how a program that just tells me it has been activated successfully actually gets installed...
as there is nothing else besides the setup.exe, i guess it doesnt need anything else besides telling me a serial number...
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The point of a tool like this is to keep most open windows out of my sight but instantly there in a click, Mosaico does help in some good ways but by staying onscreen it gets in my way. It needs to be developed to run as a tray icon.
Others have mentioned similar Re-Aranging freeware such as AquaSnap
A good freeware comparison for flipping up to 8 Virtual desktops is DeskHedron Its over two years old and ALSO does not support multi-monitors, but quick to set-up multiple desktops MY WAY and well worth a look at only 150kB (no changes to registry = 100% portable)
http://tokyodownstairs.blogspot.com/2008/10/deskhedron.html
Whilst you are there, MagicFormation is a nice way to build a gesture menu and you can edit the ini file to run your prefered apps or flip to other windows, just DON'T edit the ini file while its running as it gets replaced during the quit action.
For XP users also see their WinFlip
WinFlip emulates Windows Vista's "Flip 3D" effect for Windows XP. Using the hotkey of your choice, you can find the window you're looking for in a fast, clean 3D interface.
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OK, an issue. I use the "Classic Start menu" on Windows XP, with the Taskbar relocated to the left side/edge of the Desktop (and the auto-hide feature enabled). This allows me to drag-stretch the Taskbar wider so that the button titles for the active windows are "stacked" vertically, and the Taskbar is wide enough to easily read their names. (The Taskbar default position along the bottom edge crams the buttons side-by-side so that the titles' widths keeps changing and are nearly unreadable when there are many open at once.)
Anyway, I notice that Mosaico apparenly does not recognize that the auto-hide feature is on, and will not use the Desktop area which gets temporarily covered by an activated auto-hidden Taskbar when the "auto-arrange" button is pressed.
Since I have my Taskbar stretched to about 2 inches wide to make for easy reading of the active window button titles, that means Mosaico will not use that area during an "auto-arrange" of on-screen windows.
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Also, an idea/improvement (if staying with the present roll-up window concept rather than an alternative concept like a notification tray icon): Implement a "transparency" slider for when the window is rolled up (mouse cursor not hovering over it) so that it can help reveal icons/controls/etc. that may be hidden by it.
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I have now installed it on my XP SP3 machine, and so far it seems to work OK as advertised. (Thanks, "Mike" and others for explaining what it really does.) I have not yet used it for hours to see if there are any long-term stability issues. As usual with software of this nature (i.e., those that alter behavior normally handled by Windows' own built-in features), I did a RESTART after the install before first launching and registering it.
In the "Share your ideas" box at the top, Sebastian said "Make Mosaico available from tray and minimizable".
I agree that this would be the most "conventional" method of getting the space-hogging/in-the-way control box off the main desktop area. If the box were made any smaller in its present implementation (to be less intrusive), then yet more people would complain about the "small icons" (although they seemed big enough at my monitor's resolution).
I realize that the point of the control box being on-screen is to make access as handy as possible without an excessive amount of mouse clicks and navigation, but I think that either a one-click or a "hover" over an icon residing in the Taskbar's "notification area" (system tray) would be better.
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Perhaps I should have referenced this more appropriate page, "Usage share of operating systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
It's a more detailed up-to-date overview about who is currently using what mainstream OS on which computing platform. I.E., it summarizes percentages of servers, mainframes, tablets, mobile devices, netbooks, desktops, etc., that are running Macintosh, Windows, Linux, Blackberry, etc.
Might be useful to potential software title developers, the GOTD staff, or to the "simply curious" for nerdy conversation fodder. ;-)
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#15 "ds5929"
FWIW, 48% of the world is presently using Windows XP, while 18% is using Windows 7:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_operating_systems
I'll agree with you that an increasing number of 64-bit systems is gaining ground, especially with stores "pushing" them on pre-loaded machines, but it's no where near being the majority of the installed base.
Also, I imagine that the bulk of available commercial, shareware, and free/open-source/etc. developer's tools (which take some time to gain experience in and master) are still mainly 32-bit based. So it's not surprising to me that a developer might first choose to work on and release a product version that the biggest potential market would be able use, especially in a product's early development phase (the company website apparently started just this past January, and Mosaico first released in May).
(...and now it's my turn to download and try this out on my own "ancient/obsolete" XP machine!...)
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Just crashes on me every time. I'm on XP.
