If you work on a single laptop screen, your desktop can quickly become a chaotic mess of overlapping windows. You might have a sprawling Excel spreadsheet for work, a dozen Google Chrome tabs open for research, a Spotify window playing music, and a Slack conversation demanding your attention.
Instead of constantly minimising and maximising individual windows to find what you need, you can use the Virtual Desktops feature in Windows 11. This feature allows you to create completely separate, clean workspaces on a single physical monitor, allowing you to seamlessly switch between a “Work” desktop and a “Personal” desktop with a single click.
How to Create a New Virtual Desktop
Windows 11 makes accessing your virtual workspaces incredibly simple through the Task View interface.
- Look at the taskbar at the bottom of your screen. Click the Task View button (it looks like a white square overlapping a translucent square). Alternatively, press the Windows Key + Tab on your keyboard.
- The screen will zoom out, showing all your currently open windows. At the bottom of the screen, you will see a bar labelled “Desktop 1”.
- Click the large + New Desktop button to the right of “Desktop 1”.
A new workspace labelled “Desktop 2” will instantly appear. Click on “Desktop 2” to enter it. You will find a completely empty screen, ready for you to open new applications without the clutter of your first desktop.
How to Customise and Organise Desktops
Having multiple desktops labelled simply “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2” is confusing. You should label them to reflect their purpose.
- Open the Task View interface (Windows Key + Tab).
- Right-click on the thumbnail for “Desktop 1”.
- Select Rename from the context menu and type a new name, such as “Finance Project” or “Work”.
- Right-click the thumbnail again and select Choose background. Assigning a different wallpaper to each virtual desktop provides a strong visual cue so you instantly know which workspace you are currently in.
How to Move Windows Between Desktops
If you accidentally open a work document on your personal desktop, you do not need to close it and reopen it.
- Open Task View.
- Hover your mouse over the desktop that contains the misplaced window (do not click it, just hover). The screen will display all open windows on that desktop.
- Click and hold the window you want to move.
- Drag it down and drop it onto the thumbnail of the correct destination desktop at the bottom of the screen.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Maximum Efficiency
To truly master Virtual Desktops, you must stop clicking the Task View button and use keyboard shortcuts to slide instantly between workspaces.
- Ctrl + Windows Key + Right Arrow: Switch instantly to the desktop on the right.
- Ctrl + Windows Key + Left Arrow: Switch instantly to the desktop on the left.
- Ctrl + Windows Key + D: Create a brand new virtual desktop.
- Ctrl + Windows Key + F4: Close the current virtual desktop. (Any apps open on that desktop will not be closed; they will simply be dumped onto the previous desktop).