Drag and release the window on an alternate desktop.

Source: Windows Central

Right-click menu method

Click the Task View button in your taskbar.

• You can also use the Windows key + Tab shortcut on your keyboard, or you can swipe with one finger from the left of your touchscreen.

Right-click on the window you’d like to move to another desktop.

Source: Windows Central

Click the desktop to which you’d like to move the window.

Source: Windows Central

You can move windows back and forth between desktops to your heart’s content.

How to duplicate windows across virtual desktops

Certain windows or collections of windows from one app can be duplicated across all virtual desktops.

Click the Task View button in your taskbar.

• You can also use the Windows key + Tab shortcut on your keyboard, or you can swipe with one finger from the left of your touchscreen.

Right-click an active window.

Source: Windows Central

Click Show windows from this app on all desktops to duplicate all windows from one app.

Source: Windows Central

How to remove a virtual desktop in Windows 10

Want to get back to just one desktop? No problem.

Click the Task View button in your taskbar.

• You can also use the Windows key + Tab shortcut on your keyboard, or you can swipe with one finger from the left of your touchscreen.

Click the X in the top-right corner of the desktop icon.

Source: Windows Central

Open and running windows in a desktop you close will be moved back to your original desktop. You can also use the Ctrl + Windows key + F4 keyboard shortcut to immediately close the virtual desktop you’re currently viewing.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

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Windows 10 switching between desktops

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Replies (7) 

I think it’d be awesome if the Microsoft team added an easier way to switch between desktops in Windows 10. I’m currently using the technical preview and I don’t like having to either go down to the task view or hit the key binds which consist of 3 different keys. I think it would be really nice if they implemented another ‘charms bar’ like menu to swich between desktops just like how you can move to the top left hand corner of the screen to change apps. So if you moved your hand to the bottom/top right hand of the screen it displayed a preview of all the active desktops as well as a red X on them to close it.

I have found that the Task View icon on the Taskbar is the easiest way to work with the Virtual Desktops.

You can click that icon and this displays all of the virtual desktops. You can switch to any of those desktops or click the X close button on each desktop.

3 people found this reply helpful

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Thanks for your feedback.

I think it’d be awesome if the Microsoft team added an easier way to switch between desktops in Windows 10. I’m currently using the technical preview and I don’t like having to either go down to the task view or hit the key binds which consist of 3 different keys. I think it would be really nice if they implemented another ‘charms bar’ like menu to swich between desktops just like how you can move to the top left hand corner of the screen to change apps. So if you moved your hand to the bottom/top right hand of the screen it displayed a preview of all the active desktops as well as a red X on them to close it.

I have found that the Task View icon on the Taskbar is the easiest way to work with the Virtual Desktops.

You can click that icon and this displays all of the virtual desktops. You can switch to any of those desktops or click the X close button on each desktop.

I don’t like how small the desktop icons are and the windows view are much larger, I want a menu showing only the desktops so I don’t have to focus my mouse on a tiny area to switch desktops. Or maybe an easier keybind would suffice like control + right/left

How to Switch Between Desktops in Windows 10?

Windows 10 provides an amazing feature with which you can easily manage and organise your work. This feature is Multiple Desktops, also termed as Virtual Desktop. Yes! You can have more than one desktop at a time on a single machine, and of course, switch between them.

Imagine having 10 to 15 applications open on your desktop. What a mess! To manage this stuff, you can go for multiple desktops and move a few of the applications to another desktop.

If you are working on multiple projects simultaneously, then you can create different desktops for different projects. Such as one for a game related project, one for an under-development website, one for communicating with your teammates and another, maybe for some amusement like songs, games or a movie.

After creating a number of desktops, you need to know how to switch between them. Windows 10 is very fast and switching between the desktops is even faster. This article is going to tell you three very simple methods to quickly switch to a different desktop in Windows 10.

Steps to switch between the Desktops in Windows 10

Method 1: Using Task View Button

Task View button is present on the taskbar in Windows 10. This button looks like:

Sometimes, the Task View button is hidden by default. You can make it visible in two steps:

• Right-click on Taskbar.
• Select the Show Task View button.

Step 1: Click on the Task View button present on the taskbar.

As soon as you click, a new screen will appear.

This screen contains four things:

1. Taskbar at the bottom: This taskbar belongs to the desktop which is currently open.
2. Desktop ribbon: Above the taskbar, appears a ribbon which holds all the desktops which you have created. They are given names like Desktop 1, Desktop 2 and so on.
3. New Desktop button: Look at the right-most corner on the Desktop ribbon, you will find a New Desktop button represented by a Plus sign. By clicking on this button, you can create a new desktop.
4. Active applications on the current desktop: The major part of this screen is covered by the snaps of applications which are active on the current desktop. If you hover the mouse on different desktops present on the ribbon, the applications of the respective desktop will appear in this area.

Step 2: Just click on the desktop which you want to open from the Desktop ribbon.

Method 2: Ctrl + Windows + Arrow Key(Left/Right)

This is a keyboard shortcut to switch between the desktops in Windows 10.

Step 1: Press the Ctrl key and Windows key simultaneously.

Step 2: Without leaving the above two keys, press the left/right arrow key once.
This will take you to the neighbouring desktop. Pressing the arrow key again will take you to the next desktop. In this way, you can go through all the desktops one by one using the keyboard shortcut.

Method 3: Four – finger Swipe

If you have a touch-screen, then this is the best way to switch between the desktops in Windows 10.

Swipe with four fingers in either direction and the neighbouring desktop will slide into the screen. If you want to go back to the previous desktop, swipe again with four fingers in the opposite direction.

That’s it! Now you know how to switch between the desktops quickly in Windows 10 and you can do multitasking more efficiently.