[Workspaces] Take into account virtual desktops

[ArthurAsenheimer]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Only the active virtual desktop is included in workspaces. Please consider taking into account other virtual desktops as well.

Scenario when this would be used?

I have usually one virtual desktop for work and another virtual desktop for personal stuff like music, mails etc. This enabled a clear separation (e.g. work vs other things). It would be great if PowerToys Workspaces could support virtual desktops as well.

Supporting information

N/A

[gojo119]

totally agree on this!

[Alaknar]

I was SO excited for Workspaces because I hoped exactly for this. Windows, by default, does a "good enough" job of remembering where my open applications sat on the screen and FancyZones helps with ironing out the kinks.

But I tend to work from home sometimes, and there I switch from using a large, office monitor, to using just the laptop. And in that case using virtual desktops is a must, which Windows completely fails to handle on its own.

[wsveum]

Totally agree on this one.

At the office i use a widescreen divided into 3 FancyZones. I use 3 Windows desktops on this screen, with several programs in different desktops, and it would be wonderful if i with only one Workspace shortcut could start all programs on all desktops at once. In addition i also often work from home, where i use a standard screen, and with one workspace for this one.

This would be a game changer.

[ChadThomsen]

This is a much-needed feature to add to this tool.

[paolodeangelis]

I fully support the addition of this feature to PowerToys/Workspace. A potential solution is adding a toggle in the settings to allow users to include or exclude virtual desktops. In the workspace editor window, the physical desktops (monitors) could be represented vertically, while virtual desktops are displayed horizontally. This would effectively create a matrix layout for visualizing the workspace.

For example, if you have 4 virtual desktops and 2 monitors, the editor could display something like this:

+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| M1 VD1| M1 VD2| M1 VD3| M1 VD4|
+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| M2 VD1| M2 VD2| M2 VD3| M2 VD4|
+-------+-------+-------+-------+

where M stands for Monitor, and VD stands for Virtual Desktop.

This is just a suggestion for visualizing the workspace layout. As for the implementation, I don’t feel confident providing coding suggestions 😅.

[bbceg]

The option to open a workspace on a specific virtual desktop and do this on start-up would indeed be fantastic!

Workspaces would also seem to provide an opportunity to specify which instances of applications (or windows) should stay open on all virtual desktops.

Currently the setting "Show this window on all desktops" needs to be applied on reboot, presumably because Windows has no way of storing which window has that setting applied.

Since Workspaces allow specific instances of applications (windows) to be launched (and remembered) it would seem possible to provide a flag to specify that they stay open on all desktops which could be applied to the window once launched.

[0xDeadcell]

Any updates on when this might become a feature? @plante-msft

[plante-msft]

Any updates on when this might become a feature? @plante-msft

@0xDeadcell we definitely want this feature, but the Virtual Desktop APIs we need to make it work are largely private and we are required to use public APIs.

We're investigating how to work around this, but as a result this item has a longer lead time since we're effectively blocked right now.

[Skorbuth]

Absolute must have.

[Cyber-sans]

This feature would be game changing!

[askeydev]

Agreed. The current implementation is most useful for single or multi-monitor setups. Users taking advantage of virtual desktops would need a separate workspace for each virtual desktop. Firefox seems to handle virtual desktops without a problem. (Firefox may only need to be started once, but it controls the positioning and sizing... so that may be a compatibility issue.)

Implementation: There may need to be a delay changing desktops or verification that a window is open in one virtual desktop before moving to the next (unless there is a way to tie the app launch to a specific virtual desktop. Example: If I open a window that takes 5 seconds to appear on screen and move to another virtual desktop too quickly, the app will display on whatever virtual desktop that is currently displayed.

Since Microsoft owns Windows and PowerToys, it's hard to imagine an issue that can not be overcome. Maybe expose/open the virtual desktop API?

Thanks for all the PowerToys development and best of luck with future releases.

[IttyBityPixels]

I totally agree with this. I just installed PowerToys on my work laptop and was excited to try out the workspaces editor, but lack of virtual desktop support is a real bummer. I keep a couple virtual desktops to help organize my dev environment and keep it separate from other applications. Having the ability to launch all applications across both desktops at once, and just have everything where I want it to be, would be SO NICE. Please make this happen!

[eliveikis]

@plante-msft A step in the right direction, if publicly accessible, would be to launch the workspace in the current virtual desktop at least. I have created workspaces for each of my virtual desktops, but when I launch a workspace, sometimes windows changes the desktop and launches the workspace in another desktop instead of the one that was selected/enabled when the workspace was launched.