Either click on the Task View icon on the task bar (shown below and highlighted in red), or press the Win-Tab keys simultaneously.

There are two ways to use this mode in Windows 10. This can help sandbox user content and keep things organized - you could theoretically have one desktop open and showing a 3D render in progress, while a second desktop is dedicated to tutorials and research on 3D rendering and a third desktop has your IM windows and email tucked away. Instead of having one workspace with a taskbar and icons of operating programs, you can have multiple desktop windows, each with its own open software. Requests by the virtualized OS are intercepted by an application software layer called a hypervisor, which relays the request to the host operating system, which then interfaces with the hardware platform.Ī virtual desktop is a method of extending a computer users' workspace beyond what's typically shown on the screen at any given time. VMware and Oracle both produce VM software designed to run either locally or remotely. A virtual desktop is not the same thing as desktop virtualization, which refers to a method of running a separate operating system instance on top of an already-existing OS (here's how to install Windows 10 in a virtual machine). If you have Windows 7 or 8 and want to experiment with a Microsoft solution, Desktops 2.0 is available from Sysinternals.īefore we tackle what Microsoft has done on this front, we need to define the term Virtual Desktop, since it can be used in different contexts to refer to different kinds of products. That doesn't mean Microsoft never supported it - it just never shipped standard in a base OS install.

Mac and Linux users have had this capability for years, but Microsoft never added it as a core functionality to any OS before Windows 10. One of Windows 10's nicest features, particularly if you're a power user, is the ability to launch separate virtual desktops.

Sysinternals desktops windows 10