Join , subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Windows 10 finally added virtual desktops as a built-in feature. If you keep a lot of apps open at once—or use your PC for very different types of tasks—virtual desktops offer a convenient way to stay organized. With virtual desktops, Windows 10 lets you create multiple, separate desktops that each can display different open windows and apps.

A simple use for this might be keeping work separate from personal stuff. You could also put all the items that relate to a specific task on one desktop, so that you can better focus on that task.

While macOS and Linux have featured virtual desktops for a while—and there have been third-party apps that provided them for Windows—virtual desktops are now built into Windows Adding a new virtual desktop is easy. The Task View is a full screen app switcher that shows all the apps running on your PC. You can switch to any app by just clicking on it. Windows 10 allows you to create as many desktops as you need. We created desktops on our test system just to see if we could, and Windows had no problem with it.

That said, we highly recommend you keep virtual desktops to a minimum. Having tons of them kind of defeats that purpose. When you have more than one desktop, the Task View shows all your desktops at the bottom of the screen.

Hovering over a desktop with your mouse shows you the windows currently open on that desktop. You can click a desktop to jump there, or click a specific window to jump to that desktop and bring that window into focus. You can also switch between virtual desktops just using your keyboard. Now, hit Tab again to move the selection to the desktop row.

You can then use your arrow keys to move between desktops, and then hit the Enter key to jump to the selected desktop. First things first: if you switch to a desktop and then open an app or other window there, the window opens—and stays—on that desktop. This is where things get a little tricky.

With apps that let you open multiple windows—like, say, Chrome or Microsoft Word—you can open different windows for those apps on different desktops.

Say, for example, you had a desktop devoted to a specific project. You could have Chrome windows, Word docs, and so on open on that desktop, and still have other Chrome windows and Word docs open on other desktops. But, some apps only allow you to have a single window open at a time. The Windows Store app is a good example of this.

Say you opened the Store app on Desktop 3. Back to that example where the Store is open on Desktop 3: if I look at the taskbar on Desktop 3, I can see that the Store app is open it has a line under the icon. You can also move apps and windows between virtual desktops. Hover your mouse over the virtual desktop containing the window you want to move. You can now drag that window to another virtual desktop. This method is handy if know exactly where you want to move the window. Close Desktop 3, for example, and open apps and windows are moved to Desktop 2.

Unfortunately, the built-in virtual desktop feature in Windows 10 is still pretty limited compared to that found in other operating systems. Different desktops cannot have different taskbars, or even different icons on the desktop.

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Virtual desktop windows 10 -

It only opens the Task View, not switch to another virtual desktop directly. If you want speed try using the keyboard shortcuts. Some 3rd party manufacturers added this with their touchpad drivers. But good news!!!! It's coming to all windows with precision trackpads in the anniversary update in a couple days!!

Been running the preview and it works fantastic. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android. Exclamation first if it's just a statement in disbelief. So maybe the marks are off I could be wrong. I use it allot during work. The most productive way is to use it with the keyboard shortcuts. I think it's nice to have this option but I've yet to find a usage scenario for it.

I run a 3 monitor setup and it works great on Windows 10, much better than in 8. But I've never had a need to have a different layer of windows open. What do people use this for? I'm curious. I think it's less useful when you have 3 monitors, because those are actual different desktop's.

I use it a lot at school when on one or two monitor setup for programming although we use Linux, but that distribution has essentially the same feature. I use it to have programming applications open on one desktop and then Google searches and manuals open in another desktop. But it's mostly personal preference. For us with a multi-monitor setup, not much.

Still, it's useful for the scenario when you treat virtual desktop, not as a "desktop extender" but treating it as separate workflow. Think about you are working on Desktop 1 for working on something like video editing, for 3 monitors.

Desktop 2 will be separated for your documents. Desktop 3 is maybe your random stuff like web browsing. Using virtual desktop I think is best if you want separate different workflow, hiding other unrelated stuff having fewer windows on that monitor.

Having multiple-monitors are best for having multiple windows visible to you at the same time without needing to switch something. I use virtual desktop everday, never have to keep opening.. As it is implemented, they have to manually be set up each time.

No you set it once. If you want a program to remain open after restart, that's something else Unless you hibernate. Maybe he meant the latter? I think that can be used more for power-users. Especially for browsers. Tabs are remembered when opened after restart but all load on first desktop. They then have to be moved manually back to their previous virtual desktops.

Awesome tip, thanks. Nothing beats dual monitors. Good news for new comers!! But, I used it on Ubuntu since 7 years. Take advantage of the virtual desktop feature in Windows 10 to organize your virtual space while working on a bunch of different things at once.

Her main focus is Windows, but she also covers everything from mobile tech to video games to DIY hardware projects. She likes to press buttons and see what happens, so don't let her near any control panels. She's a data-driven investigative journalist on the software and services team, reviewing VPNs, password managers, antivirus software, anti-surveillance methods and ethics in tech. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic. Using virtual desktops in Windows 10 can be highly advantageous, particularly for anyone with a single-monitor setup.

If you're still working from home due to the pandemic and juggling several different projects on the same computer, multiple desktops can be a life-saver. And now, if you're one of the many who are upgrading to Windows 11 , it's even easier to set up and toggle between multiple virtual desktops. Select Choose background. Select the list in the Personalize your background section, then select Picture. To create multiple desktops:. Windows 11 Windows 10 More Create multiple desktops On the taskbar, select the Task view icon, then select New desktop.

Open the apps you want to use on that desktop. To switch to another desktop, select Task view again. Set backgrounds for desktops You can also choose different backgrounds for each desktop if you're using a picture.

To change a background if you're using a picture: Right-click on the desktop you want to change. Your PC in VR. Download Streamer App. Get it on Steam. PC Version. Wired Version. Supported Headsets. Computer Requirements. Wireless Version. Oculus Quest Store. Windows 10 or 11 bit or macOS Mojave Release Notes. Version 1. Frequently Asked Questions. The app fails to start.