Make the order of virtual desktop changeable by dragging and dropping

[Hattomo]

Summary of the new feature/enhancement

Windows10 has great virtual desktop function . But sometimes I want to change the order. I think it would make the order of virtual desktop changeable by dragging and dropping .

[Poopooracoocoo]

Note: task view was rewritten in v1803 of windows 10 and is a terrible experience. the old one was so fast and fluid while the new one is slow and janky. And according to this superuser thread there's no way to bring the old one back.

The other day I went back to v1703 (in a vm ofc) just to see what it was like and god do I miss it. The touch keyboard resized windows properly, there was sketchpad, the task view was smooth, I could snap maximised windows properly and overall, it was nice. That being said, you couldn't uninstall most of the built-in apps (but you can with PowerShell).

SylphyHornEx can rearrange/reorder virtual desktops but requires keyboard shortcuts and is not really reordering them so much as moving windows one by one rapidly. Dragging and dropping would be so much easier but would be useless unless the performance gets up to snuff. Apparently task view is some sot of UWP thing that's linked to File Explorer. I remember the touch keyboard being really bad when it was rewritten with v1709 but it's much better now. I suppose task view was just forgotten and isn't used by any Microsoft employees?

I'm obviously frustrated and emotional.

ah and lets not forget that the performance of alt+tab was wrecked with 1903 (just like Snap was). oh and Windows 10 v20H2 ruins it even more by putting Edge tabs there. Remember when Google tried this with Chrome for Android? Not many liked it as it was simply annoying. and the new Task View... I hate that you can still switch to a desktop when you hover over a desktop on the scrollbar. infuriating.

[Poopooracoocoo]

@crutkas kuukunen/SylphyHornEx@8cb0221
Grabacr07/SylphyHorn#46
ViRb3/SylphyHornEx#1

this app doesn't even have access to the names of virtual desktops because the API is hidden. :(

[dubeg]

I use ViRb3's version, it's pretty great. I use it mostly to name my Virtual Desktops and display them which I switch from one to another. Not sure if it's desirable to merge SylphyHorn into PowerTools but the thought just crossed my mind.

[Poopooracoocoo]

@dubeg I hope Microsoft solves this by adding this to Windows. On other platforms you can just drag and drop. They'll probably either close this without doing anything:

"this is a feature request for windows, go to feedback hub to be ignored forever. we don't use virtual desktops so we don't give a darn"

(okay that was a bit harsh. they can't do anything because the teams at ms are really separate and it's as if powertoys isn't from ms) <- yes this is another sarcastic jab at ms

or only add this to PowerToys in some hacky way, just like the third party apps.

[FireCubeStudios]

The new insider builds have this feature so I guess we can close this issue then

[mikeli77]

From information below, it looks like people getting updates using the General Availability Channel (like my corporate licensed Windows 10) might get support for re-ordering virtual desktops around 11/15/22 if that feature makes it into the next update. Given this uncertain wait for an additional 8 months, would it be possible to reconsider including this feature in powertoys to make it available to users sooner?

Evidence to support above statement:

1. Re-ordering virtual desktops is available in insider build 21337.
2. Windows 10 release information doc mentions
   a) The latest build available in the "General Availability Channel" is 19044.. This build was released 2021-11-16.
   b) Beginning with Windows 10, version 21H2, feature updates for Windows 10 release are released annually, in the second half of the calendar year, to the General Availability Channel.

[Poopooracoocoo]

^This so much!!

Many regular consumers may not ever see this if they're on unsupported hardware or if they choose not to update to Windows 11. It's unfortunate that Windows 11 lumped together so many changes. I personally updated for an improved virtual desktop, per-network DNS, WSL and some bug fixes such as a bug fix for snapping maximised windows with the keyboard. ExplorerPatcher lets me forget about the other changes which I didn't want and wasn't going to have until the sudden announcement of Windows 11. We were just meant to have another Windows 10 release. There's also hwtnb/SylphyHornPlusWin11.

[mikeli77]

Thanks Poopooracoocoo, I can understand. Thanks for the reference to the github.com/hwtnb/SylphyHornPlusWin11 option, I'll check it out.