How to Manage Multiple Desktops in Windows 11
Some people have two (or even three?) monitors connected to their Windows PC so they have extra space for all the computing they need to do. But even if you’re using a single display, there’s a way to expand your workspace: virtual desktops.
Virtual desktops—or multiple desktops, as they’re now officially called—are essentially copies of your main desktop that can be accessed with a single click or keyboard shortcut , each with its own separate set of open windows and applications. They can be very useful when you have many different tasks going on at the same time.
For example, you might have one desk for working from 9 to 5, and another for gaming and social media when it’s lunch time. Or you can set up one working project on the first desktop and another on the second.
Several desktops are very flexible and easy to use. Here’s how to get started.
Setting up your first virtual desktop in Windows 11
You can bring up the multi-desktop interface by pressing Windows+Tab or clicking the View Tasks button on the taskbar—it looks like a white square on top of a black one. If the Task View button doesn’t appear, right-click the taskbar, select Taskbar Settings, and turn the button on.
On the task view screen, you will see open desktops at the bottom. Click New Desktop to create a new one to the right of the existing ones – there seems to be no limit to the number of desktops you can create, although in reality you’ll only need a few.
You can then click on any desktop thumbnail to go to that desktop. Note that desktop icon shortcuts and pinned taskbar icons remain the same across multiple desktops. What changes is the open windows and open applications: for example, if you want to use Edge on two desktops, you’ll have to launch it separately on each of them.
When it comes to synchronizing multiple instances of programs and applications, each instance operates independently. If you run Chrome on two different desktops, Chrome will treat it as two separate computers – your browsing data will still be synced if syncing is enabled, but you won’t be able to switch between all tabs like you would if you had two windows open on one desktop.
Some apps don’t support two separate instances, while others do: for example, you can open as many Explorer and Web browser windows as you want, but Photoshop will limit you to one. If you can usually only run one instance of an application on Windows, you may want to open it on only one of your virtual desktops.
How to manage virtual desktops
Any time you need to access virtual desktops, use the same Windows+Tab keyboard shortcut or the View Tasks button on the taskbar as described above. You can also hold Windows+Ctrl and press the left or right arrow to scroll through virtual desktops. Windows+Ctrl+D creates a new virtual desktop and goes straight to it.
To better differentiate your desktops in the Task View screen, you can set a different wallpaper for each one: Simply go to your desktop, right-click on the desktop itself, and select Personalize . You can also rename desktops by clicking the name above the thumbnail and typing something else.
Right-click the desktop thumbnail in Task View to access more options. From the pop-up menu, you can move desktops left or right in a general order, as well as access the already mentioned options: renaming desktops and changing the background. You can select Close Desktop to close the desktop and all applications on it (you can also click the X above the desktop thumbnail to do this).
When you close a desktop, all applications open on it move to the next desktop on the left, so you’re not in danger of accidentally losing your work while closing desktops. If you close all your desktops except the first one, all open applications will accumulate on it.
You can use virtual desktops with multiple monitors, but you can’t put different desktops on different screens: when you switch to another virtual desktop, that desktop fills all your displays, so you’re free to rearrange your open windows as you see fit. you have everything you think you need (as is the case if you only work with one desktop).