Actual Window Manager
Reviewed September 2007

What’s It Do?

This is a desktop organization application that provides more than 40 tools to help in daily routine Windows manipulation.


Does it do what it Promises?

Reviewer 1: Yes. My desk is always messy, with piles of folders, notebooks, papers, and reference books scattered around in a disordered fashion. My computer desktop is in a state of similar disarray. But I do have preferences, and have sometimes spent much time fruitlessly trying to get oft-used windows to behave in the way that I want them to: Each time that a window opens, I want it at a particular location and size. This program allows me to do that, and much more.

Reviewer 2: Yes! This program is dizzying in its capabilities. There are ~40 window handling capabilities that can be controlled. Not all will be considered useful by all users but many are very handy.

Reviewer 3: It performed all the functions promised.

Reviewer 4: Yes. Actual Windows Manager provides for basic tools and, its claim notwithstanding, 40 tweaks to those tools, to manage and manipulate active windows. It does this and nothing else but it does this quite well. Now, whether it is The Most Feature-Rich and Comprehensive Manager for Microsoft Windows in the World as it boldly states on its Web site, I don’t know.


Was it easy to install?

Reviewer 1: Essentially yes, but I had some trouble the first time that I tried to install the program. After wrestling with it for a few minutes, I decided to simply uninstall it and start over. In fact, I tried it out on two different computers, and in each case the install went very smoothly, with no problems. On one, I ran it for about two weeks before registering it, and the program was fully-functional. The registration was a simple copy-and-paste from the information that had been forwarded to me. The default set of Window controls appeared immediately in the blue Title Bar, so the program was immediately ready for action.

Reviewer 2: Yes, very. Download from the site, click the installer package and it installed in a heartbeat. It puts an icon in the System Tray so it runs on start up. This is configurable.
Once installed the user should take the time to explore the settings and configurations to best take advantage of its capabilities. Those tools not needed can be turned off.

Reviewer 3: Installation was fast and easy. The license agreement was one of the most simple I have encountered.

Reviewer 4: Yes. It was, however, a relatively sizeable 3.26MB download for this type of program but it installed quickly and easily using standard wizards. Additionally, there is an excellent FAQ section on the Web site devoted to installation matters and/or issues as well as a forum to help with any further problems that might be encountered. I experienced no difficulties in either downloading or installing this program.


Good Points.

Reviewer 1: At first, I was a bit dismayed by the long line of extra buttons that appeared by default in the Title Bar. I already have a couple of extra ones, because I use another program which adds certain functions to my Save As ... dialog box, and it has already added extra buttons. Fortunately, I was quickly able to deal with that, and move on to the more interesting ways one can manage their screen windows. And there is a great variety, which has the overall effect of making the whole desktop much easier to manage. As I often have quite a number of windows open at the same time, I have to struggle to get from one to the other. Rolling windows up keeps them easily available, while giving me more space to work on the one I need just now. Or having it transparent lets me continue to work with it, while being able to see what is below it. I also frequently pin a window, which keeps it “on top” – allowing me to move back and forth easily between two, or three windows to which I need constant access. There are numerous other features as well. Although it is quite an easy program to manage, I had to spend some time with the Help file, to find out how to Manage the Manager -- i.e. to configure it to suit my own needs. A Configuration Wizard is used to manage the plethora of functions available in the program. This is a smart programming decision because a multi-tabbed Options menu item could not handle all the variable settings possible. The Configuration Wizard allows defining system-wide settings (which affect all the windows opened), or settings that relate to specific windows. For example, I am using My Notes Center just now. If I right-click on the Title Bar and choose “Manage Window Settings”, it will bring up the Configuration Wizard. In the ensuing screen, there are two panes. On the left, I will see a list of the programs that already have specific settings. Now My Notes Center will be included. My choices here will affect only the windows of this program. Or if I wish, I can exclude the My Notes Center windows from the Actual Windows Manager completely. One of the early changes that I made was to remove many of the extra buttons from the Title Bar. I was pleased to note that I still have keyboard-shortcut access to those functions, so I was able to clear up the majority of those buttons. Quite a number of these shortcuts use the Win key. I use a very old, but irreplaceable keyboard, with which I refuse to part. Fortunately, I can configure the hot keys, so I can work around the missing Win key. I did not have to call on the support people very often, but when I did, I received competent and courteous answers within 24 hours during the week. A request sent late Friday night was answered mid-morning on Monday. There is a Users Forum, for interaction with other users and support people with questions, comments, bug reports and feedback.

