http://www.windowstabs.com
Reviewed October 2009
| What’s It Do?
WindowTabs is a tool for Microsoft Windows XP and Vista that provides tabbed windows management for desktop applications. It attaches a small tab to the top of each application windows. Drag one tab over another to combine windows into groups and flip between the windows in a group. Does it do what it promises? Reviewer 1- Dana Bostick: Yes, it worked very well. I use dual 22” monitors and this made it easy to drag full size windows between screens rather than needing to “shrink” the window, drag it and then maximize it again. This is a very handy little application that sits in the system tray and has a very light footprint. It did not seem to use any resources except when actually dragging a window. The program is “Free to try” and sells for $19.00. Reviewer 2- Name Withheld By Request: Yes. WindowTabs attaches a small tab to the top of each open application window, making it easy for the user to move between applications, switch between open windows of a single application, or move a file using WindowTabs' drag-and-drop feature. Reviewer 3- Peter Royle: Yes. This modest program attaches a small white tab to each open window. The tab takes the same name as the one, which appears in the blue Title Bar so it can be easily identified. Windows can be moved around by "drag-and-drop" using WindowTabs. They can also be "attached" to each other, so that they can be minimized or maximized as a group. As I tend to have quite a few windows open at any time, I found that it simplified the management of my normally cluttered desktop. Reviewer 4- Mark Snyder: Yes. The Web site suggests that WindowTabs will help with multi-tasking and can aid in productivity by organizing open applications through the addition of tabs on each open window. It does this and more. Was it easy to install? Reviewer 1- Dana Bostick: Yes, it was a very fast install. Activation from the trial to full version simply takes copying and pasting the license key in a text box on one of the setting screens. It was a 430 KB download for the installer file and 1.4 MB installed size on disc. WindowTabs works on all the most currently used versions of Windows: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista and Win 7, both 32 and 64 bit. There is no mention of a Mac or Linux version. Updates installed easily over the top of the current version and the license key transferred automatically. All open Windows applications, including the WindowTabs application, must be closed to install the update or it will balk. My running AV and malware programs as well as a few other system tray apps did not seem to be a problem. Reviewer 2- Name Withheld By Request: Yes. The very small file (current version is 429 KB) downloaded in no time and installed very easily. It took only two or three seconds to install the program and have it up and running. My only reservation is that it tried to insert itself into the Startup menu without asking me. I prefer to decide which programs run at Startup and to limit the number of programs that do so. Reviewer 3- Peter Royle: Yes. It is a standard windows installation. My only objection is that I was not given the option to put the program and its files in the folder of my choice. It would be preferable if a default location were suggested so that the user could change it if he/she so desires. The registration is a straightforward copy-and-paste. Available updates are shown under the "Versions" tab in the Settings, with a link indicating "A newer version of WindowTabs is available". Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 or higher is necessary to use WindowTabs. Reviewer 4- Mark Snyder: Yes. It is a tiny 412Kb file that downloads instantly. It installs easily, quickly, and seamlessly with the Windows operating system and is up and running in a matter of minutes. There is little configuration as it does one thing but does it flawlessly. The EULA (End User License Agreement) is equally as simple and streamlined and, in one of the most liberal licensing agreements I have seen, allows the use of this program on as many computers as the purchaser owns rather than the usual one computer that most software programs allow. Additionally, there is a 30-day money back guarantee and a free trial period that is unlimited and has as its only restriction, the number of tabs that can be created. Kudos to the developer, Mo Flanagan, for being “consumer first” in his licensing. Furthermore, the program uninstalls smoothly and cleanly leaving only those Registry fragments that Windows creates. This is a mark of a well-written program Good points. Reviewer 1- Dana Bostick: WindowTabs has a light footprint and requires little in the way of system resources or hard disc space. The developer appears to be actively maintaining and improving the application. The version number changed from 471 to 490 in only a few weeks as I was using it. This program is very handy if one uses many open applications and needs to switch between them or wants to drag open windows from screen to screen in a multi-monitor set up. Reviewer 2- Name Withheld By Request: WindowTabs helps me find and navigate easily among open windows on my desktop. I sometimes have a number of windows open at the same time. For example, I'll be working on or wanting ready access to two or three Word or WordPerfect documents, plus several open messages in my email client, as well as my browser. WindowTabs places a small tab on each open window. The