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Virtual Desk Manager
Virtual Desk Manager makes Windows 11 virtual desktops genuinely useful: each application opens on its own desktop, windows go back where they were when you reconnect your screens, and everything works from the keyboard, without administrator privileges.
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Everything on its desktop, every window in its place
Windows virtual desktops are a great idea: one for work, one for email, one for coding. The problem is everything Windows doesn't do with them. Every morning Outlook, Teams and the browser all open on the same desktop and you have to sort them out by hand. After an update, Windows sometimes loses your desktops and their names. And if your laptop goes to sleep or you unplug a screen, every window ends up piled on the main one.
It happened to me every day, so I built Virtual Desk Manager: an application that sits in the system tray and takes care of all of that for you.
What it solves
Applications open where they should
With automations you tell it “when Outlook opens, take it to the Mail desktop”, and if you like, maximized, always on top or on every desktop. They are applied once, when the window appears: what you do with it afterwards is up to you. And you don't have to write rules: the button the application adds to every window's title bar has “Always open this application here”, which creates one for you.
Your desktops don't get lost
Virtual Desk Manager remembers how many desktops you have and what they are called, and if Windows loses them, it puts them back at startup. In “My desktops” you see them all with thumbnails of their windows: you name them, create or remove them, and move a window from one to another by dragging it.
Windows go back where they were
It remembers where every window was for each combination of screens, and when you wake from sleep or plug the monitor back in, it puts them back instead of leaving them stacked on the main screen.
You see where everything is
Ctrl+Alt+↑ shows every desktop at once, with live thumbnails of their windows: one click takes you to a window, dragging it moves it to another desktop, the cross closes it, and you can create or remove desktops right there. The tray icon shows which desktop you are on, and the taskbar can mark which desktop each application lives on.
Everything from the keyboard
Ctrl+Shift+1…9 takes you straight to any desktop, Ctrl+Alt+← and → to the previous and next one, and Ctrl+Alt+Shift with the arrows takes the active window with you. Every shortcut can be changed, the application tells you which ones another program has taken, and it can even use combinations Windows keeps for itself.
Tidy windows with no effort
Each screen can have its own layout of zones: drag a window with Shift held down and it snaps into place, flush against its neighbours with no gaps. And from the title-bar button you can keep any window always on top, show it on every desktop or send it to another one in two clicks.
A console always at hand
Ctrl+Shift+º (the key below Escape on a Spanish keyboard) drops a console down from the top of the screen, Quake-style, with the shell you prefer. Press it again and it rolls back up, without losing what it was doing. If you want to keep it in sight while you work in another window, the pin on its edge keeps it down.
Why it is well made
It runs as a normal user: it never asks for administrator rights, installs no drivers and never gets inside other programs. If a Windows update changes something internal, it keeps working in a basic mode and tells you what is switched off. It backs up your configuration, to OneDrive or Google Drive too, and updates itself with signed releases, always asking first.
It is a native Windows 11 application (C#, .NET 10 and WPF), with light and dark modes, a search box in the settings and F1 help on every option, and it speaks ten languages: Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and Arabic.
Download Virtual Desk Manager
WindowsBetaDownload WindowsIt is still a beta and may have the odd bug. It is free for non-commercial use. If you used Vdesk, it installs on top and keeps your desktops, automations and shortcuts. The installers don't carry a certificate Windows recognises yet, so you may see “Windows protected your PC”: click “More info” and then “Run anyway”.