Impersonate Linux's Multi-desktop Feature on Windows Platform

• Download demo - 50.08 KB
• Download source code - 22.67 KB

Introduction

The feature, multi desktops (workspace), is supported by KDE/GNOME on Linux, and it can also be found on Mac OSX.

This tiny tool can impersonate this feature on Windows platform.

Desktop Functions

There is a series of APIs to maintain desktops.

How To Create a New Desktop 

The simple code below demonstrates how to create a new desktop.

// create the new desktop
SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES stSecurityAttr = {sizeof(SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES), 0, TRUE};
stSecurityAttr.nLength = sizeof(SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES);
stSecurityAttr.bInheritHandle = TRUE;
HDESK hDesktop = ::CreateDesktop( lpszDesktopName
	, NULL
	, NULL
	, 0
	, GENERIC_ALL
	, &stSecurityAttr
	);
if( hDesktop == NULL )
{
	::MessageBox( m_hWnd, _T("Failed to create new desktop."), 
				_T("Error"), MB_ICONERROR | MB_OK);
	return;
}

// start the Windows Shell(explorer.exe) on the new created desktop
STARTUPINFO stStartInfo = {0};
stStartInfo.cb = sizeof(STARTUPINFO);
stStartInfo.lpDesktop = (LPTSTR)lpszDesktopName;
PROCESS_INFORMATION stProcInfo = {0};
CString strCmdLine = _T("explorer.exe");
BOOL bRet = ::CreateProcess( NULL
	, strCmdLine.GetBuffer()
	, NULL
	, NULL
	, TRUE
	, 0
	, NULL
	, NULL
	, &stStartInfo
	, &stProcInfo
	);
strCmdLine.ReleaseBuffer();
if( !bRet )
{
	::CloseDesktop(hDesktop);
	::MessageBox( m_hWnd, _T("Failed to launch the explorer.exe 
			in the new desktop."), _T("Error"), MB_ICONERROR | MB_OK);
	return;
}
::SwitchDesktop(hDesktop);

// sleep for 3 seconds for the shell ready
Sleep(3000);

// launch another instance on the new created shell
TCHAR tszBuffer[MAX_PATH] = {0};
GetModuleFileName( m_hInstance, tszBuffer, MAX_PATH);
bRet = ::CreateProcess( NULL
	, tszBuffer
	, NULL
	, NULL
	, TRUE
	, 0
	, NULL
	, NULL
	, &stStartInfo
	, &stProcInfo
	);
	
::CloseDesktop(hDesktop);

History

• 5^th March, 2009: Initial post