Creating the Ultimate Productivity Workstation

So you want to build a workstation that rivals Bill Gates’ without spending your entire technology budget for the year, in one day. Here’s how I did it.

What you’ll End Up With

9 Desktops
3 Monitors
1 Obscenely Productive Workstation

Hardware Used

1 Dell Optiplex (with Windows XP)
2 Dell 19″ Flat Panel Monitors
1 Dell Latitude Laptop (with Windows XP)
1 Logitech Revolution Wireless Mouse
1 Worn out wrist rest

Software Used

Dexpot
Synergy
Firefox
Groupwise (insert your email client)
Dreamweaver
Photoshop
Pandora’s Box (for entertainment:)
Pownce (with all this productivity, I need something anti-productive)
Snitter (see above)
Pidgin
Yahoo! Widgets
ObjectDock

Let’s Get Started

First thing you are going to want to do is setup your dual monitors on your desktop. I’m going to be using Windows XP for everything I do today.

1. Shut your machine down and plug both monitors in
2. Restart the machine, right click the desktop and choose Properties
3. Go to the Settings tab
   
4. Click on the box with a “2″ in it
5. Check the box that says “extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor”
6. Click Apply and then OK

You should now have both monitors being used as one long desktop. Try to move your mouse off the screen and see if the second screen pics it up. So far so good? Next step: We need more desktops!

Installing Dexpot

Dexpot is a free virtual desktop switcher for Windows (if you’ve used Linux this should be nothing new). Here’s how to get it up and running

1. Download Dexpot here
2. Run the installer and follow the prompts
3. Once it’s installed, let’s go into the Settings
4. Here are my settings

I didn’t modify any other settings. However, there are a ton of things you can do with Dexpot, so if you have the time, have fun! You should see four blue boxes in your systray. You can click on these to switch desktops, or simply hit “Alt” + “Desktop # you want” (eg. Alt + 2 = Virtual Desktop 2)

Next: Connect the desktop to the laptop with magic…

Installing Synergy

Synergy is possibly one of the coolest programs I’ve ever used. I’ve been using it with my home system for about 3 years now and couldn’t live without it. Here’s how to get it setup.

1. Download and Install Synergy on the desktop and the laptop

Now we need to configure the Synergy server computer (the desktop in this example)

1. Open Synergy
2. Check the radio button for “Share this computer’s keyboard and mouse (server)”
3. Click the “Info” button below
4. Copy the “Hostname” field (we’ll use this later)
5. Click the “Configure” button above
6. Click the “+” sign under the “Screens” section
7. Paste the Hostname into the “Screen Name” field and hit OK
8. We’re done for now, but we’ll be coming back to this dialog box, so don’t close it

Now to configure Synergy on the laptop

1. Open Synergy
2. Check the radio button “Use another computer’s shared keyboard and mouse (client)”
3. Click the “Info” button
4. Leave this window open because we’ll be coming back to it

Back to the desktop…

1. If you closed out of the Configure dialog box, click the “Configure” button again
2. Click the “+” button under “Screens” again
3. Look at the Hostname in the Info box on the laptop and type it into “Screen Name” field and hit OK
4. You should now have two screens in the “Screens” dialog box (your server and your client)

Connecting the screens together

1. Look towards the bottom at the “Links” section. This is how we are going to tell Synergy how the screens are arranged
2. Don’t worry about touching the % boxes for this example. If you ever get hardcore into Synergy you can come back to this
3. Choose “right” of “server computer here” goes to “client computer here” and hit the “+” sign. MAKE sure to hit the “+” or it won’t record what you just did
4. Next do “left” of “client computer here” goes to “server computer here” and hit the “+” sign again.

Now we need to start the Synergy program on both computers

1. In the main Synergy dialog box on both computers (I do the server first) hit the “Start” button
2. The Synergy icon in the Taskbar should be the Logo with a lightening bolt in it if the two computers were connected properly

Make Synergy startup with Windows

If you’re like me, you are going to want to have Synergy startup when you boot your machine in the morning…or whenever you get out of bed:) Here’s how.

1. Open the main Synergy dialog box
2. Click “Autostart”
3. I chose the option “When Computer Starts” –> “Install”
4. Do this on both the desktop and the laptop and you’re done…finally!

So now you should have the base to an amazingly productive workstation. You should be able to move your mouse from your first monitor, to your second monitor, and finally to your laptop screen with ease.

Installing ObjectDock

If there is one thing that Mac got right, it’s the dock. I can’t stand having to open the Start menu, then All Programs, then look for the program, which may be in a folder which is another click…ughh. Enter: ObjectDock. Here’s how to install it.

1. Download and Install ObjectDock
2. Once it’s done, you can play around with the settings until you get something you like. Here are a few notable changes I made
   • Load ObjectDock at Startup
   • “Miscellaneous Options” –> “Attention” Effect –> “Bounce”
   • “Performance Options” –> “Very Fast”, “Optimize for Performance”
   • Appearance –> Icon Size 30px; Magnified Size 80px; Background Standard Tabs 50% Transparent
   • Positioning –> Hide off-screen when not in use; Delay Short

Installing Yahoo! Widgets

I installed the Yahoo! Widgets on my laptop so it didn’t take away any more system resources on my main workstation. You can get Yahoo! Widgets here and installation is pretty straightforward.

Well, that’s about it. You should now have a system that has 9 desktops across 3 monitors. Want to know how my software is setup? Here ya go…

My Software Setup

Since I’m a web designer, this setup is tweaked to suit me perfectly. Find out what works best for you through a little experimentation.

Laptop Screen:

1. Pownce
2. Snitter (new Adobe AIR Twitter client)
3. Pidgin
4. Yahoo! Widgets with Sticky Memo and Yahoo! Stocks widget open at all times

Desktop Screens

1. Desktop 1
   1. Screen 1
      • Firefox (with Gmail and Google Reader open at all times)
   2. Screen 2
      • Groupwise (Damn you Novell!!)
2. Desktop 2
   1. Screen 1
      • Dreamweaver
   2. Screen 2
      • Shortcut to the server I’m currently working in
3. Desktop 3
   1. Screen 1
      • Photoshop
   2. Screen 2
      • Working folder for easy drag and drop access
4. Desktop 4
   1. Screen 1
      • UltraVNC
   2. Screen 2
      • Empty (I mainly use the 4th desktop for misc. programs)

Have a system that’s more productive that this one? Let me hear about it! Leave a comment below…now get to work!!

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