Shortcuts for numbered virtual desktops

[joaomsa]

Desktops are already numbered, would be useful to have some sort of indicator of the current desktop number in the taskbar and to add a shortcut to jump between desktops, something like WinKey + Ctrl + 1..9 to go to desktop 1... all the way to 9

[StrScr]

This is something that Virtual Desktop Enhancer can do. I had mentioned the software previously in issue #16.

You can jump to a directly to a desktop with the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + Win + 1-9 and the program displays the current desktop as a badge as a taskbar icon.

[crutkas]

if we could do per-monitor virtual desktops, would this be helpful? Doesn't the context you're currently in provide that information?

[edwardchanjw]

@crutkas for my comment on #107.
Different virtual desktop for monitor + API for show window to specific virtual monitor. (We have this feature in Win+Tab, show this window/app on all desktop) . Could open a lot of use case.
Thanks

[LinqLover]

Just in case anyone is searching for a cheap workaround, this can be reached using AutoHotKey: https://github.com/LinqLover/windows-desktop-switcher/blob/master/user_config.ahk

[Mheetu]

Any update on this? With the growth of productivity and efficiency based workflows, keyboards, popular code editor design decisions (eg. Vim, VSCode's command palette, etc), being able to jump from Desktop 1 to Desktop 4 should be a quick and easy thing to achieve without having to open the Desktop Switcher or spam the arrow keys.

The popularity of video conferencing, screen sharing, live streaming, etc. has created a need for privacy-centric features. Imagine the scenario where an individual is screensharing some work; they're currently on Desktop 1, have some sensitive information on Desktop 2, and need to get to Desktop 3. Without the ability to jump directly to Desktop 3, they'll have to stop their screen sharing session and close the window(s) containing the sensitive information for the rest of their meeting or stop and start each time they need to switch between the two other Desktops.

This is a feature that's severely missed in Windows and deserves priority triage.

[xgdgsc]

I' d like to search for workspace name in Powertoys Run to switch to when I have more than 10 workspaces. Currently search for window name works, though workspace names are less likely to change.

[widavies]

I made WinJump to do this:
https://github.com/widavies/WinJump

[dalianzhu]

I made a tool to handle this for the meantime, it's very early stages and could use some improvement, but it works well in testing so far: https://github.com/widavies/WinJump

Would love feedback from you all.

great tool

[CSaratakij]

I made mine as well.
https://github.com/CSaratakij/StaticWorkspace
.
The problem is, Windows team responsible for Virtual Desktop feature didn't want to expose the hidden COM interface necessary to make this happen to the public. (undocumented by design)
.
See how shockingly lacks the api is here
.
They don't want any program (except theirs) to control virtual desktop at all.
Their claim is "User should be the one informing these decision" 😒
.
They see people demands this feature for ages, yet decide to not doing something about it anyway.
This made me believe there is something more to it. (office politics?)
.
I doubt power toys team didn't have enough power to made Virtual Desktop team consider this feature.
(That clearly useful and in demands for power user and developer)
.
For a future proof alternative, checks out pure win32 api based like Workspacer or hacks mine stuff.
.
Hidden COM interface likely to break sooner or later.

[Kingjames52-bot]

This is a great tool for formatting file's looking forward too see this repository grow!

[Chris24main]

Really just a ping to add support for this, but as someone who uses four defined virtual desktops to manage a complex workflow - I need to stress the weakness with the current methods within Windows for moving to the next desktop.

Say I have an arrangement of windows (for what it's worth using fancy zones) in desktop 3 that are suited to a particular task and am currently in desktop 1 - clearly I am able to move right twice - however, windows will move to desktop 2, configure and display all open windows, then move to desktop 3, configure and display all open windows. It's very slow, and sometimes seems to flip back to 2 before returning to 3 - being able to move directly to 3 is a significant time saver. Calling up the desktop tasks view can sometimes be even slower depending on the number of open windows....

Thanks.

[tadly]

Because of how bad the Windows Multi Workspace Implementation is when it comes to working efficiently, I decided to go back to good 'ol faitful virtuawin
It's what I used back at Windows XP times, hasn't changed much (if at all) and still just works.

Sadly, on Windows 11, you can no longer bind Win + num (maybe because I lack admin at work).
This didn't work with the mentioned Autohotkey scripts either.

Now I'm stuck with alt + shift + num for changing desktop and win + shift + num for moving windows to other desktops.
VirtuaWin also has a MouseWheel click action for window title bars which allows for additional functionality like Move to Desktop, Always on top, Always Show, Add Window Rules etc. (though most can be configured to shortcuts)

[dgm]

Wow. my ticket 30114 is a dup of ticket number ... 19. 1) no wonder I couldn't find the original. 2) that's a long time for this to still not be solved. :(

[NicoVogel]

I made a tool to handle this for the meantime, it's very early stages and could use some improvement, but it works well in testing so far: https://github.com/widavies/WinJump

Would love feedback from you all.

Thank you for providing a solution until this is integrated into PowerToys.

[widavies]

I made a tool to handle this for the meantime, it's very early stages and could use some improvement, but it works well in testing so far: https://github.com/widavies/WinJump
Would love feedback from you all.

Thank you for providing a solution until this is integrated into PowerToys.

Thanks! Glad that it's useful.

Hopefully Microsoft sends me a big check for WinJump to merge it into Power Toys.... Alas it's not really anything complicated, just calling their internal API. Would be very nice for Microsoft to at least expose a public API for virtual desktop management so we could at least develop some more stable tools for it.

[Chris24main]

I made a tool to handle this for the meantime, it's very early stages and could use some improvement, but it works well in testing so far: https://github.com/widavies/WinJump
Would love feedback from you all.

Thank you for providing a solution until this is integrated into PowerToys.

