Windows 10’s Virtual Desktops Are Getting Custom Wallpaper Backgrounds
- Chris Hoffman
@chrisbhoffman
Windows 10’s Virtual Desktops are an underappreciated power-user feature, giving you a way to group windows into their own spaces for more powerful multitasking. Now, Microsoft is adding custom desktop backgrounds, letting you give each desktop a unique wallpaper.
This change is part of Windows 10 Insider build 21337, which was released on March 17, 2021. It will likely appear in a stable form in Windows 10’s 21H2 Update, which is planned for release in the latter half of 2021—likely in October 2021.
Once you have the update installed, you’ll be able to head to Settings > Personalization > Background to set this up. Simply left-clicking a background here will set it as the background for only your current virtual desktop. You can right-click a background image on this Settings page and assign it to a specific virtual desktop, too. Or, even easier, you can right-click a virtual desktop thumbnail in Task View and select “Choose Background.”
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Your chosen background will appear both on that virtual desktop and in the thumbnails on the Task View screen.
MicrosoftThere’s one more improvement to virtual desktops in this Insider build, too: You can now drag and drop virtual desktop thumbnails in the Task View interface to rearrange them.
Windows 10’sMay 2020 Update already added the ability to set custom names for each desktop, so Microsoft is slowly makingWindows 10’s virtual desktops even more powerful.
RELATED: What's New in Windows 10's November 2021 Update [21H2]
If you haven’t tried virtual desktops yet, they’re accessible in the Task View interface. Press Windows+Tab or click the “Task View” icon to the right of Cortana on your taskbar to open it. You’ll see the virtual desktops at the top of the Task View screen. You can drag an open window from this screen to another virtual desktop, and click the thumbnails to switch between them.
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Windows 10 also has some convenient keyboard and touchpad shortcuts for quickly switching between virtual desktops.
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RELATED: How to Quickly Switch Between Virtual Desktops on Windows 10
Chris Hoffman
Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He's written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris has written for The New York Times, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami's NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read nearly one billion times---and that's just here at How-To Geek. Read Full Bio »
How to Set Different Wallpapers for Virtual Desktops on Windows 11
- Benj Edwards
@benjedwards
In Windows 11, you can set a different desktop wallpaper for each virtual desktop, helping you keep visual track of which is which—a feature sorely missing in Windows 10. Here’s how to do it.
To get started, you’ll first need to switch to the virtual desktop that you’d like to customize. In Windows 11, click the Task View button in the taskbar [It looks like two overlapping squares.].
When Task View opens, select the virtual desktop whose background you’d like to change.
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Your view will switch to that virtual desktop. Next, right-click a blank spot on your desktop itself and select “Personalize” in the menu. [You can also open Windows Settings and navigate to “Personalization.”]
In “Personalization,” click “Background.”
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In Personalization > Background, click an image in your recent images list to use it as a wallpaper.
You can also click “Browse Photos” to choose a custom image from your PC. [Windows 11’s default wallpapers are located within various folders inside C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper.]
After you have that virtual desktop wallpaper set, close Settings by clicking the “X” in the upper-right corner of the window. Open Task View again, select another virtual desktop, and repeat the process above. Just remember that you’ll need to select “Personalize” [or open Settings] while on the new virtual desktop to change that desktop’s wallpaper. Have fun!
RELATED: Here's What Windows 11's New Wallpapers Look Like
Benj Edwards
Benj Edwards is an Associate Editor for How-To Geek. For over 15 years, he has written about technology and tech history for sites such as The Atlantic, Fast Company, PCMag, PCWorld, Macworld, Ars Technica, and Wired. In 2005, he created Vintage Computing and Gaming, a blog devoted to tech history. He also created The Culture of Tech podcast and regularly contributes to the Retronauts retrogaming podcast. Read Full Bio »
Change Virtual Desktop Background in Task View
1 Open Task View [Win+Tab].
2 Right click or press and hold on a Virtual Desktop [ex: "Desktop 3"] you want to change the background for, and click/tap on Choose background. [see screenshot below]
3 Continue on at step 2 in Option Two below.
Change Virtual Desktop Background in Settings
1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Personalization icon.
2 Select Picture in the Background drop menu on the right side. [see screenshot below]
3 Under Choose your picture, click/tap on one of the five recent or default images you want as your background.
If you like, you can click/tap on Browse, navigate to and select an image you want, and click/tap on Choose picture.
4 Select to have the picture fill, fit, stretch, tile, center, or span on your displays in the Choose a fit drop menu.
5 Under Choose your picture, right click or press and hold on an image you want to change the background to, and either click/tap on Set for all desktops OR Set for desktop and click/tap on the Virtual Desktop [ex: "Desktop 1"] you want to change the background for.
If you do not click/tap on Set for all desktops OR Set for desktop and click/tap on the Virtual Desktop [ex: "Desktop 1"] you want to change the background for, then the selected picture will be applied to the current desktop.
6 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Can Windows 10 desktops have different backgrounds?
No, there is currently no built-in support for a different background for each virtual desktop.
Can you have two different desktop backgrounds?
You can set different wallpapers when using dual monitors on Windows 10 so that each display has its own distinct background. To set these different wallpapers, you’ll need to go to Windows 10’s “Personalize” menu, which you can open with just a click.
Can you have a different wallpaper for each page?
First, you’ll need to download Go Multiple Wallpaper app from the Play Store. … From here, choose the icon for Go Multiple Wallpaper. On the next screen, choose one image for your each home screen. You can choose from built-in images, or add ones from your gallery.
Can you get moving desktop backgrounds?
Enter Desktop Live Wallpapers in the search bar and press ↵ Enter . This searches for an app called Dynamic Wallpaper in the Microsoft Store. There are other animated wallpaper apps you can download for Windows, though most are paid software. A couple of programs include Deskscapes, and Wallpaper Engine.