Reviewer 2: This program allows control of almost every aspect of how the operating system handles the display of open windows. With this program the user can cause a program to minimize to the tray once opened; launch an email client, then have it minimize to the tray and sit there in “monitor” mode while working on something else; and, set it to pop-up a small window (like the Gmail Notifier) to announce when mail arrives. It can cause an active window to “roll up” out of the way but remain active so other windows could be used. It can “ghost” a window so that it goes transparent allowing the user to see what’s behind it. While in “ghost” mode, the underlying window is clickable. The ghost mode can then be controlled via keyboard shortcuts. The program allows one to set the transparency level of windows. In this mode, the transparent window is still active and cannot be “clicked through” as it can in ghost mode. One can preset the size, position and resolution of new windows that are opened and Minimize windows to the system tray rather than the task bar to save space. This is but a small sample of the functions that can be controlled. There are literally dozens of possibilities.

Reviewer 3: This program can manage or manipulate almost any quality, size, or position of a window. There is a detailed help section that gives clear explanations of the program functions. Their forum is active and replies are made about problems directly from the technical staff. The settings are highly customizable for all windows or specific categories of windows.

Reviewer 4: This is actually a quite simple program that allows four things with any active windows on one’s desktop: (1) pin windows to keep them always on top, (2) roll them up, (3) roll them down, or(4) minimize them to the tray or a small icon on the screen. These features are accessible through a new toolbar that is added to the corner of the windows’ toolbar as well as through a right-click menu that is convenient. Additionally, there are features that allow the user to “copy & paste” simply by clicking on the title buttons added to each window by the program as well as a feature that allows hiding the mouse pointer. Personally, I have very little interest in eye candy and want no programs running on my computer and consuming resources that are not necessary to increasing my everyday productivity. Nor do I have much use for programs that claim to do something innovative that can already be done within Windows itself. And while I think Actual Windows Manager is a bit guilty on both these accounts (I mean I can already minimize a window with the click of the built in feature in the upper right hand corner of every window), I must say that I did find the ability to minimize windows to a small icon rather than cluttering up the taskbar, a nice feature. The program has a rather Spartan but intuitive GUI (Graphic User Interface); admittedly uses very few resources; and, offers more than adequate help through an FAQ, online help, online demonstrations, and a very active forum It even offers a free newsletter.. Support is listed as Free Lifetime Technical Support (hard to beat free for life!) and is available through email only with no indication of turn-around time; however, my “test inquiry” was answered within 24 hours. Finally, there is an unusually liberal 60-day trial period before buying the software. To make active windows transparent or watch them roll up and down like vertical blinds, this program does that and seems to do so perfectly.


Weak Points

Reviewer 1: Although the Help file is well-organized, easy to navigate and fairly complete, it could still be improved. In particular, some of the terms used are not immediately self-explanatory. I quite often found that I had to go back and reread an item or a section, before I could figure out what they were referring to or describing. It would be helpful if there were examples to illustrate what some of the functions do. For example, I found the section on exclusions to be confusing. What, exactly, is being excluded? To clarify this took several experiments, some of which then took more time to reset. To aid with this, an Undo function would certainly be useful. Currently on the Web site there is a link to Online Demos, but I found only one. More of these would be a great improvement. The price of the full Actual Window Manager is steep. There are a number of programs on the site, but they seem simply to be bits and pieces of the complete set of tools. There is a comparison table, so that people could select the modules that suit them. However, the disk space required for the whole program is just over 5 MB, and uses 2900 KB of RAM. I don't know how many resources the other programs take, but the total version does not seem to be overly demanding. Unless the other modules are very small indeed, or many potential customers have very specific needs, this approach seems to be more of a marketing strategy than anything else. I think that fewer choices and a significant drop in the price of the all-inclusive version would be reasonable.

Reviewer 2: I found that there is a bit of a “learning curve” to get it dialed in to do what is desired. There could be better explanations of what each function does in the checkbox style options setup. The information can be found but it must be dug out of the help files included with the program or on the company’s Web site.

