In Windows 11 there’s a button on the taskbar next to the start button that lets you switch between multiple desktop environments. It seems like something that would probably be useful in theory, but I can’t think of any reason why I would want to use it. Is it actually useful? What do people use it for?
Desktop 1: WFH environment - mail, terminal, ticket queue etc.
Desktop 2: Me-stuff - lemmy, gmail, youtube, netflix, steam.
Why not just have all of that open on one desktop? Is it because you want your personal stuff to be hidden in case you need to share your screen?
To group your open windows into 2 “themes”.
So for example when you use Alt-Tab, you only flip through your work windows while working, and only through your me-stuff while on break.It’s a nice seapration of concerns. All the taskbar icons only show in their respective space, so I can keep my mind off work when I’m not working, and vice-versa, and there’s less general clutter to sort through.
It’s a feature that Microsoft was very late to rip off from other platforms. I’ve been using it in different Linux/UNIX graphical environments for ages.
You can think about it as a way to organize your windows by splitting them into groups. If you work on multiple things and require to have many windows opened simultaneously, you can make your desktop less cluttered. You can then switch between the desktop by swiping laptop touchpad (with 3 or 4 fingers), or hitting some keyboard combo.
I also use them kind of instead traditional task switcher. I’ve got one browser window maximized on workspace 1, fullscreen terminal on 2, mail and messengers on 3, even more apps on 4. It’s like multi monitor functionality with just one screen.
Another use I haven’t seen mentioned is that it’s good when you only have a single monitor. You can easily use shortcut keys to flip between the desktops. I could have my remote connection to another computer in one desktop and my local stuff in another and easily switch between the two.
This is something I actually use all the time. It helps to mentally separate the tasks I’m working on and keep things from getting cluttered. For example, if I’m editing audio on one desktop and preparing a 3D print on another, I can keep all those programs and files siloed into their own little workspace. I can also just stop working on either task at any point and just switch to a new clean desktop without losing my open programs and windows so I can just pop back into them later.
Nitpick: the proper term is “virtual desktop” or “workspace”, as “desktop environment” is already a common term for the software composing the entire user interface.
I enjoy using this feature on any operating system since it lets me quickly scan through and declutter open windows, and place categories of windows in their own workspaces. I might have only productivity windows on one, and leisure and socials on another. It’s especially effective if you learn the keyboard shortcuts for navigating inside and between workspaces. All this improves my productivity and keeps distractions away.
I use it at work to switch between my email+ticket desktop, my coding desktop+firefox, and my slacking off desktop. It makes it easy for me to organize things
Don’t know how it’s implemented on Windows, but I have been using and loving this feature for decades on Linux, it allows you to have several workspaces and assigning different shortcut, so for example regardless of where I’am, if I hit Super+1 I get taken straight to my browser, and Super+9 takes me to Spotify, no need to be alt+, tabbing until I get the window I’m looking for.
Oh wow, windows is finally getting that feature? Nice. As a mac user this one of these “how the hell do you not have this” features that really baffled me.
I use them when I have to work on multiple projects at once (programming). Basically, I have a desktop per project with all the documents and programms open that I need for that project. It’s very convenient.
Windows 10 had it too. Win + Tab
I personally really like the way macOS handles multiple desktops and full-screen apps. Would love to recreate it in KDE.
Just wait for Plasma 6.0, it’s already there available out-of-box (except auto creating new workspace for fullscreen window)
Windows 10 has had that for a few years now too, it was just less visible and a little clunkier.
If it’s anything like Mac’s, it’s a cleaner way to jump between apps without having to constantly adjust your windows. While I work, I have a desktop for Photoshop, Illustrator, Chrome, and one for both Slack and Outlook.
I run my game on one desktop… Swap quickly to the second desktop with Ctrl+win+right/left, open Firefox and Google whatever I need and then back into the game…
When I was a university student I used this feature a lot (on Linux and macOS, I didn’t use Windows which didn’t have this feature yet then).
I usually had different things to do at any one time (homework for different courses) and put the stuff I needed to do for each of them on one desktop each, plus one for things unrelated to university work (forums, wikis, reddit, general browsing). That way I wasn’t distracted by other stuff when working on one thing.
I hardly used the feature before and after that.
When I am comparing branches or working on multiple tickets at a time, separating each instance of my IDEs, as well as Jira tickets and Confluence documents related to the specific projects into their own little sandbox. This way I can more easily remember which windows and browser tabs go with each project.
It’s basically GoScreen which I didn’t learn about until recently…but I didn’t see some of the features I like about go screen.
I have 3 monitors and I get to the point I have projects open for estimating claims (fire and water damage) with estimating software, pictures, pdf diagrams and notepad files open. Then my phone rings and I go to a different mode…I want all of that exactly where I left it, and jump back to a second desktop with all of my other software open. (Phone, email, web browser etc) to do normal business.
If I didn’t have this I would never get these projects done because I would close everything and have to open it all to get back to the same place in my analysis and evaluation.
Or you’d be buried by 300 layers of very similar open apps with different info loaded in each instance
I’m a freelance consultant/trainer but I only have one computer, I use them to split my personal and client specific functions.
I actually use three desktops:
one for my “Normal” usage, so my personal e-mail, news, youtube, lemmy, netflix, etc. one for my gaming, I usually have up the game, notes, spreadsheets, streams, etc. one for my work, with client related websites, notes, code, file explorers, etc.
When I’m teaching I actually have a second user login for my computer that I switch over to. This is to prevent me accidentally sharing anything on my screen that I didn’t intentionally prepare ahead of time. Especially things like accidentally showing my other client’s files/notes, downloads/recent files, browser history/autocomplete, etc.
i’m on Linux and i use a grid of 20 desktops… on 2 screens. (so 40 desktops total) but generally it’s a single window per desktop. i have tiling, so windows don’t overlap with each other
