How to Manage Virtual Desktops in Windows 11 – Guide
Windows 11 is the latest major version of Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, announced on June 24, 2021 and is the successor to Windows 10, released in 2015. It includes major changes to the Windows Shell affected by canceled Windows 10X, including a redesigned Start menu, replacement of its “dynamic tiles” by a separate “Widgets” panel on the taskbar, creating side-by-side sets of windows.
Windows 10 is no longer supported on devices that use eighth-gen or newer Intel Core CPUs, AMD Ryzen CPUs based on the Zen+ microarchitecture, Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 ARM system-on-chip or newer.
How to Manage Virtual Desktops in Windows 11
See your virtual desktops
You can manage your desktops by clicking the Desktops icon on the taskbar, looking like two gray squares that will display all your open programs and all the virtual desktops you’ve created. (Or use the Win + Tab shortcut.) Windows 11 also has a rollover feature which allows you to hover over the Desktops icon to view existing desktops, reorder them, and create new ones.
Create new workspaces
To create a new workspace, click the New Workspace button on the toolbar and a new workspace will be added to the list. (Or use the keyboard shortcut Win + Ctrl + D.) The new desktop will be empty, but any open programs you were using will still be open on the previous desktop. ..
Rename your desktops
To rename open desktops, click the default name (Desktop 1, Desktop 2, etc.) in the small preview image and enter a new name. You can label them by specific purpose or project. ..
Reorder your desktops
With multiple desktops, it can be difficult to tell them apart. Arrange open workspaces by dragging them to your preferred order from the list at the bottom of the screen, or right-click on a workspace and select Move Right to change the order.
Change backgrounds on your desktops
Windows 11 lets you customize the backgrounds for each virtual desktop. Right-click a workspace and select “Choose Background.” You can choose from a variety of backgrounds or upload your own. The background of the current virtual desktop will change, while other open desktops keep their original backgrounds. ..
Make Windows appear on desktops
Edge offers a variety of ways to keep your programs and documents separate from those in other workpaces. You can have multiple tabs open in Edge on a desktop, for example, and then jump to a new desktop and open a completely different set of Edge tabs for personal use.
If you want a specific window (or series of windows) to be available on multiple desktops, open the Desktops view, right-click the application, and select Show this window on all desktops. Selecting Show windows for this application on all desktops will do the same for all open versions of the application.
Drag apps to another desktop
Applications can be dragged to other open desktops for easy reorganization. If you close a desktop with programs open, they will automatically be moved to the next available desktop.
Customize Quick View Taskbar Settings
If you want to open apps on the taskbar to show windows from all desktops when you click on them, go to Settings > System > Multitasking > Desktops > On taskbar, and set the “On taskbar” preference to “show all open windows.” In other areas of work, you can also use the Alt+Tab keyboard shortcut to display all windows from all desktops.
Add or remove desktop icon
Windows 11 adds the “Desktops” icon to the taskbar by default, but if you don’t want to up space (or can’t find it), right-click on the taskbar and open the taskbar settings. Then use the toggle next to “Task View” to remove the icon or add it back. Keyboard shortcuts will continue to work regardless of whether the “Desktop” icon is visible or not. ..
Final note
How to manage virtual desktops in Windows 11 is a topic that is often asked by users. This guide will show you how to do it in a simple and easy way. In this guide, we will be using the Windows 10 operating system. If you are using Windows 8 or Windows 7, you can still follow this guide. However, some of the steps may not work on those systems. First of all, create a new virtual desktop if you have not done so already. To do this, open the Start screen and type “New Virtual Desktop”. Then click on the “Create” button and enter “Virtual Desktop name” into the text field. You can also use the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl+N” to create a new virtual desktop. Now open your favorite file manager and browse to your C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming.virtualDesktop folder. There you will find your virtual desktops folders and files. If you have more than one virtual desktop, each one will have its own folder in this folder. We will only be using one virtual desktop in this guide so everything should work fine. Now open your favorite application and click on its icon in the taskbar or right-click on it and select “Open In New Window”. Now click on the “New Virtual Desktop” button again and enter “Desktop name” into the text field as shown in Figure 1 below: Figure 1: New Virtual Desktop Name
