So you can get the most out of Windows 10's multiple desktops

Even so, there are many Windows 10 users who are still not aware that this function exists, or have not seen how to take advantage of it. If that is your case, this article may be of interest to you, as we will explain why multiple desktops can be useful, and how you can use them efficiently in Windows 10.

What are multiple desktops and what are they for

Has it ever happened to you that you have so many applications open that when you change windows it&39;s hard for you to find what you were doing? Or that you need to have an instant messaging app open, but seeing it on the screen distracts you? Virtual desktops seek to solve problems like these by allowing to distribute windows in different isolated workspaces, between which we can easily switch. "

Windows that are on another desktop will never appear on the current desktop, not even on the taskbar or at the bottom of the desktop. press ALT+TAB, unless we navigate to that other desktop.

It's like having multiple monitors, inside a single monitor

The most common is organize applications according to the tasks or contexts to which they are associatedFor example, if we are doing research to write a report and also listening to music, it might be a good idea to put the research tools (browser, Word, etc) on one desktop, and the music player on a different desktop.

But in reality nothing is written in stone about this, so everyone is free to organize the windows in the way that suits them best.

How to create a new desktop in Windows 10

To create a new desktop in Windows 10 simply enter the Task View and then press the New Desktop button that will appear in the lower right corner of the screen."

"We can access the Task View>"

Pressing the Task View button>"

Pressing the keys WIN + TAB.
On computers with a touch screen, it is also useful to swipe from the left edge of the screen, from the outside to the inside.

We can also create a new desktop without going through the Task View, using the keyboard shortcut CTRL + WIN + D.

How to close virtual desktops

If we go too far when creating desktops and we want to eliminate some we can do it in the following ways:

Pressing CTRL + WIN + F4 This shortcut removes the current desktop, but does not close applications inside it, but instead moves them to the desk with the number immediately below it.For example, if we are on desktop 5 with a Word window open, removing it will cause the window to appear on desktop 4.
Opening Task View and pressing the X> button"

How to switch desktops and move windows between them

Once we have several desktops open, the next step is to use them to organize the windows. Unfortunately, Windows 10 doesn't offer keyboard shortcuts for this, so the only way to move windows between desktops is by using the Task View

To move windows from one desktop to another you have to enter the Task View, and drag the window you want with the mouse to one of the other desks.

Now, to move from one desktop to another there are several paths:

Using the shortcut CTRL + WIN + Left Arrow/Right Arrow. With the right arrow we move to the next desktop (eg, from 1 to 2) and with the left arrow we move to the previous desktop (eg, from 2 to 1).
Using Task View. We enter it and then click on the desktop we want to go to.

In addition, within the Task View we can preview the applications on a desktop without going to it . To do this, simply pass the mouse over the desktop, without clicking.

Other options and tricks for virtual desktops

Finally, we can only comment on some additional options and tricks for those who want to use multiple desktops in a more personalized way.

You may want to open multiple windows of the same application, in order to move each one to a different desktop and have the application present in all of them. One way to do this is to hold press the SHIFT key while clicking on an already open application on the taskbar. This will open a new window of it. We can then move each window to a different desktop using the Task View

If we use Office we can do something similar by going to the View tab > New window button . This method is slightly different because does not create a new instance of the application (eg, a new document) but instead opens a new window that has the same document open as the main window. Very useful when we want to have the same file at hand on all desktops.

As we said before, Windows 10 is configured so that the taskbar shows only the applications open on the current desktop (the same happens with ALT + TAB). But if we prefer all apps to be displayed, even those from other desktops, we can modify that behavior in Settings > System > Multitasking > Virtual Desktops .