Like the Mad Hatter in Wonderland, Microsoft now has a built-in way of moving down for clean cups. If you have even been in the middle of a project with windows open everywhere and suddenly needed to switch to something else but still needed all those lovely windows you will appreciate virtual desktops. They allow you to just switch to a completely clean desktop and start fresh. With the ability to switch back to the cluttered one you were so diligently working on.
There is a little symbol at the bottom of your screen that looks like a rectangle with a square on top of it. It sits next to the search window. If you click on this your screen will be put into a window and you will see two (more if you are already using this) miniature desktop screens on the bottom. One will be the cluttered one and the other a clean one. If you click on the clean one, then you will get a clean desktop that you can immediately start cluttering again. You can use this again to switch back to your original one. You will also see off to the right bottom a “+” button that will allow you to add more desktops as many as you desire.
While on this screen you can also drag an open program to any of the desktops you wish. This allows you to even organize all that extra clutter.
And for even quicker access there are keyboard shortcuts that allow you to move and switch without using the (dor)mouse.
Keyboard shortcuts for using Virtual Desktop in Windows 10:
- WIN + CTRL + LEFT/RIGHT: Switch to previous or next desktop
- WIN + CTRL + D: Create a new desktop
- WIN + CTRL + F4: Close the current desktop
- WIN + TAB: Launch task view
