If you have more than three, it’ll probably be faster to use Task View. If you want to fast-switch between different desktops, you can press Ctrl+Win+L/R arrow to move between the desktops you’ve configured. You can’t customize icon layouts or have different applications pinned to the taskbar. One thing to understand about virtual desktops, however, is that they aren’t completely independent instances of the Windows desktop. Choosing to close all instances of an application only affects the desktop that you’re currently using. Applications that are open in multiple desktops (say, browser windows) have a blue line underneath them in all other desktops, so you can see at a glance if you have duplicate instances of a program running somewhere else on a system. The act of moving a window can also be used to create another desktop, meaning I don’t need to create a new instance before shifting the window. It’s also possible to move a window open on one desktop to a different desktop.
Personalize desktop view software#
Requests by the virtualized OS are intercepted by an application software layer called a hypervisor, which relays the request to the host operating system, which then interfaces with the hardware platform. VMware and Oracle both produce VM software designed to run either locally or remotely.
Personalize desktop view how to#
A virtual desktop is not the same thing as desktop virtualization, which refers to a method of running a separate operating system instance on top of an already-existing OS (here’s how to install Windows 10 in a virtual machine). If you have Windows 7 or 8 and want to experiment with a Microsoft solution, Desktops 2.0 is available from Sysinternals.īefore we tackle what Microsoft has done on this front, we need to define the term Virtual Desktop, since it can be used in different contexts to refer to different kinds of products. That doesn’t mean Microsoft never supported it - it just never shipped standard in a base OS install. Mac and Linux users have had this capability for years, but Microsoft never added it as a core functionality to any OS before Windows 10. One of Windows 10’s nicest features, particularly if you’re a power user, is the ability to launch separate virtual desktops.