Windows 10 is a little over a year old now with two major updates already in the hands of consumers. Today, I'd like to talk about one of the lesser known features which might have been added in an update, or it might have been a feature since launch. Either way, I didn't pay any attention to it until very recently, however, it is now an indispensable part of my daily workflow despite them being a little rough around the edges.
Multiple desktops are a feature in Windows 10, which I somehow missed which allow the user to manage many windows by displaying different open windows in different workspaces which can be switched between, effectively adding more monitors. This is really useful for me in particular because I can separate windows based off of tasks. Desktop 1 is for general web browsing and open chats, Desktop 2 is for work, and Desktop 3 is for email and other formal communications. By separating windows into various, more focused, tasks, I am less likely to get distracted by something else. It also has the added benefit of making alt+tab much simpler to use since each workspace maintains it's own active window list which it cycles through.
For whatever reason, Windows key-binds are always a pain to find, so here are all the keyboard shorcuts related to Desktops I know of
WIN+tab~ Brings up a dashboard view which shows all open windows on the current desktop and a list of desktops on the bottomWIN+ctrl+left arrow~ Switches one Desktop to the leftWIN+ctrl+right arrow~ Switches one Desktop to the right
If you want to try this out for your self, you can create a new desktop in the dashboard view (WIN+tab) by hitting the button labled "New Desktop" in the bottom right. If you want to remove a desktop, simply click the x which appears over it when the mouse is hovered over one at the bottom of that view. Another usful trick is right-clicking on a window in the dashboard view opens up a host of options, including moving the window to a different desktop or pinning it to all desktops, forcing it to appear in the same spot no matter which one is active.