How do I change my desktop background in virtual desktops?

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

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.

Microsoft

There’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 »

Change Wallpaper for a Virtual Desktop in Windows 10

1. Create a new Virtual Desktop if you didn't earlier.
2. Now, open the Settings app.
3. Navigate to Personalization > Background.
4. Select Picture from the Background drop-down menu on the right.
5. Pick the desired wallpaper, or click on theBrowse button to select a custom image file.
6. Right-click on the image, and select Set for all desktops or Set for desktop N from the context menu.
7. The selected image will be instantly applied to the selected or all virtual desktops!

You are done!

Tip: You can quickly access the Personalization options right from the Task View. For that, open the Task View [press Win + Tab], and right-click on the any virtual desktop thumbnail. You will see the Choose background entry that opens the Settings app at the right page.

That's it.

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Change wallpaper for a virtual desktop in Windows 10

1. Press Win + Tab or click the Task View button to the right of the Start button.
2. Create one or multiple virtual desktops if needed.
3. Right-click on the desktop thumbnail for which you want to change the background.
4. In the menu that appears, choose ‘Choose background’. Windows will open the Settings app to the ‘Personalization’ page.
5. Choose a new picture. Windows will only apply it to the current desktop.

Change the background image of individual desktops in Settings

You can set the background for each virtual worker separately directly in the Settings application. To change the wallpaper for each virtual desktop individually, follow these steps.

1. Open the Settings app using the Win + I buttons or in any other way.
2. Go to Personalization> Background.
3. Select an image and Windows will apply it to the current desktop only.
4. Then right-click on it and select ‘Set for Desktop’.
5. Select the desktop you want.

How to change wallpaper for all desktops

Since Windows 10 now sets the background only for the current desktop by default, users may have an obvious question: how to apply the same picture to the background of all desktops? To set the background image for all virtual desktops at the same time, do the following.

1. Open the Settings app and go to ‘Personalization> Background’.
2. Select the image you want.
3. Right-click the image and select Set for All Desktops.

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