DeskTabs

🇬🇧 English · 🇩🇪 Deutsch

A clickable desktop bar for the virtual desktops of Windows 11. It sits in the lower left of the taskbar, one button per virtual desktop, labelled with the desktop's Windows name. Click to switch there; the active desktop is highlighted.

Built by Henning Pähtz as a lean tool for per-project time tracking: one desktop = one client, always a single click away.

⬇ Download

Setup (recommended, 2.7 MB) — a normal wizard: pick a folder (or keep the suggested one), tick autostart, done. No admin rights, and it appears in Apps & features like any other program.

Portable ZIP (0.9 MB) — unpack it anywhere and run DeskTabs.exe. Nothing is installed, nothing is written to the registry; deleting the folder removes everything.

Prefer one line in PowerShell? This downloads the latest version, puts it in %LOCALAPPDATA%\DeskTabs, starts it and sets up autostart:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/paehtz/DeskTabs/main/setup.ps1 | iex

All versions and their release notes are on the Releases page. Windows SmartScreen may warn on first start because the file is not signed: More info → Run anyway.

If Windows blocks the app

DeskTabs is not code-signed yet (a certificate costs money every year; free signing for open source is being applied for). Two different Windows features can react to that:

• SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC". Click More info → Run anyway. This is the common case.
• Smart App Control says "blocked an app that might be unsafe" and gives you no way to allow it — there is no per-app exception. If your Windows has it switched on, run DeskTabs from source instead: install AutoHotkey v2, download the source as a ZIP (it contains the DLL, lang\ and data\), unpack it and double-click DeskTabs.ahk. Verified on a Windows 11 laptop with Smart App Control switched on: AutoHotkey installs and the script runs with every feature, no warning. Please do not switch Smart App Control off just for this app.

Background

I organise my projects and my time tracking around virtual desktops: one desktop per project, with exactly the windows and the layout I need for it. Switching desktops serves two purposes at once. First, it swaps the entire working context: every window of the project is instantly there. Second, ManicTime, which I use to track my working hours, records the active desktop. In the daily view I can later see precisely when and how long I worked on which project.

For this to stay clean, I need to see at any moment which desktop I am on. In the past I often ran a task on the wrong desktop by accident, which skews the later evaluation and means rework. DeskTabs solves that: a permanently visible bar shows the active desktop, and a direct click switches to it instead of cycling through the Windows shortcut. So I always land in the right context, and the time is attributed to the right project.

