I recently had a discussion on a forum on the usefulness of virtual desktops and the implementation on Windows 10. Now everyone can have their opinions on virtual desktops and I do as well, but in that discussion some things came up that are apparently not so well known.
- Some people find it cumbersome to switch between virtual desktops to the point it becomes unusable for them. They need to go to Task View (WIN+TAB), then use the mouse to click the desktop they want.
What people do not realize, is there is of course a keyboard shortcut for this too. Just hit CTRL+WIN+→ or CTRL+WIN+← to switch/scroll through all the virtual desktops you have created.
Bonus tip: when in Task View, you can drag and drop any open window into any existing virtual desktop, or even on a new one to organize your windows. - Some people find it a great feature that Windows launches programs in each virtual desktop in their own process. Others find that annoying. Few people seem to know, you can choose the behavior you want with the correct settings:
Go to: Settings -> System -> Multitasking
Then, under Virtual desktops, you will see the first line that says: “On the taskbar, show windows that are open on” with a drop down. This dropdown has two options. The first is “All desktops” and the second is “Only the desktop I’m using”.
“All desktops” will have programs share process, so if you click an open program in the taskbar, it will switch to the desktop it is running on and make the window active. The other option will start a new instance of that program on the desktop you are on if it is not running there. - Some people do not like the new timeline feature in the task view screen (WIN+TAB). This can be turned off if you want.
Go to: Settings -> Privacy -> Activity history
On that page, uncheck both items. Scroll down and toggle all accounts for which activities are shown, and done. No more timeline when doing WIN+TAB