Now that the Stable Channel of Chrome OS 76 began rolling out last week, most Chromebook users have access to the new Virtual Desks feature. This allows you to separate your browser tabs, as well as Android and Linux apps, across up to four virtual workspaces.
Below is a video look of the feature as it was being developed, in case you missed how it works. Oh and if you have Chrome OS 76 but don’t see the Virtual Desks option, just hit chrome://flags/enable-virtual-desks to enable the “preview” of this function.
I had previously reported keyboard shortcuts for Virtual Desks that would allow you to navigate through the desktops without touching your Chromebook display, but unfortunately, they didn’t make the cut for Chrome OS 76. And it doesn’t look like they’re coming with Chrome OS 77 in about six weeks time either.
I noticed that the bug to track progress on Virtual Desks has a developer comment that removed Chrome OS 77 from the targeted implementation and moved it to Chrome OS 78:
It’s possible that since Virtual Desks are currently enabled with an experimental flag that the keyboard shortcuts could arrive in the Dev or Beta Channels of Chrome OS 77, also hidden by a flag. But at this point, if you’re running on the Stable Channel – which is what most people should do – you won’t see the shortcuts for another three months or so.
Speaking of the keyboard shortcuts, the original list I had reported back in June has been tweaked. The newest list appears below:
- Search + Shift + = New desk
- Search + Shift + – Remove desk
- Search + ] Activate desk on the right (if any)
- Search + [ Activate desk on the left (if any).
- Search + Shift + ] Move active window (or highlighted window in overview) to desk on the right (if any).
- Search + Shift + [ Move active window (or highlighted window in overview) to desk on the left (if any).
