a property named _NET_VIRTUAL_ROOTS of the real root window to contain a list of the windows that are acting as virtual root windows; the virtual root window that is currently active can be found in the property _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP of the real root window. The virtual root window is used by the window managers swm, tvtwm, amiwm, and enlightenment. Other systems such as KDE use a virtual background window (which contains the icons, for example) but do not reparent the other windows to this one. The virtual root window is also used by XScreenSaver: when the screensaver is activated, this program creates a virtual root window, places it at the top of all other windows, and calls one of its hacks (modules), which finds the virtual root window and draws in it. Utilities that use the root window Conky See also X Window System X Window System protocols and architecture External links Extended Window Manager Hints from freedesktop.org toon_root.c, a source file of XPenguins that contains information about virtual root/desktop windows for various window managers X Window System