[ANN] Actual Window Manager 5.3 beta 2 is available!

Dear John Smith,

After a month of work, I'm glad to present you another update of our Beta-Testing section: we have released Actual Window Manager 5.3 beta 2.

This beta reveals the almost finished Desktop Profiles Manager: now desktop profiles include not only the monitors' layout and their device settings, but also the advanced options for the desktop background and screen saver. You can as set a single large picture for the entire composite desktop as customize background on each monitor individually (specifying custom background color, picture and its position). Similar options are available for a screen saver: you can as stretch a single screen saver over entire desktop as specify custom screen saver for each monitor (i.e. when system activates the screen saver all monitors will display their custom screen savers simultaneously).

Speaking about advanced desktop background options, I'd like to mention that now Virtual Desktops support the multi-monitor wallpapers in a same way as desktop profiles do: the wallpaper configuration panel has been changed to make virtual desktop's wallpaper compatible with the new approach given by desktop profiles. If you use Virtual Desktops extensively in a multiple display environment, please check out these new opportunities.

Now you can activate desktop profiles via context menu of Actual Window Manager's icon in the system tray: it got the "Desktop Profiles" submenu with the list of currently available profiles. You can also call this submenu via hotkey (Win+P by default). When the profile is activated, Actual Window Manager now displays the confirmation dialog allowing you to accept changes made by profile or to reject them and restore previous settings (in the same way like Windows does).

Note. If you have any ideas on what else desktop profiles should include - please let us know your thoughts.

This beta introduces new window alignment modes - "left/right/top/bottom only". As their names imply, these modes simply snap the certain window side to the monitor/desktop border of the same name ("left only" - to left, "top only" - to top, etc.). You can use these new alignments on any window by right-clicking its border with the Ctrl pressed (note: don't work on dialogs because dialog windows don't have clickable border). In addition, we decided to replace old "middle-left", "middle-right", "top-center", "bottom-center" modes by these new modes in the Alignment tool bar of the Quick Settings dialog.

Also, in this beta we made a number of slight changes and improvements in the user interface of the Configuration windows. Below is the list of the most noticeable ones:

- now Configuration windows remember their Maximized state between sessions
- the Description edit field at the Index panel now automatically wraps its content and automatically fills the rest of panel's area
- the bug in Configuration user interface with non-disappearing horizontal scroll bars is fixed

Note. As usual, I would like to remind that due to our beta-testing policy our beta versions have an expiration date after which they can't be used. Also, due to their nature, beta versions can't be registered, even with a valid registration data: they are not final products but betas! So when the beta version expires you should either roll back to the last stable release, update your beta to a new one (if available), or upgrade to a new stable release (if available).
The beta 2 of Actual Window Manager 5.3 will expire on April 1, 2009.

At the end, I invite you to visit our Beta-Testing section and check out this new beta on your own. Please post your bug reports and new feature suggestions to our Beta-Testing forum, all your posts will be surely answered and considered. Many thanks in advance for your help!

Sincerely,

Alex Fadeyev,
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