[gentoo-user] [OT] Panning desktop on windows

[gentoo-user] [OT] Panning desktop on windows

[Harry Putnam]

This list may be too good for its own good... hehe.

Sorry to bring this up here but in fact the behavior I'll describe in
a moment is something I've learned to love from yrs of linux us with
this enabled.  Including the last few yrs on gentoo.

I add this into xorg.conf in one of the display subsections 
(at the asterisks):

   Subsection "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes       "1280x1024" #"1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
**      Virtual     2048 1536 
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection

I'm using a 17 inch monitor so that (in X) gives me a 2048x1536
virtual resolution in each of my virtual desktops.  Bigger than my
monitor a fair bit so I'm able to pan around this monster by mousing
to the screen edges which pans the rest into view.  Essentially the
limits of the hardware desktop are only a port hole into the bigger
virtual desktop.

It can be very disconcerting to the uninitiated... which is a side
benefit in that it keeps people off my machine.

I use  windowsXP a fair bit for video editing (I'm a semi-pro editor
and produce quite a few videos of events) and I find the tools on
linux are too labor and time intensive compared to the adobe tools
available on windows. Even those tools and others like Vegas are hard
to learn and require a lot of time spent in usage to get at all fast
with them.  (Please don't bring up one or another of the
available emulations as that still introduces another layer of
complexity)

Anyway cutting to the chase here... given that I need to spend a good
bit of time on windows... I sorely miss my huge virtual desktop.

So wondering if any of you fellow part time windows users know of or
have heard of any kind of application for windows that would allow
such behavior? 

ps- I've also asked this question on the main
microsoft.public.windowsXP.bla.bla   group. (in case you were thinking
of suggesting that)

Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Panning desktop on windows

[Stroller]

On 31 Jan 2009, at 20:09, Harry Putnam wrote:
> ...
> I'm using a 17 inch monitor so that (in X) gives me a 2048x1536
> virtual resolution in each of my virtual desktops.  Bigger than my
> monitor a fair bit so I'm able to pan around this monster by mousing
> to the screen edges which pans the rest into view.  Essentially the
> limits of the hardware desktop are only a port hole into the bigger
> virtual desktop.

This is definitely available on Windows using 3rd-party apps.

I'm pretty sure that - years ago - Matrox used to offer to install  
some utility when you installed their graphics drivers; the utility  
had a little icon that sat next to the clock, and when you double- 
clicked on it it opened a configuration window that offered options  
like this.

Nvidia offer some really nice display utilities (or "enhanced driver"  
or whatever you want to call it) these days. I would consider their  
dual-head options worth the price of a graphics card, so I would see  
if you can try them out somewhere & see if it offers this functionality.

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Panning desktop on windows

[Stroller]

On 31 Jan 2009, at 21:10, Stroller wrote:
>> ... Bigger than my
>> monitor a fair bit so I'm able to pan around this monster by mousing
>> to the screen edges which pans the rest into view.  ...
>
> This is definitely available on Windows using 3rd-party apps.
>
> I'm pretty sure that - years ago - Matrox used to offer to install  
> some utility ... it opened a configuration window that offered  
> options like this.

I should have said I'm pretty sure that it offered EXACTLY this option.

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Panning desktop on windows

[Paul Hartman]

On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 2:09 PM, Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> This list may be too good for its own good... hehe.
>
> Sorry to bring this up here but in fact the behavior I'll describe in
> a moment is something I've learned to love from yrs of linux us with
> this enabled.  Including the last few yrs on gentoo.
>
> I add this into xorg.conf in one of the display subsections
> (at the asterisks):
>
>   Subsection "Display"
>        Depth       24
>        Modes       "1280x1024" #"1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
> **      Virtual     2048 1536
>        ViewPort    0 0
>    EndSubsection
>
> I'm using a 17 inch monitor so that (in X) gives me a 2048x1536
> virtual resolution in each of my virtual desktops.  Bigger than my
> monitor a fair bit so I'm able to pan around this monster by mousing
> to the screen edges which pans the rest into view.  Essentially the
> limits of the hardware desktop are only a port hole into the bigger
> virtual desktop.
>
> It can be very disconcerting to the uninitiated... which is a side
> benefit in that it keeps people off my machine.
>
> I use  windowsXP a fair bit for video editing (I'm a semi-pro editor
> and produce quite a few videos of events) and I find the tools on
> linux are too labor and time intensive compared to the adobe tools
> available on windows. Even those tools and others like Vegas are hard
> to learn and require a lot of time spent in usage to get at all fast
> with them.  (Please don't bring up one or another of the
> available emulations as that still introduces another layer of
> complexity)
>
> Anyway cutting to the chase here... given that I need to spend a good
> bit of time on windows... I sorely miss my huge virtual desktop.
>
> So wondering if any of you fellow part time windows users know of or
> have heard of any kind of application for windows that would allow
> such behavior?
>
> ps- I've also asked this question on the main
> microsoft.public.windowsXP.bla.bla   group. (in case you were thinking
> of suggesting that)

It's definitely hardware specific. Windows will do this when your
desktop resolution is set higher than the highest resolution your
monitor supports. Normally, it does not allow you to do that, but it's
quite common when hooking up an external display (such as a TV). I
think Windows might be smart enough to not allow this on the primary
monitor. They consider it a bad thing(tm) and there are even some KB
articles telling worried customers how to "fix" the "problem".

paul

Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Panning desktop on windows

[Paul Hartman]

On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 3:23 PM, Stroller
<stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
>
> On 31 Jan 2009, at 21:10, Stroller wrote:
>>>
>>> ... Bigger than my
>>> monitor a fair bit so I'm able to pan around this monster by mousing
>>> to the screen edges which pans the rest into view.  ...
>>
>> This is definitely available on Windows using 3rd-party apps.
>>
>> I'm pretty sure that - years ago - Matrox used to offer to install some
>> utility ... it opened a configuration window that offered options like this.
>
> I should have said I'm pretty sure that it offered EXACTLY this option.
>
> Stroller.

Yes, Matrox's drivers for OS/2 also allowed it, there was a hotkey to
control zoom, which included panning when not at 100%. Kind of like
ctrl-alt-+ in X, but not exactly because OS/2 didn't allow you to
change resolutions without rebooting (those were the days).