How to switch between desktops with keyboard shortcut

I loved to see that there are several desktops in Windows 10 like on other operating systems. I tried to switch from one desktop to the other with the keyboard but ALT+TAB and WINDOWS+TAB do not what i assumed. I wish to switch to desktop 1 with (per example) ALT+1 and to Desktop 3 with ALT+3 like on most Linux desktop environments.

Thanks in advance,

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Ctrl+win+arrow keys works, thanks. The disadvantage is that one needs 2 hands and needs many keypresses to move from desktop 1 to lets say 5.

I loved to see a one handed shortcut with witch I can fastly access every desktop I have.

Additionally it would be nice to be able to set the number of desktops I have after startup and to make good things great, it would be great if I would be able to set that f.e. outlook should start on desktop X after startup.

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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.

How to use multiple desktops in Windows 10

Windows 10’s virtual desktops feature is super helpful if you’re working on a bunch of different things.

If you’re a single-monitor user — or even if you’re not — multiple virtual desktops can be very handy. Especially if you’re now working from home for the foreseeable future due to the coronavirus pandemic and juggling different projects on the same computer. Whether you’re a longtime Windows 10 ($170 at Best Buy) user or have only recently upgraded after support for Windows 7 ended earlier this year, multiple desktops are a super useful feature.

The Task View pane in Windows 10 allows you to add an unlimited number of virtual desktops quickly and easily. You can manage the view of your virtual desktop, and move applications to different desktops, show windows on all desktops or close pages on a selected desktop.

How to add a desktop in Windows 10

Get more out of your tech

To add a virtual desktop, open up the new Task View pane by clicking the Task View button (two overlapping rectangles) on the taskbar, or by pressing the Windows Key + Tab. In the Task View pane, click New desktop to add a virtual desktop. If you have two or more desktops already open, the «Add a desktop» button will appear as a gray tile with a plus symbol. You can also quickly add a desktop without entering the Task View pane by using the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + Ctrl + D.

How to switch between desktops

To switch between virtual desktops, open the Task View pane and click on the desktop you want to switch to. You can also quickly switch desktops without going into the Task View pane by using the keyboard shortcuts Windows Key + Ctrl + Left Arrow and Windows Key + Ctrl + Right Arrow.

You can add an unlimited number of virtual desktops — we stopped at 368.

Read more from TechRepublic: 20 pro tips to make Windows 10 work the way you want (free PDF)

Move windows between desktops

To move a window from one desktop to another, you first have to open up the Task View pane and then hover over the desktop containing the window you want to move. The windows on that desktop will pop up; find the window you want to move, right-click it, and go to Move to and choose the desktop you want to move the window to. You can also drag and drop windows — grab the window you want to move and drag it into the desired desktop.

Close a desktop

To close a virtual desktop, open up the Task View pane and hover over the desktop you want to close until a small X appears in the upper right corner. Click the X to close the desktop. You can also close desktops without going into the Task View pane by using the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + Ctrl + F4 (this will close the desktop you’re currently on).

How to change shortcut key for switching between virtual desktops in windows 10?

In linux I use a shortcut to switch between 4 workspaces: win + 1/2/3/4 .

I would like to have something like this in Windows 10.

UPDATE SOLUTION 2017, WINDOWS 10×64

1. Update your windows version to most recent through this updater. You may also need Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015
2. Download and unzip this Windows 10 Virtual Desktop Enhancer (0.9.1) works for me.
3. Change content of file settings.ini to

1. Run virtual-desktop-enhancer.exe as administrator.

9 Answers 9

What you need is as follows:

• Snapping window: WIN + LEFT or RIGHT (can be used with UP or DOWN to get into quadrants)
• Switch to recent window: Alt + Tab (unchanged) – Hold shows new Task view window view, let go and switches to app.
• Task view: WIN + Tab – New Task view opens up and stays open.
• Create new virtual desktop: WIN + Ctrl + d
• Close current virtual desktop: WIN + Ctrl + F4
• Switch virtual desktop: WIN + Ctrl + LEFT or RIGHT

I think I just built exactly what you’re looking for. I use a window manager on linux and wanted to use hotkeys in a similar way on Windows.

