Direct Indicator of which virtual desktop currently on

whardier commented 3 years ago

Description of the new feature / enhancement

I'm proposing a taskbar or OSD based desktop pager similar to that seen at the top of the Task View. Some UI for this may be similar to:

Taskbar based small pager just highlighting which desktop is active (seen in many FOSS desktops)
Taskbar based small pager showing preview of each desktop (also seen in many FOSS desktops)
Quake style dropdown similar to the upper pager of the Task View visible during transition via ctrl+left/ctrl+right navigation
A simple OSD showing an accessible name for what specific desktop is currently selected

I currently have animations turned off and often remote desktop to windows systems where it may also be turned off. Having no motion or pager to help establish which desktop is selected can be somewhat confusing.. hence why pagers are so popular outside of Windows/MacOS where virtual desktops are more of a norm.

Ultimately this may pave a way for windows to be dragged toward other desktops by way of the pager interface - which could in turn trigger fancyzones to reorient the window for that desktops preference.

Scenario when this would be used?

As a local or remote desktop user needing a stronger indication of what desktop is currently selected without cycling through the desktops via the Task View.

Supporting information

dend commented 3 years ago

Curious - how is this different from the built-in virtual desktop switcher (Win+Tab)?

whardier commented 3 years ago

Rather than going to the virtual desktop switcher by way of win+tab this feature request attempts to address an always-present or even modal based indicator of what desktop you are currently on. The attached images in the initial messages show a taskbar widget where this is being done (simple highlighting) and then also an example of what an ephemeral modal would look like as desktops are switched via the hotkeys for this.

Virtual desktop switching is second nature to experienced Linux users transitioning over to Windows 10. Powertools has helped a lot with added features. This feature request is to attempt to address the need for a pager widget specifically rather than taking a more circuitous route through the Task View.

whardier commented 3 years ago

If I were a smidge more familiar with what events are emitted and available via the window manager/desktop manager I might have already attempted a simple and assistive on screen overlay stating the name of the current desktop for a fraction of a second.

crutkas commented 3 years ago

Have you seen the new one in windows 11?

whardier commented 3 years ago

@crutkas - sweet. backport it to 10?

whardier commented 3 years ago

I'm not sure what "new one" is in windows 11 but if we're talking about a pager that exists in the task bar.. that's great. Otherwise I think we've strayed from the context.

dedavis6797 commented 3 years ago

I see what you mean @whardier. Interesting concept, I could see something like this being useful for my own workflows as I also use virtual desktops pretty extensively. If we were to pursue this we'd need to spec out the interface for this and make sure it ties in well with the feel/theme of the OS.

We'll poke around at the idea some more following our general stability efforts. Thanks!

whardier commented 3 years ago

Thanks for thought on this.

You know... it would be super mega cool to have event driven OSD support backed by a contextual template system.

There used to be some fairly impressive OSD solutions out there but they have had a hard time keeping up. It would be great to be have some canned OSD configurations and the means to route say.. a desktop change event.. toward a specific OSD template written in a simple template engine and passed a safe context to draw variables from.

crutkas commented 2 years ago

Here is the new system in Win11. This is what i was talking about @whardier

whardier commented 2 years ago

Indeed it's a nice addition and I need to get more comfortable using it based on key use... however like the original ticket states.. having an actual pager always present on the display showing which desktop you are on is important.. and it's common place.

crutkas commented 2 years ago

ok, so you want what #13896 then directly asked for.

adamency commented 1 year ago

It's been asked two years ago for such a simple and fundamental feature like this, that all major Linux DEs have had for many years. What is the advancement on this ?

norbou2 commented 1 year ago

I have tested Windows Virtual Desktop Helper 1.10 app (https://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancements/Other-Desktop-Enhancements/Windows-Virtual-Desktop-Helper.shtml), which shows name of the desktop like OSD. It is nice, but app is crashing and freezing. I removed it but I have problems with explorer, which is crashing now every day, especially if I click on the TaskView icon. I assumed that working on virtual desktops would be better on Windows 11, but it still happens that some application such as MS Onenote switches desktops and then I don't know where I am. That makes this feature all the more necessary. Otherwise I very much support the idea of Powertoys, good idea!

Aaron-Junker commented 11 months ago

The name of the current virtual desktop is displayed on Windows 11 dev and canary channel builds when you switch to it and will soon come to Windows 11 stable.

adamency commented 11 months ago

@Aaron-Junker ok that's great, however the desktops are all called 'Destkop N' by default so this would uselessly print the word "destkop" in the taskbar on all desktops. Why not simply print the desktop number, or at least allow this as an option ?

kal40 commented 7 months ago

If anybody is interested I've just cerated a simple autohoykey script to indicate the current desktop: https://github.com/kal40/VIrtualDesktopIndicator.git

Aaron-Junker commented 7 months ago

@Aaron-Junker ok that's great, however the desktops are all called 'Destkop N' by default so this would uselessly print the word "destkop" in the taskbar on all desktops. Why not simply print the desktop number, or at least allow this as an option ?

You can rename your desktops.

Aaron-Junker commented 7 months ago

I will close this as Windows 11 contains now an indicator that shows the desktop name when switching.

adamency commented 7 months ago

You can rename your desktops.

@Aaron-Junker yeah thanks.... That's not a solution. It should be possible to have meaningful desktop names and be able to indicate the desktop number instead of the full name. A full name takes an enormous amount of taskbar space, hence why this need. Having to resort to renaming all desktops to number and losing their meaning is absurd.

I will close this as Windows 11 contains now an indicator that shows the desktop name when switching.

Second, this is also a mistake. What you're talking about is simply a temporary pop-up indicator. What this issue was about is a permanent indicator of the desktop you're on, even e.g. when you come back after eating and unlocking your session, to be able to always know which desktop you're on. Hence, IMO this issue is not completed.

microsoft / PowerToys