program can be set to automatically group tabs from related windows together, and the tabs are then positioned so that all are visible and accessible. I can also manually arrange unrelated tabs from different programs to appear together. As I'm writing this, I have arranged 10 tabs from five different applications; all 10 are visible, readable, and accessible. I can thus easily find and move to any open window by clicking on its tab. Another good feature is the ability to move a file from one directory to another by simply dragging the file to the WindowTabs of the target directory. Dragging a file to a tab brings that tab's window to the front, and the user can then simply drop the file into the target directory. WindowTabs provides a video illustrating this feature at http://www.windowtabs.com/drag-and-drop-between-windows-in-a-tabbed-group/ WindowTabs' licensing policy is another good feature. Buying this modestly priced ($19) program entitles the user to install it on all his or her computers. Purchase also provides a year of free upgrades. Moreover, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee. For me, perhaps the most outstanding feature of WindowTabs is the dedication and responsiveness of its developer, Maurice Flanagan. He answered my email messages very promptly, often the same day. Anytime I pointed out a problem I was having with the program, he would immediately work on fixing it, and usually he succeeded within a day or two. He is continually making improvements in WindowTabs, and as a result he has begun releasing a new version incorporating these improvements every Friday. He announces and describes the new versions in the Releases section of the WindowTabs' Web site. This section is also available via an RSS feed, so users can be informed of all changes easily. Reviewer 3- Peter Royle: Increasingly, software developers have begun to include tabs in their programs, much like the tabs on file-folders, as an easy way for users to navigate through various features of their applications. Using this concept, WindowTabs adds tabs to the open windows of all applications. That in itself may be interesting, and somewhat useful, as the white tabs make it easier to identify the windows which may litter one’s desktop. The tabs become much more useful when clicked on. Immediately, the whole window shrinks into a small, transparent shadow of itself, which makes it easy to drag it over to another window, and let the two windows attach themselves together. The moved one takes on the size of the other window, so now there are two of them, one on top of the other. Both tabs are visible, though, with the active one remaining white, and the second one (or third and fourth, for this can be done to as many open windows as desired) a slightly lighter hue of blue than the blue of the Title Bar. Now these windows become a group, which can be minimized, maximized or sent down to the Taskbar together. One can slide the tabs around, changing their positions in relation to each other, without changing the active window. I like to use this feature with the programs which I normally have running all the time. Even though I may attach them together in a different sequence each day, I can always set the tabs up in any order that I like, which makes my navigation among them almost automatic. In the WindowTabs Settings, the user can create filters to enable or disable the WindowTabs features for any specific application selected. Also, in order for the WindowTabs support staff to be able to sort out any problems, there is a diagnostics feature. This will generate a report containing information about one’s system, which can be copied and pasted into the email message to support. In the Advanced tab in the Settings, there is even a link to a video explaining the "Auto Hide" feature. There were a couple of occasions when I needed to ask a question of support. The response always came back very quickly, usually within an hour or two. The first reply was an acknowledgement of the support request, but it was a personal, not automated response, promising to look into the issue right away. Next, again within an hour or so, there would be a response, suggesting a solution. Email continued until there was a solution, or at least a workaround. In the next update, any issue that I had raised was resolved. It is clear that the developer takes user feedback very seriously. The licence provisions, displayed in several places on the Web site, WindowTabs is licensed per-user so you can buy one copy and use it on all of your computers should be the model for almost all software programs. What makes this one quite generous is that WindowTabs is not an expensive program to begin with. The licence includes a year of free product upgrades. Reviewer 4- Mark Snyder: Almost everyone is familiar today with tabbed browsing in which each site Web site opens in a new window that has a tab on the top edge so that one can keep track visually of all of the open windows. This is essentially what WindowTabs does but it does it on each open application. For example, I am a professional research writer and might have at any given moment several Word documents open, two or three notepad documents containing references open, possibly a file folder, and even my email client. Rather than have all of them collapsed to the task bar and hidden other than the active window, I can now assign a tab to each and have them all visually available for instant access. Furthermore, I can combine windows into groups with a single tab, if I choose. I would also point out:
At $19.95, which includes free updates for a year, this program is fairly priced especially since it really has no serious competition. I recommend it highly. Weak points. Reviewer 1- Dana Bostick: The release notes on the Web site are a bit behind. The most current version notes only up to version 465. I started with 471 and am now on 490. It is a little too easy to hit the “X” button on a tab and inadvertently close an application. It happened to me and unfortunately I was using the Firefox browser with six tabs open, requiring me to log back into all Web sites. Reviewer 2- Name Withheld By Request: One problem I have with WindowTabs is that tabs from different applications may block each other. Because all tabs begin at the upper-left-hand corner of a window, if I have my email program, my text editor, and my browser open, the three tabs are likely to be positioned behind one another, making it possible to see only the tab that's in the front. It is possible to arrange the tabs so that they appear next to each other, as they would if they were tabs for windows in the same program or in a related group, but it's easy to forget to do this. Although I rarely have my windows maximized, I do tend to keep them quite large. This is especially true of my Web browsers, text editors, and file manager. I have at times found that this large but not maximized size makes it difficult to see the tab. Ironically, when I used WindowTabs' feature that automatically grouped related windows together, this feature made some windows much too large. For example, for adding new passwords, my password manager uses a small box into which I enter the relevant data. However, with WindowTabs' automatic grouping feature selected, the password manager's small box became so large that it blocked the rest of the program's interface and thus prevented me from seeing what passwords and other information I'd used in the past. I wrote to tech support, and the problem was solved by turning off the automatic grouping feature. However, I liked this feature and was sorry that I had to turn it off. (I should add, however, that the developer has said he has plans to add a "group these windows but don't change their size" option.) In the months that I've been using WindowTabs, I've encountered several other problems that I might normally have included under "Weak Points." However, each time I wrote to the developer to report a problem, he fixed it almost immediately. As a result, I have no other weak points to mention. Reviewer 3- Peter Royle: I often use the Ctrl-Right Arrow and Ctrl-Left Arrow, which in most word-processing or text-editor programs is a quick way to hop from word-to-word. I was puzzled to find that this function had suddenly ceased to operate; but, since strange quirks frequently occur on my computers, I ignored this behaviour. Later, I found that WindowTabs uses Ctrl-Left Arrow and Ctrl-Right Arrow to switch between the open windows on your desktop. Fortunately, WindowTabs allows changing this, so I set these functions to Alt-Right Arrow and Alt-Left Arrow. This works just as well as the default in WindowTabs, and frees up the almost universal Ctrl-Right Ctrl-Left word-processing feature. I hope that the WindowTabs developers reconsider this particular default combination, and pick one that is not so widely used by other applications. Although the upgrade installation process has improved significantly since I started using WindowTabs several months ago, it still needs some tweaking. Although it is no longer necessary to uninstall the older version of the program as previously, WindowTabs must be closed before starting the upgrade for it to be completed properly. Either there should be a window that pops up when the program finds an older version, indicating that WindowTabs should be closed, or the installer should do so by itself. If this latter route is taken, there should be a pop up window telling the user what is going to happen, and that the program will automatically restart after the upgrade has been successfully installed. Reviewer 4- Mark Snyder: Are there small weaknesses? Yes. What are they? I don’t really know. I say this simply because a weakness I found last week or even yesterday will undoubtedly be corrected by the time you read this. I realize that this is an unusual approach to this portion of the review but this developer literally responds this quickly to not only weaknesses but to suggested improvements as well. If I counted correctly, there have been six updates in just the four months I have been using this program, so for me to list a current weakness would be, I think, unfair to this developer who is so actively engaged in developing and improving this product. Developer's Web site. Reviewer 1- Dana Bostick: The Web site is clean and easy to navigate. It was clearly labeled and has a lot of information about the program on the main page. There are links to several videos that were very useful in using WindowTabs for the first time. RSS feeds are available for the Forum and Release notes. Tech support was available via a Forum on the Web site or by email. I never had the need to use support but I did run through most of the questions in the Forum to see how it worked. It appears that the developer, Mo Flanagan, closely monitors this Forum and answers the questions. He seems fairly responsive. Reviewer 2- Name Withheld By Request: The clear, well organized website