My script uses CapsLock because it’s more convenient for me, but you could easily configure it to work for you. There’s probably a bug or two in there but in general I’ve found it to be pretty solid. Hope this helps you out!

I just made a script for autohotkey that accomplishes this in Windows 10 for up to 10 desktops.

How to get it working:

Download and install autohotkey. Copy and paste the code bellow into notepad and save it with the file extension .ahk

I suggest making a shortcut of this file in your startup folder so it runs when Windows starts.

Switch desktop: WIN+DESKTOP NUMBER (0 = desktop number 10)

New desktop: CTRL+WIN+D

Close desktop: CTRL+WIN+F4

Display desktop state: WIN+’

In order for it to work you must ONLY use hotkeys for opening, closing, and changing desktops because the script listens for these hotkeys to know the current and total number of desktops.

If you do create, close, or change desktops via the WIN+TAB menu with the mouse the script will stop working. In order to get it working again you will need to edit the first two lines to reflect the current state of your desktops. (desktopcount/currentdesktop)

This doesn’t mean you can’t use the WIN+TAB screen as an overview of your current desktops. You can actually use it in combination of the hotkeys to organize your desktops. Yes, the hotkeys still work when the windows task viewer is open! (WIN+TAB) Just DO NOT use the mouse.

Also, wait for the script to load after Windows startup before creating new desktops or it will not work. This could take a moment depending on how many startup programs you have.

Ok, I added one more thing to make it easier to re-sync the script with your desktop state. There is now a hotkey that will display the state the script believes the desktops to be in so all you have to do is adjust your desktops with the mouse to fit the script and it will be all synced up again! For me with a Swiss keyboard it worked out nicely having the ‘? key next to 0 and it makes sense with a ? on it, but on other keyboards you may wish to change this which can be done easily by changing the line right after the hotkey for 0/10 (starting with #’) to whatever you like.

Actually, I just realized. as long as the Desktop Count is correct than creating a new desktop will automatically re-sync the Current Desktop value.

(The lines starting with ; are comments and do not affect the script)

Hotkeys to manage Virtual Desktops in Windows 10 (Task View)

Windows 10 is the first version of Windows which includes the virtual desktops feature natively, so there’s no need to use any third party app for basic virtual desktops functionality. In Windows 10, this feature is called «Task View». The user can manage windows and apps between virtual desktops using a special button on the taskbar. However, the keyboard is another more effective and productive alternative to the mouse. You can save a lot of time by managing virtual desktops with hotkeys. Here is a list of hotkeys which can be used with Task View in Windows 10.
The virtual desktops feature is nothing new to operating systems and not even exclusive to Windows 10. The ability to have multiple desktops exists in Windows since Windows 2000 at the API level. Several third party apps have used those APIs to provide virtual desktops. But finally in Windows 10, this feature got implemented in a user-friendly form for the end user. Microsoft has assigned the following hotkeys to manage virtual desktops:

1. Win + Tab — open Task View.
2. ← and → — navigate between window thumbnails in the opened Task View.
3. Shift + F10 — open the active window thumbnail’s context menu. From there you can move it to another virtual desktop or close it. This keyboard shortcut works in the opened Task View.
4. Win + Ctrl + → and Win + Ctrl + ← — switch between virtual desktops you created.
5. Win + Ctrl + F4 — close current virtual desktop.
6. Win + Ctrl + D — create a new virtual desktop.

That’s it. Using these hotkeys, you can manage your virtual desktops in Windows 10 more productively.

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

3 thoughts on “ Hotkeys to manage Virtual Desktops in Windows 10 (Task View) ”

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Thanks.

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