I had been using 'VirtualSpace' but this seems to have broken with Win 23H2 - so I've tried WinJump - have to say it's pretty efficient at doing this one task, and exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

Only question is - can you have the 'move-to' shortcut tied to a non-numeric key ? ie, I have 4 desktops, so I tie them to the four home row keys and use a 'meh' modifier to complete the shortcut for those 4 desktops, can I do something similar with 'move-to' ?

[widavies]

@Chris24main

I made a tool to handle this for the meantime, it's very early stages and could use some improvement, but it works well in testing so far: https://github.com/widavies/WinJump
Would love feedback from you all.

Thank you for providing a solution until this is integrated into PowerToys.

I had been using 'VirtualSpace' but this seems to have broken with Win 23H2 - so I've tried WinJump - have to say it's pretty efficient at doing this one task, and exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

Only question is - can you have the 'move-to' shortcut tied to a non-numeric key ? ie, I have 4 desktops, so I tie them to the four home row keys and use a 'meh' modifier to complete the shortcut for those 4 desktops, can I do something similar with 'move-to' ?

I just added this! Try out 2.0.10: https://github.com/widavies/WinJump/releases/tag/2.0.10

Here's a link to an example config file: https://github.com/widavies/WinJump/tree/1-4-improvements#example

[Chris24main]

Hi @widavies - very much appreciate the update, but where I ran 1.4, set up the shortcuts to jump, and it worked immediately, I couldn't get 2.0 to work at all.
I exited from 1.4 - just ran 2.0 from the downloads folder.. noticed that the icon in the system tray is more readable, nice, then opened up the config - that looked familiar (think it's simply a text file written to the root user directory, so picked up regardless of the location of the exe file) - but what seemed to be happening was that the shortcuts were being entered as text in whatever app was in focus - like my shortcut to desktop 2 is 'ctrl-alt-shift-e' and that was generating É as text in the URL bar of the browser... though I have a suspicion that this may have something to do with my board which seems to leave one of the modifier keys locked .. however, on exiting, and running winjump 1.4 from the startup folder - it ran fine again...

[widavies]

Hi @widavies - very much appreciate the update, but where I ran 1.4, set up the shortcuts to jump, and it worked immediately, I couldn't get 2.0 to work at all. I exited from 1.4 - just ran 2.0 from the downloads folder.. noticed that the icon in the system tray is more readable, nice, then opened up the config - that looked familiar (think it's simply a text file written to the root user directory, so picked up regardless of the location of the exe file) - but what seemed to be happening was that the shortcuts were being entered as text in whatever app was in focus - like my shortcut to desktop 2 is 'ctrl-alt-shift-e' and that was generating É as text in the URL bar of the browser... though I have a suspicion that this may have something to do with my board which seems to leave one of the modifier keys locked .. however, on exiting, and running winjump 1.4 from the startup folder - it ran fine again...

@Chris24main Try replacing your config file with the example, saving it, and reloading WinJump: https://github.com/widavies/WinJump#example

[Chris24main]

Sorry - not trying to be difficult - did exactly that - same deal, 2.0 did nothing (with example file copied in but my shortcut specified in the shortcut line for desktop 1) - swapped everything back - works fine.

[Chris24main]

Hi @widavies - I think I did exactly that and had exactly the same experience.
One additional piece of information that may help.. with the 'move-to' function left as default, ie
"move-window-to-desktop": {
"Shortcut": "alt+ctrl"
},

I was finding that when I held down alt+ctrl and pressed anything else, nothing was happening or even registering as a key press - I confirmed this in qmk configurator test, and even raised a ticket with my keyboard manufacturer until I realised that WinJump might be capturing that and waiting for something. Ie - shortcuts in apps that used alt+ctrl+1 for setting style one in OneNote for example - just didn't work ...
When I changed the 'move-to' function to
"move-window-to-desktop": {
"Shortcut": "alt+shift"
},

Would it be possible to structure the config so that you have a specific shortcut for each desktop with the move-to function as well as the Jump-to ?

For me, I have 4 desktops - I will always have 4 because I structure it based on the 4 home row keys - (equivalent to J,K,L,;) so I want to press alt-shift-ctrl + home row key to jump (because I have a key mapped to 'meh' or 'alt-shift-ctrl') and alt-ctrl plus home row key to move (which seems counter productive but works for me) but no other key involving ctrl-alt.

Below is my config - this works perfectly for Jump to but with no functioning move to...
Config is,

{
"move-window-to-desktop": {
"Shortcut": "alt+shift"
},
"toggle-groups": [],
"jump-to": [
{
"shortcut": "alt+shift+ctrl+n",
"desktop": 1
},
{
"shortcut": "alt+shift+ctrl+e",
"desktop": 2
},
{
"shortcut": "alt+shift+ctrl+o",
"desktop": 3
},
{
"shortcut": "alt+shift+ctrl+i",
"desktop": 4
},
],
"jump-current-goes-to-last": false,
"change-desktops-with-scroll": false
}

[tadly]

Don't want to sound rude but could you guys keep this on topic and discuss problems for a different project in a seperate issue?

[Chris24main]

Absolutely - apologies for hijacking...

[lnieswan]

I have loved working with WinJump. As of today after I received the latest Windows Update this success story seems over. Windows Defender Smart Screen is blocking it.

[widavies]

I have loved working with WinJump. As of today after I received the latest Windows Update this success story seems over. Windows Defender Smart Screen is blocking it.

@lnieswan can you open up an issue on WinJump for this https://github.com/widavies/WinJump/issues ? You should be able to allow WinJump through smart screen if it blocks it

[XLTechie]

Wow, issue 19! People have wanted this for so long!
And yet, here we all are, screaming into the void, with no ears to hear.