Powertoys: Independent virtual desktops per monitor

[roryza]

Yet another virtual desktop request. Currently switching virtual desktops switches windows on all monitors. It would be great to make this independent per monitor.

Eg. I always have Outlook on monitor 1, but want to switch between multiple sets of apps on monitor 2 and 3 without losing whats on monitor 1.

Bonus points if the virtual desktops are all shared so I can cycle through them on each monitor eg 5 virtual desktops, 3 monitors.
Start with:
1=1, 2=2, 3=3
Cycle 3 (to virtual 4):
1=1, 2=2, 3=4
Cycle 2 (to virtual 5):
1=1, 2=5, 3=3
Cycle 3 "down" (to virtual 2):
1=1, 2=5, 3=2

[jaimecbernardo]

Thank you for the suggestion.
Some of this might already be possible, like keeping Outlook on all Virtual Desktops, by going into Task View (Win+Tab keyboard shortcut), right-clicking Outlook and selecting "Show windows from this app on all desktops".

[aheahead]

"Show windows from this app on all desktops" is one of the ways. But I wish to switch easily, based on mouse cursor position or 3/4 finger swipe.

[VectorWpl]

This would be very useful for web developers (and for many other devs also) that have a lot of windows open and while having live reloading windows on one monitor they could switch between console, editor, etc. on the other. Currently even with "Show window from...." function you would still see useless swipe animation with same window. We've been spoiled by macOS and Linux with those capabilities and it would be nice to go back to coding on Windows and have something familiar.

[MoZoY]

It makes me think of something like combining multimonitor features and virtual desktop management. Could very sexy on portable pc devices that you dock at the office or at home.

Imagine a dual (or more) montitor setup, where your could be able to display one virtual desktop on monitor 1 and the other virutal desktop on monitor 2 as you proposed. When unplugging your device no window merging happens because its a virtual desktop, and you can now switch from one another on your temporary single monitor setup. As soon as you plug into your docking station all your desktops and windows cast right back where they belong.

[ansromanov]

It is a very anticipated improvement for me. I usually connect a laptop to an external monitor and have the following configuration:

display 1 (ext)
|-- Fullscreen opened browser for monitoring needs (Jenkins, Grafana, etc.)
|-- S4B meetings
|-- Outlook, browsing, Youtube, etc.
display 2 (laptop)
|-- Virtual desktop 1
  |-- Main environment (IDE, browser)
|-- Virtual desktop 2
  |-- Fullscreen Linux VM
|-- Virtual desktop 3 ... (other fullscreen apps)

In this scenario, it is difficult to ensure that applications still visible on the external monitor during switching between virtual desktops on my laptop screen. As a workaround, I could use win + tab to open timeline and then manually set "show this window on all desktops" option for all application on the external display. This is boring, additionally, it shows undesired animations on the external display when switching desktops using the touchpad gestures (if I even disable windows animations).

[nevotheless]

+1 for the Idea, I would like to see this feature integrated into Powertoys since Windows 10 doesn't offer the functionality out of the box. Just make it how it works on macOS and I would be a happy man.