When Microsoft finally added virtual desktop support to Windows 10, my productivity instantly skyrocketed. Virtual desktops create secondary [and tertiary, and..] home screens for your PC, each running instances of its own software, that you can quickly hop between. Theyre one of the
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. But every time I profess my love for virtual desktops I inevitably get asked, What do you use them for?
I can only speak to my own experiences, of course. I like segregating my work software from my play software, to resist the allure of Discord and GeForce Now when Im on the clock. Virtual desktops also come in handy if Im working on several complicated projects at onceeach one gets its own desktop. But dont just take my word for it! Buried deep in a
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revolving around using Win + Shift + to shift windows between your monitors [
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], I found an
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where real people were sharing how they use virtual desktops.
Reddit user
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kicked things off with a use case that mirrors my own. [Virtual desktops arent] bad for focus if youre disciplined about it, but I think it really shines when you have a multi-step project youre working on thats layout sensitive, or having to juggle a couple projects simultaneously.
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said using them should making running online Dungeons & Dragons campaigns much easier, which
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expanded on. A lot of the time you have a ton of space being taken up by the actual online D&D tool, but you can also set up a whole desktop of relevant documentation, notes, etc., that can come up at a keypress, rather than shuffling windows. You could even stage documents for several encounters that way. Think of it as a way to very easily switch between groups of arranged windows.
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IDG
Windows 10s Task View: The top of the screen shows all your virtual desktops, the middle shows the apps running in the current desktop, and the bottom shows Timeline. [Click image to enlarge it.]
Now thats practicaland damned helpful for overwhelmed DMs.
{{#url}}Anarchion{{/url}}{{^url}}Anarchion{{/url}}
uses virtual desktops to segregate types of tools, rather than discrete projects. I use multiple desktops to organize applications based on activity, they wrote. Communication [Teams, Email, etc] on one desktop, coding on another [IDE, terminal, all the browser tabs], etc.
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breaks out virtual desktop when legal research gets too complex for their ultrawide monitor. Maybe Ill need to compare an old version of a statute with the new one or compare one regulation to another. That will go into side-by-side windows in a separate desktop, they wrote. Maybe Ill also need to track down some case law. Ill start a new desktop and start collecting. Depending on my needs, maybe Ill segregate my jurisdictions cases in one browser window, other jurisdictions cases in another window, and maybe Ill put some secondary resources [e.g., dictionaries, treatises] in a third window. And if there are multiple topics, Ill often research them in separate desktops.
So there you have it: Five different ways that five different users [including yours truly] get more done with virtual desktops. If you stew on it a bit you might just come up with a unique use case for your own particular work flowand you might just be blown away by how much time and hassle this feature can save. Our guide to
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explains everything you need to know to get started, step-by-step and keyboard shortcut-by-keyboard shortcut. Enjoy your newfound productivity!