UnoDOS pc64

Windows move, snap, stack and split across four desktops. Everything here works with the mouse and with the keyboard, and the layout you leave behind comes back after a restart.

Moving and sizing

Drag a window by its title bar and the window itself moves with the pointer - you see the real thing at the real position, not an outline. Double-click the title bar to maximize it, and double-click again to put it back. The window's buttons sit together at the right-hand end of the title bar - minimize, maximize and then close in the outermost position - and a resizable window also has a grip in its bottom-right corner.

Where the close box isThe retro themes put their close box where the system they imitate put it, which for the Mac-lineage themes is the LEFT of the title bar. The buttons follow the theme, so if you switch skins expect the close box to move.

Windows move rather than jump

A window that snaps, un-snaps or maximizes travels to its new shape over about an eighth of a second instead of teleporting, so you can see where it went. Opening a window rises it into place, closing it leaves a briefly collapsing outline, the Start menu slides up out of the taskbar, and the window switcher's highlight slides between entries rather than jumping. None of it delays anything: the window is already wherever it is going as far as clicking and typing are concerned.

Snapping to an edge

Drag a window against the left or right edge of the screen and a translucent preview shows the half it will fill; let go and it takes that half. The top edge maximizes, and the four corners give you quarters. Dragging a snapped window away from the edge gives it its old size back, so nothing is lost by trying it.

The Editor snapped to the left half of the screen. Keyboard users get the same result with Alt and an arrow key. The four numbered cells beside the Start button are the desktop pager.

The keyboard equivalents are Alt+← and Alt+→ for the halves, Alt+↑ to maximize and Alt+↓ to minimize.

Switching windows

Hold Alt and press Tab to bring up the switcher, which lists the windows on the current desktop in the order you last used them. Keep tapping Tab to walk the list and let go of Alt to choose.

If Alt does nothingSome keyboards never report Alt to the system - a few USB models, and any machine whose firmware does not pass modifier keys through. F2 and Ctrl+Tab open the same switcher and commit after a short pause, so the feature is reachable either way.
The switcher, showing the windows on this desktop most-recently-used first. It is scoped to the current desktop on purpose: a switcher that reached across all four would undo the point of having them.

Four desktops

The four numbered cells beside the Start button are desktops. Click one to switch, or press Ctrl and F1 to F4. A small dot on a cell means that desktop has windows on it. To send the window you are using to another desktop and follow it there, press Alt+Ctrl and the number.

Desktop 2, empty, with the pager showing which desktop is current and which others are occupied. The wallpaper, icons and taskbar are shared; only the windows move.

Right-click a window's title bar for a menu with Snap left, Snap right, To desktop 1-4 and the group commands below. Right-clicking blank space on the taskbar offers Tile and Cascade for everything on the current desktop.

Linking windows into a group

Two windows you always use together can be linked. Give both the same group from the title-bar menu (Group: A or Group: B) and from then on they move, raise, minimize and change desktops as one. A small coloured marker on each title bar shows which group it belongs to. Choose Group: none to break the link.

Your layout is remembered

Where each window sits, how big it is, whether it is snapped or minimized, which desktop it is on and which group it belongs to are all saved, and restored the next time you start up.

Where it is savedThe session is written to a real disk, so it survives a power cycle. On a machine with nothing but the RAM disk - booting from read-only media, say - there is nowhere persistent to write it and the layout will not come back.