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If Mosaico doesn't work any better than TurnoffScreen I wouldn't bother with it. I tried the latter and while the 2 minute nag worked perfectly the screen saver never did. It's only $5 but why waste $5 on a program that's proved itself not to work.
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Even though it doesnt say after you have installed you will need to reboot your machine before it will work. It is a good concept and I could see it being very useful but the program stays on top all the time and in order to switch between your different screen pictures/setups you have to scroll through all your screens pictures and then click which one you want. It would be better if you could map it to keys in order to switch between the different window setups, that would make switching faster and more useful and you wouldn't need the program on top all the time.
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Guys...try "AQUASNAP"
Its a free solution....especially for 7 and vista users...
Absolutely safe...
cheers
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@4 Merlins Mentor - I think the Midi-Ox Desktop Restore only restores icon positions (as alluded to by #5 BuBBy), not the actual application's window position.
Why didn't I know about Mosaico a year ago when I needed it? :-)
Also, I'll be interested to see if anyone knows of freeware with truly similar functionality...
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Mosaico can automatically arrange the program windows for apps you have open & visible, or if you take a snapshot, then move the windows around [including minimize], it can put them back so your desktop looks just like it did in the snapshot. Restoring a snapshot will not start an app you have closed, & if you've started another app since you took the snapshot, it'll be minimized. You can take 8 snapshots -- on mouse-over Mosaico's menu bar/dock expands to show a 3D arrangement of snapshots you've taken. When you close Mosaico you lose your snapshots. While I'm sure there are more inventive or creative ways to use it, to me it seems like it would be handy in case of interruptions in the middle of working on something, where you could minimize all open windows, do whatever, then with a click or two put everything back -- or the reverse, use it as sort of a Boss Button to minimize whatever your were doing & bring up what your boss says you're paid for. ;-) What it could use IMHO is a way to disappear to the taskbar &/or have the toolbar/dock shrink as with it's always on top behavior Mosaico itself takes up valuable screen real estate.
As mentioned on the product web site, Mosaico uses something called Intelliprotector for licensing, & according to the site it's used during activation & only then. No additional, separate software is added, which can be a PITA with some software using 3rd party licensing services that have to always run with Windows. If you're skeptical set your firewall software to deny/block Mosaico on-line access once you activate -- their site says Mosaico doesn't need access after that.
Installation is light, with an IProt folder holding your licensing info under all users app data. [BTW, the program's folder includes "IPClient_uninstall.exe" -- don't double click (run) it because all it does is delete your license.] The program's folder itself holds 15 files taking up just short of 14MB. Install & Activation adds 3 registry keys. [Kudos to the developer for putting needed Microsoft runtime files in the program's folder rather than using a complete runtime install during setup -- IMHO that's the way it should be done.] Mosaico is light on using resources too, until or unless you're viewing the thumbnails of snapshots taken -- that nice 3D view does use a little bit of horsepower to pull off.
Mosaico's biggest weakness to me is not offering win 7 64 bit support, especially since reports/stats say most win7 installs are 64 bit rather than 32. The developer says it's coming.
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$30 for a program that does what I can do, by clicking on the minimize button, or placing my mouse on the edge of the selected window to resize....no thank you!
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Oh,and Mattie, you might want to mention the lack of 64-bit support in the system requirements section on the Mosaico website. Otherwise you're going to get some ticked off customers when they buy it only to find out it does'nt work.
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#12-Mattie- Once again,you should be aware that the office supply big-box stores (at least in my area) no longer sell pc's with 32-bit OS.
So,a program that does'nt work with 64-bit systems is useless. Glad I read the comments before trying to install it. Saved me the trouble of firing up Revo. Please consider re-offering the program when you've updated it for current systems,as your potential market base is shtinking by the day as more and more systems are 64-bit.
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crashed on me when i trying to start it up using vista. I eneded up closing firefox, running the programme, copy and paste the regisration and it seems fine, and is as long as firefox is not in use.
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After installing this software my Kaspersky Antivirus detected a file in instalation package as trojan.win32.cossta.jqz
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Comments on the vendors website...
Q1: I get a virus in the gaotd package. What’s up with that?
A1: Hello and thank you for your interest in Mosaico! If you use an antivirus that applies an heuristic to scan for viruses you may get a false alarm because it is detecting Intelliprotector, the protection system used by Mosaico (more info at http://www.intelliprotector.com ). Obviously there’s no virus at all in the package!
