PC World - USA (2020-05)

MAY 2020 PCWorld 133

windows you want manually to each corner.
It’s worth it, though. Having, say, a
document, a spreadsheet, your work’s chat
software, and Outlook open and visible all at
the same time can help you get a lot of stuff
done faster, especially if you’re transferring
data from one of the apps to another.
Another potent tool for organization: The
criminally underutilized Virtual Desktops
feature, which
debuted in
Windows 10.
Virtual desktops
let you separate
“virtual” versions
of your desktop,
each running its
own instances of
software, that you

can hop between. I work

from home, so I sometimes

run separate virtual

desktops devoted to work

time and play time, for

instance—Office, Slack,

and a browser dedicated

to work tasks in one, and

“fun” apps like Steam,

Discord, and a browser

with Reddit or Twitter open

in another. When it’s break

time (or beer o’ clock), I

can just hop over to the

“play” virtual desktop and

pick up where I left off.

Alternatively, you could set up multiple

virtual desktops, each dedicated to its own

complicated work task, with all the relevant

programs, browser tabs, and documents/

spreadsheets open to that particular project.

Your only limit is your imagination!

To start using virtual desktops, click the

Task View icon in Windows 10’s taskbar to

You can see your various virtual desktops at the top of Windows 10’s
Task View, above your activity Timeline.

In Windows 10, the Task View icon (a small stack of rectangles with a slider on the

right side) can be found to the right of the search bar and the Cortana icon.