360desktop public beta

• License:

  Free

• Editor's Rating:

  4.0 stars

• Average User Rating:

  3.0 stars (out of 56 votes) Rate it!

• Downloads:

  47,067

• Operating Systems:

  Windows Vista, Windows XP

• Additional Requirements:

  Windows XP/Vista (32-bit)

• Limitations:

  No limitations

• Date Added:

  July 08, 2008

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Publisher's description of 360desktop

360desktop transforms your standard Windows desktop into a 360-degree panoramic workspace, giving you many times more desktop space. 360desktop also lets users make desktop widgets from favorite pieces of the Web and create and share 360-degree interactive wallpaper. 360desktop makes your desktop a more functional place with a 360-degree panoramic view. Always have the latest news, dynamic information, video content, family photos or anything else you like at your fingertips.

Slide around your new workspace quickly and easily between all your open applications, windows and widgets--it'll spin you out. See something that you like online? You can now clip it and put it right on the desktop. You can grab any part of any Web page or your favorite web widgets, RSS feeds, games, and videos. 360-degree wallpapers brings your desktop to life, with an endless selection of themes and designs that can be inspiring, entertaining, branded, useful or just plain fun.

See more CNET content tagged:

360-degree,

Microsoft Windows,

video

Editor's review of 360desktop

• 4.0 stars

• "Endless desktop space"

• Reviewed by: CNET Staff
• Version reviewed: 360desktop public beta

Even if you're hard-pressed to care about standard desktop-enhancement software, 360desktop makes some intriguing promises. "Unlimited desktop space" is one, and the ability to save any part of the Web directly to your desktop is another.

Turns out, there's more than screen-saver snake-oil here. When you run 360desktop, you get a panoramic desktop with custom widgets. Quit, and you're back to basic Windows. Switching between the two didn't cause problems when tested, although quitting 360desktop completely required killing the process a few times.

A persistent "QuickNav" area in the upper right of your screen lets you scroll or drag your cursor around. The help guide suggests that arrow key navigation works, too, although it didn't for us. A handy Windows taskbar icon offers a context menu that lets you customize options, such as scrolling speed, how 360desktop focuses multi-window applications, and whether the location of running apps and widgets appear in the QuickNav.

Web widgets are simple to install and work well. Click "Add a widget" in the QuickNav and you'll see a bare-bones dialog with two tabs--Web Widget or Embed Code Widget. The first lets you enter a widget name and a URL, while the second lets you enter a name and a snippet of HTML code. A special 360desktop toolbar appears next a new widget from which you can drag and drop the widget, close it, or click the "i" button for more information.

360desktop runs like any of your other Windows programs and doesn't seem to affect any critical system files, although it does place a shortcut on your regular Windows desktop without asking. It's not essential software, but if you've got the RAM to handle it, 360desktop can be a lot of fun. Be sure to create a System Restore point in case it blows up your Windows installation--it's not a beta for nothing.

User reviews

• Average user rating: 3.2 stars out of 56 votes
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 5 of 51 user reviewsSee all 51 user reviews
  This software version | All versions

• 4 stars

  1 out of 8 people found this review helpful

  Version: 360desktop public beta

  "good"

  by saleh_duwahi on July 9, 2008

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• 2 stars

  1 out of 2 people found this review helpful

  Version: 360desktop public beta

  "Great concept"

  by rundmv on July 17, 2008

  Pros: I was looking forward to seeing what this program could do for me...

  Cons: but I could not get it to run once it was installed.

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• 5 stars

  3 out of 4 people found this review helpful

  Version: 360desktop public beta

  "practical... very..."

  by rabbitkillrun on July 11, 2008

  Pros: This is a great application... i prefer it over normal vitual desktop managers which simply create more virtual screens, as they are seperated, but with this it feels like my desktop has just got a whole lot longer and i've got more space...

  also, i was expecting it to hog all my ram, and as i only have one gig and run several quite large programs at the same time, i was pleasantly surprised when the most it went up to during my use was aroun 60-70mb!

  so,overall, i am extremely satisfied with this program...

  Cons: none so far, but i have yet to try adding any widgets etc...

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• 3 stars

  5 out of 6 people found this review helpful

  Version: 360desktop public beta

  "I was expecting a Compiz clone"

  by danrulz98 on July 9, 2008

  Pros: It works pretty good, though a little funky

  Cons: Well, actualy, very funky. I was expecting something more like Compiz.

  Also, the link to download widget opens in IE, that's a big red flag in my book

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• 5 stars

  2 out of 10 people found this review helpful

  Version: 360desktop public beta

  "this is fantastic"

  by writingtreewalking on July 9, 2008

  Pros: just get it and see.

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