As far as the GAOTD promotion is concerned, please use the license code provided only with the installer you can download at http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/mosaico/ since that code is unique for all users and works only with that version of Mosaico (version 1.2.0GOTD).
and...
Q2: Is Mosaico compatible with 64bit operating systems?
A2: Hello, at the moment Mosaico does not support 64bit systems. This support will be included in the next upcoming version.
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Just thought I should mention, in case anyone else is having the same issues that I was, that I was able to get it working by rebooting my computer. BUT, whenever I activated the function that automatically arranges your windows to maximize screen space, it left my desktop with some weird artifacting on it, and rendered my gadgets useless. Uninstalling. Thanks anyway.
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Hello,
This is an interesting utility, but I think that I run into some kind of a strange bug or something here: Mosaico does not start and crashes whenever I have the mosaico homepage open in Firefox... Mosaico seems to run fine if firefox is closed or if it's displaying a web page other than mosaico's... Kinda strange !
Also, I am unable to dock the main window to any of the screen sides here... Maybe a Vista issue or something.
Thanks !
Mosaico was tested on Windows Vista Ultimate 64x SP2
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Cool, thanks. I'm sure I would have realized that eventually if I were able to actually use the program. It's still crashing on me though, and I even tried reinstalling it. Maybe I should try a compatibility mode, but the requirements say 'Windows 7.'
When I try to run it it immediately gives me the "mosaico has stopped working" error message.
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The program is one I would like to try. I am on win7 64bit and it has crashed three times. This might need some glitches worked out. I don't normally have trouble with any of the downloads.
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Some people realy cares about peactures on their desktop. They use one of them as official and other (much different) for the rest time. For such a people it may be convenient to use at office time two different desktops, one for buisness and other for rest, with game icons, and so on. But all new (and not so old) videocards from NVidia can make this trick without any third party soft. I don't care for my desktops, I use some default colored surface without any image. And I don't care that my chief will find a game icon on my desktop. This is not my program.
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I have the same Problem as #3 with it Crashing on Windows 7 64x.
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@3 Wayne & @4 Merlins Mentor - I think there is clearly some obvious misunderstanding what the snapshot and restore function in Mosaico is "supposed" to achieve.
It's purpose is not to save the position of icons on the desktop, or just taking a thumbnail photo of your desktop. What a snapshot is to remember is the location and size of all open windows/programs running on your desktop.
For example if you had Firefox down the left side of your screen, and Thunderbird open on the right side of the screen. If you took a snapshot - then minimised Firefox and opened Microsoft Excel and maximised it. If you then Restored the snapshot - you would again be looking at Firefox and Thunderbird in the locations they were originally (Presumably with Excel Minimised or behind). It can be a useful feature (if it works right) especially for people who work with "sets" of applications and want them laid out in a certain way.
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FWIW, if you want to keep things simple, or just to compare this to a respected and very tiny (just 248k) free utility that's been around nearly 10 years, I can vouch for MIDIOX' Desktop Restore @ http://www.midiox.com/desktoprestore.htm
Works with Win98, Windows ME, Win2000, WinXP, Vista and Win7, and offers a 64-bit version, too.
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Installed fine of Win7 x64, but has crashed every time I've tried to run it but once. Running it as the administrator made no difference in that.
The one time it didn't crash, though, I thought it looked like a pretty slick-looking program, and fairly easy to use, but as soon as I clicked on one of the functions, it crashed.
I don't know how useful the 'snapshots' function would be, considering if you want a pic of your desktop all you have to do is hit the Prt Sc key, paste it into Paint, then save it. I suppose if you take a lot of screenshots of your desktop for whatever reason you might appreciate if it helps you save a few steps - though I don't know if it does since it keeps crashing on me.
It's functionality of automatically arranging all windows to maximize screen space seems like it might be handy, like a beefed-up version of Windows Snap. Kind of a moot point though, considering the program is more unstable than Lyndsey Lohan on catnip.
But hey, at least the desktop icon is nice!
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Installs fine with xp3. Has a very spartanian but sufficient menu. Register it by pressing the little encircled ? - a help picture without control elements will appear, paste the code in the textfield left of the button "register" and press that button to register that peace of software. The Software does not seem to have more functions than described - why nearly 8 MB Code? (sorry, also still waiting for Ashraf)
The help picture window will close by clicking on it.
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