111

Is there a way to assign a virtual desktop to a monitor in Windows 10 (i.e. have every monitor show a different VD)?

Traveling Tech Guy
  • 9,998

5 Answers5

148

I may be late to the party, but there is a workaround that can get near what you want to do:

Type Win + Tab to show up the Multiple Desktops panel also showing windows of the current desktop. Right click on one of them and you can choose either "Show this window on all desktops" or "Show windows from this app on all desktops". You can now switch desktop and they'll stick to the screen.
Afaik, if you choose the 2nd option, it will remember your choice even if you close all windows from the app at one point.

hope it helps

fesses_flasques
  • 1,588
  • 4
    You should tell everyone about this feature, nice one. – Yami Odymel Mar 06 '19 at 23:20
  • 4
    While this is useful information I don't see how it helps getting every monitor to show a different virtual desktop. – Miserable Variable May 21 '19 at 18:08
  • 15
    This is definitely a useful middle ground I wasn't aware of when I first answered. Keeping your chat app permanently on your laptop screen regardless of virtual desktop used for instance is a nice use case. I still wish the windows team could re-architect it a bit to work more like Mac spaces though... – IronSean Jan 22 '20 at 21:11
  • That's weird. This is how mine behaves all the time. Everything on my secondary monitor stays there no matter what workspace I go to. It slides away when switching (as though the transition happens), but it's still there on the next workspace. It doesn't matter what window it is, only which screen it's on. – Vala Apr 28 '20 at 13:56
  • 2
    @Thor84no are you using DisplayFusion? In some cases (I forget after changing some setting or only when using default settings) the windows on secondary monitory show up on all desktops for me – Miserable Variable Jun 28 '20 at 19:53
  • 1
    Yo! You're are not late, you're even the savior of this situation and should be the accepted answer! Thank you so much! – Tsiry Rakotonirina Mar 15 '21 at 04:43
  • 1
    @TsiriniainaRakotonirina Thank you :) to be fair I didn't exactly address the original question. As mentionned, it's a workaround and may or may not be helpful depending on what you're trying to achieve. Happy it was to you though! – fesses_flasques Mar 19 '21 at 11:07
  • 1
    AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! – carinlynchin May 21 '21 at 19:23
  • 1
    The one answer that helped. Although it's not permanent on restart, which is still sad/frustration. Come on Windows... – JeopardyTempest Jun 24 '22 at 07:59
  • I don't get why this has upvotes. It doesn't answer the question, and it actually does the opposite, in a way. What am I missing? – SO_fix_the_vote_sorting_bug Sep 07 '23 at 20:20
  • @SO_fix_the_vote_sorting_bug you don't specify your use case in your comment. The very first sentence says it is a workaround. You not reading is what you're missing – fesses_flasques Sep 13 '23 at 10:01
44

Unfortunately not with the windows 10 feature. Each virtual desktop contains all of your monitors. So when you switch to another virtual desktop you are switching to a new virtual desktop that spans all of your monitors.

Maybe one of the third party solutions can do this and run on Windows 10.

Edit: Do see @fesses_flasques's answer for a pretty useful workaround I've been using since he posted it.

IronSean
  • 579
  • 2
    This is to be expected. A desktop is a single entity in Windows. You cannot connect a monitor and NOT display the desktop on it. So to expect it to display different desktops is out of character for the "desktop" feature itself. – Ramhound Aug 31 '15 at 17:55
  • 59
    Just because it's "out of character" doesn't mean it wouldn't make an awesome feature. This is how spaces work on Mac OS X. It's a pain working with an external monitor on a laptop and having all your programs move to your laptop monitor when you disconnect your second display. – cornflakes24 Dec 12 '15 at 20:46
  • 20
    This is also how many tiling windows managers work on Linux like Xmonad, in fact often the only way it works. Every workspace is projected to a monitor (if there's no monitor available, it just acts like a virtual monitor), and you can switch the layout mapping between workspace to monitor very easily. – CMCDragonkai Jan 26 '17 at 06:16
  • As a developer for several systems I usually have aprox 40-70windows open at any time and to try to unclutter that mess I started to use windows virtual desktop about 12 month ago and while it improved the situation a little, it's still a horror to work with. Worst is the office suite that behave absolutely in sane when used in multiple virtual desktops (YES I do need relelevant mail and excel sheets on each virtual desktop).

    The option to assign a desktop, and a program to a desktop would improve this alot, currently I don't even recommend Virtual desktops unless you REALLY need it

     – Griffin Feb 24 '21 at 08:46
  • 1
    I am also a Developer and a Financial Analyst, and this is the reason I left Windows, because it is so smooth to work on a Mac where you just use your 4 fingers to move on whichever active monitor you are working and regardless of how many windows are open, you just focus on the window full screen in front of you. However, I must remain on Windows for developing, but this feature is lacking, when I move to another desktop on my 38'' monitor, it also moves it from my Retina Display. How frustrating to swap always back and forth ... Yes we need Virtual Desktop to improve. Please! – Tsiry Rakotonirina Mar 15 '21 at 04:40
1

You can also purchase a software called Actual Multiple Monitors.

It provides several helpful features but, IMO, the best of these features is providing each monitor a separate taskbar.

From the link above:

Actual Multiple Monitors improves Windows® user interface when working with several monitors at once. Install Actual Multiple Monitors to get such essential controls as Taskbar, Start menu, system tray and Task Switcher on each connected display, quickly allocate windows between monitors (either manually or automatically), improve the look-and-feel of your desktop with the multi-monitor desktop wallpaper and screen saver, switch your laptop between internal display and external displays in a click with desktop profiles.

Although it doesn't feel as natural as using a native Windows functionality and requires some initial tweaking around to make using it feel more comfortable, it's still good enough to boost productivity to a considerable extent.

aderchox
  • 258
0

I found this feature request in the Feedback Hub. Please go in and vote for it if you like it:

Add the ability to have a different (virtual) desktop on each monitor in Windows 11 -- https://aka.ms/AAlzhtz

Logifire
  • 11
  • Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Community Dec 14 '23 at 10:35
-1

If you want to view desktops number 1..2..3 and switch them from taskbar then you can use

Windows Desktop Helper

Another way to switch to a different desktop view is by clicking the application icon on the taskbar.

enter image description here

Hemendr
  • 149
  • 4
  • 1
    That was not the question. The question asked whether a virtual desktop can be assigned to a physical monitor. The answer (currently June 2023) is still 'no'. – Traveling Tech Guy Jun 12 '23 at 19:19