focuses almost exclusively on describing and supporting WindowTabs. It offers a well-illustrated description of some of the program's major features. Another section contains videos that demonstrate how some features work. Other sections include information about each new version, questions and answers from the program's forum, contact information, and, of course, links to download and purchase WindowTabs. RSS Feeds are available for the Releases and Forums sections. Reviewer 3- Peter Royle: WindowTabs.com is a clean and professional Web site and very easy to navigate. In fact, it is quite lean with only a few pages, and no hype or bombast. These pages are sufficient to provide the user or the potential client all the basic information needed about the program. On the Purchase page, one can select from any one of the major (and many minor) currencies. I like this feature, for it is always a bit annoying to find that the actual amount that appears on my credit card is higher than the price which I am expecting to be charged. The Download page is not even a page, but a direct download link to the latest version. There are several videos, which demonstrate the program and show how it can be used in different situations. There is a forum for suggestions, comments and bug reports, all of which are replied to by the developer. One can subscribe to two of the pages, the Releases and the Forum, via RSS feeds. I particularly like the page that frankly discloses current bugs, most of which are programs, which do not work well with WindowTabs. Reviewer 4- Mark Snyder: The Web site is clean and as simple and straightforward as the product it offers. I was happy to see no exaggerations or hyperbole and a general lack of promotion via testimonials and snippets of favorable reviews taking the place of needed information to make a reasoned decision about the software program. Overall, the site was laid out well and easy to read. It is not flashy, but then this developer seems more interested in developing his product than his Web site at the moment, and I will not fault him for that. Other comments. Reviewer 1- Dana Bostick: I love the usability of a tabbed interface. I have been using them in various forms for years. I used a browser called “Maxthon” years ago, just because it had tabs. Now, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Google’s Chrome all have adopted tabbed browsing. WindowTabs now adds this functionality to the desktop. While one can use the task bar or the “alt-tab” key combination to switch applications easily enough, WindowTabs extends the functionality by adding the ability to “group” tabs and apply actions to them as a group. Dragging, maximizing / minimizing, resizing, and dragging files or objects between tabs and dragging single windows or groups of windows to a second monitor are all possible. Using the “settings” selection from the right click menu on the system tray icon or one of the tabs brings up the settings window with several tabs that allow one to make any changes in the way WindowTabs functions. It can be set to “auto-hide” tabs of non-active windows; or, to function with almost all of one’s application or only a selected few. One can choose to “enable” or “disable” applications that WindowTabs works with or choose to enable all applications. Reviewer 2- Name Withheld By Request: WindowTabs can be used on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7, both 32 and 64 bit. It can be run as a portable version from a USB drive or other portable media. Reviewer 3- Peter Royle: Once in a while, a small "niche" program appears which makes one wonder why nobody ever thought of it before. WindowTabs is such a program. It integrates seamlessly into the operating system, as if it were always there. It requires very few resources; the support is quick, friendly and, in my case, resolved any issues that I raised. WindowTabs is reasonably priced, even after conversion into Canadian dollars. There is a free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee after purchase. WindowTabs has worked well for me, with no serious issues. I have no problem in recommending this program. Reviewer 4- Mark Snyder: This is a relatively new program from a small developer—his only program I believe. As I said above, he seems to want his program to be as perfect as possible and he doesn’t simply encourage customer suggestions but actually solicits them to help him improve this program. That kind of customer-oriented business is almost unheard of today and I, again, want to compliment Mr. Flanagan on not only his program but on his dedication to the program and his customers. Will you continue to use it? Reviewer 1- Dana Bostick: Yes. As stated above, I love a tabbed interface. Now I can have it outside the browser. Reviewer 2- Name Withheld By Request: I'm not sure. It's an appealing program, but for me the problems I've described under "weak points" currently outweigh its advantages. However, this is a program under very active development. It's quite possible that in the not-too-distant future the issues that currently make me reluctant to continue to use it will have been overcome. Reviewer 3- Peter Royle: Yes, WindowTabs has been added to the list of useful tools and utilities that need to be installed on any computer that I use regularly. Reviewer 4- Mark Snyder: Yes. |
OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN THIS REVIEW
Windows XP Pro, XP Home XP Media Center
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