Reviewer 3: While it is hard to definitively prove a causation versus a correlation, I experienced increased system instability including computer “freezes” while this program was running on my system. Eudora, my e-mail program, seemed to suffer the most of all my programs. Its controls became unstable and it eventually froze completely. I tried restarting it after several reboots to no avail. Finally, after rebooting and uninstalling Actual Windows Manager, Eudora returned to its normal functional state. While it is possible according to their Web site FAQ’s and forums to correct this problem by excluding Eudora from windows management, not knowing where else a conflict will arise is not appealing to me. The multitude of boxes which appear on the title bar of Windows by default was not very helpful for me because each graphic was small and hard to distinguish on first glance. Resting a cursor over the box did give a pop-up description which was more helpful, but this was time consuming.

Reviewer 4: As this is, as I already stated, a simple program with only four basic functions in actuality, there are no glaring weaknesses in the program nor would I know what suggestion to make to improve it. It does what it does and does it well. My only concern and the only reason that I could not recommend this program is pricing. This program is $59.00 and as such is far out of line with software pricing today. And while “Free Lifetime Technical Support” is included, only “Free Minor Updates” are provided.


Comments.

Reviewer 1: Very few programs these days are able to run on all versions of Windows from 95 onwards. Even though the older Windows are no longer supported by Microsoft, I know many people who have managed to get Windows 98SE, for example set up and doing all that they want an OS to do. So, it is a pleasure to review a rather interesting set of tweaks that they, too, can use. The license requirements are much more reasonable than many other products on the market today. They do not specify exactly how long one needs to try the program before buying it and they allow its use on more than one computer. This is, indeed, a model approach that I wish were much more widespread. Although this has not yet wormed its way into my list of totally essential tools, it is nicely designed, is fun to use, and has begun to grow on me, in fact.

Reviewer 2: I prefer to start using a program to determine it’s “user friendliness” and go digging if I cannot just figure it out on my own. A well-designed program should be easy to use out of the box. This program, while a bit complex, did not cause me to use the tech support system or the Web help. I was able to get it working satisfactorily with little additional help from the built-in help files.

Reviewer 3: I uninstalled this program and then reinstalled it. I was a bit surprised that the customized settings I had set in the first installation carried over to the re-installation without notification.

Reviewer 4: It should be mentioned that beyond the four basic features mentioned above, Actual Windows Manager has added two hot keys, a keyboard macro feature, and the ability to balance the CPU load on multi-processor units by assigning certain parameters per tool, per window. I can easily assign my own hot keys or make my own macros and as for the last item I can only question how many people are going to be using this program on a multi-processor unit. I may be wrong, but I suspect not many.


Will you continue to use it?

Reviewer 1: Yes, particularly for the ability to finally be able to control some specific windows that I usually have to reset each time I open them.

Reviewer 2: I will on my test machine but not on my main desktop system. While it is amazing in its capabilities, it’s but one more thing to run on startup and consume resources. I, like many, have learned to use many of it’s functions that are already available within Windows such as “Alt-Tab”, “Windows+D” etc. and don’t feel the need to give up limited resources for something I don’t really have a pressing need for. In other words, it doesn’t solve a problem that I need solving at this time and is just another “geeky” toy to play with.

Reviewer 3: No. While there were valuable customizations possible with this software that I have not found elsewhere, the “overhead” did not outweigh the benefits on my system.

Reviewer 4: No.

Actual Tools, provider of Actual Window Manager, commented: It is really a great honor for us to be reviewed at such a respected Web site, as Neat Net Tricks. Thank you very much, we really appreciate it. It is always essential for any software developer to listen to subjective opinions towards his program. The comments of your reviewers are honest and really impartial; therefore they are extremely helpful for improving the software. Besides, readers, both home and corporate users, are welcome to give a try to Actual Tools themselves, simply downloading our programs from our Web site: www.actualtools.com . We offer people to innovate and increase their computational efficiency and enhance basic Windows GUI with a plethora of handy features and nifty buttons. We present unconventional window controls and also automatic general window operations. Should any issues emerge feel free to contact our Support team via email or via forum; they will surely provide you with on-line help and assistance (within the shortest possible period of time). We do try to make the life of our customers easier and more fun. Thanks again."
 

OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN THIS REVIEW
Windows XP Pro, XP Home

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