BetterDesktopTool : Add Mac Features to Windows Desktop

Windows is a great operating system, but Apple Mac has some features that just steal your heart away. Some of these Mac features like Expose and Spaces can also be added to your Windows PC desktop using a free software called BetterDesktopTool. It adds many useful features that are not present in Windows like windows overview, desktop overview and multiple desktops.

You can download BetterDesktopTool from its website. The download is less than one megabytes in size and takes less than one second to download on a standard broadband Internet connection. The installation does not require any input from the user. Immediately after the installation, you would see the settings for BetterDesktopTool in which you can assign hotkeys for different functions that it provides.

BetterDesktopTool : Add Mac Features to Windows Desktop

In the Windows & Desktop overview section, you can assign hotkeys for the window overview feature and the desktop overview feature. In the virtual desktops section, you can set the number of virtual desktops which offers a similar feature like the Desktops tool from Microsoft. However, you can set any number of virtual desktops using BetterDesktopTool, unlike the Desktops tool from Microsoft which allows only four virtual desktops.

Once you have set the hotkeys and other options, you are ready to go. Now you can either use the hotkeys to have a desktop overview of your Windows PC or you can right-click on the system tray icon of the BetterDesktopTool and choose Desktop Overview. Similarly, you can choose to show the Windows Overview from the system tray icon.

BetterDesktopTool : Add Mac Features to Windows Desktop

The Desktop Overview displays the contents of your Windows desktop which is similar to the Windows Peek feature in Windows 7 and Windows 8. In the Windows Peek, you can move your mouse cursor to the bottom-right corner of your desktop and it displays a preview of your desktop contents. The desktop overview feature of the BetterDesktopTool is not much different from this. Its just more animated and designed in the Apple Mac style.

The Windows Overview feature displays a grid view of all the open and visible windows on your PC. In the settings, you can choose if you want to see a preview of windows in a regular size grid or a grid based on the actual size of the open windows. You can think of the windows overview feature as similar to an enhanced version of the Alt+Tab switcher function in Windows.

BetterDesktopTool : Add Mac Features to Windows Desktop

So if you are coming from the Mac world and using a Windows PC for the first time, BetterDesktopTool may help you feel right at home. It adds the virtual desktops, windows overview and desktop overview features which are similar to the Expose and Spaces features found on a Mac PC. These features are so well designed that you might get addicted to their use after some time, even if you have not used a Mac before.

You can download the BetterDesktopTool from http://www.betterdesktoptool.com/download.html.