Features

• Live names from Windows: the button labels come straight from the desktops you named in Windows (Task View). Nothing is maintained twice.
• Dynamic: add or remove a desktop in Windows → the bar adapts automatically within ~1.2 s (or via Tray → "Rebuild bar").
• Create, rename, remove and reorder desktops right from the bar: New desktop… in the grip menu ≡ (asks for the name and switches there), Rename… and Remove desktop… in a tab's menu. To reorder, drag a tab sideways like a browser tab: the other tabs glide aside while you drag, and Windows (Task View included) takes over the new order. A plain click still switches, Shift + click still sends the active window. Removing asks first and says how many windows move to which desktop, because Windows closes none of them. Colour, icon, abbreviation and the compact setting follow a desktop when you rename it, here or in Windows Task View (DeskTabs recognises each desktop by its Windows ID).
• Direct jump: a click jumps straight to the target desktop in one step (~100 ms), no stepping through the desktops in between. Measured on 25H2 (26200) the focused window stays where it is; if a build does drag it along, DeskTabs moves it right back. Step-by-step switching (Win+Ctrl+Arrow emulation) is still available via More settings › Jump directly instead of stepping through.
• Unexpected switches are flagged: when another app pulls you to a different desktop (say, a PDF opens in a reader that lives elsewhere), the new tab flashes orange and keeps a frame until you hover it, and a hint tells you which app is now in front. Your own switches (tabs, wheel, number keys, Ctrl+Win+Arrow, Task View) stay quiet.
• Send windows to another desktop: right-click a tab and choose Move “…” here to send the window you are working in to that desktop, or press Ctrl+Win+Shift+1 … 0 (with the keyboard shortcuts on). Quickest: Shift + click a tab; Ctrl + Shift + click takes the window along and switches there too. Bring a window here › lists every window of your current desktop. Or simply drag a window by its title bar onto a tab and let go: it moves there and keeps its size and position. You stay where you are.
• Show a window on all desktops: right-click the grip ≡ and tick Show “…” on all desktops (or All windows of “…” on all desktops for the whole app), or drag the window by its title bar onto ≡. Drag it onto ≡ again, or onto a tab, and it lives on one desktop only again. A right-click on any tab shows the tick as well; untick it there to keep the window on that desktop only. DeskTabs respects the Windows setting: a window shown on all desktops that you move to a tab loses that setting openly (the tip says so); an app set to all desktops is left untouched.
• Back to the last desktop: middle-click the bar or press Ctrl+Win+Backspace to return to the desktop you last worked on (quick pass-throughs don't count).
• Attention dot: when an app on another desktop flashes for attention, its tab gets a small orange dot until you go there.
• Visible on all desktops: the bar itself is pinned to every desktop.
• Light/Dark automatic: follows the Windows theme (taskbar brightness), switchable or fixed.
• Index prefix: "3 · ProjectName" (can be disabled).
• Colour coding: a thin colour bar per desktop (tab-indicator style, can be disabled, overridable per desktop). Take the colour from the icon reads the dominant colour out of a fetched site icon and uses it for that desktop.
• Icon library: a built-in picker over the whole Segoe Fluent Icons font that Windows 11 ships with (1500+ icons), searchable in English and German, with quick filters and a scrollable grid. Click an icon to mark it, then OK (or double-click). The current icon is preselected. Library icons are drawn in the desktop's own colour and stored as [Icons] Desktop = glyph:E713.
• Desktop numbers: a small numbered badge on the top left of each icon shows which number key jumps there (on automatically while the keyboard shortcuts are on; desktop 10 shows 0). Or use the number itself as the icon: a filled circle in the desktop colour, per desktop via Icon → Number as icon ([Icons] Desktop = number) or for all desktops without an icon of their own.
• Tab icons: give a desktop an icon from a website (DeskTabs fetches the site icon in the best resolution it can find and caches it) or from your own image file. Right-click a tab → Icon, or set [Icons] Desktop name = URL or path in settings.ini. The bare domain is enough, no https://www. needed.
• Fluent look: rounded tabs, the active desktop tinted in its own colour (hue kept, lightness from the theme), subtle vertical gradients, hover lightens the tab like the Windows taskbar buttons. The active style is switchable: own desktop colour, uniform accent colour, or a solid fill.
• Click on the active desktop: opens the sub-project picker if the desktop has sub-projects, otherwise does nothing (a stray click doesn't get in the way). Set ClickActiveTaskView = 1 to open Task View (Win+Tab) instead.
• Fullscreen auto-hide: hides itself while a fullscreen app is on top on the bar's monitor (a fullscreen video on another monitor does not hide it; a fullscreen app stays respected even when you focus another monitor).
• Compact levels: full / short / icon, automatic by available width or manual via Ctrl + mouse wheel over the bar. Fits narrow laptop taskbars.
• Compact single desktops: right-click a tab → Compact (icon only) for projects that rest for a while but stay open. Their tab shows only its icon (or abbreviation/number), the busy desktops keep their full size. Hover a tab that does not show its whole name and a tooltip tells you which desktop it is.
• Sub-projects for catch-all desktops: one desktop for several small projects (say Web projects) gets a list of sub-projects. Right-click the tab → Sub-project ›, or Alt + click the tab, to pick one (or none), add or remove. A plain click on the active tab slides out a slim picker above it, just for switching. It shows in small grey type under the desktop name and as its own column in the time log; switching sub-project starts a new row, just like switching desktops.
• Built-in time log: writes how long you stayed on which desktop to a monthly CSV (timelog\desktop-log_YYYY-MM.csv), pauses on lock screen and after 5 min without input. For anyone without a time tracker, and for coding agents that do your billing. See Time log.
• Right-click menu: right-click a tab to move windows there and for its icon, colour and abbreviation, plus all app settings: View (what a tab shows, icons, numbers, colour bars), Active desktop, Light or dark, Keyboard shortcuts, Language, and under More settings direct jumping, snapping, switch alerts, the attention dot, dragging windows onto tabs and the time log. No file editing needed; everything is saved to settings.ini. The tray icon offers the same menu directly.
• Help menu: an overview of all keyboard shortcuts and gestures (with your current modifier keys), documentation, changelog, bug report and feature request (opens a pre-filled GitHub issue), e-mail to the author, update check and About DeskTabs (version, licence, links).
• Update check: once a day DeskTabs asks the GitHub releases API for the latest version number (nothing else is sent) and shows a tray notification if a newer release exists. Disable via the Help menu or UpdateCheck = 0.
• Live config: edits to settings.ini (abbreviations, colours, level) are picked up within ~1.2 s, no restart. Handy when your AI agent configures the bar for you.
• Keyboard shortcuts (off by default): jump straight to desktop 1 to 10 with a number key, from the number row or the numpad (the numpad works with NumLock on or off). Combine the modifier keys freely in the menu (Ctrl, Shift, Alt, Win; default Ctrl+Win). The same keys plus Shift send the active window to that desktop (if Shift is not already part of the modifier), and Backspace returns to the last desktop.
• Mouse wheel over the bar pages through the desktops.
• Separators between the tabs (off by default, switchable).
• Movable by the handle ≡ on the left; the position is remembered in settings.ini.

FAQ

How can I see which virtual desktop I'm on in Windows 11?
Windows 11 has no permanent indicator. You only see your desktops in Task View (Win+Tab) or when you hover the Task View button. DeskTabs puts one tab per desktop on the taskbar, labelled with the desktop's name, and highlights the active one, so you always know where you are.

How do I switch to a specific virtual desktop with one click?
Windows itself offers Task View or Ctrl+Win+Left/Right, which steps through the desktops one by one. With DeskTabs you click the tab and land directly on that desktop, without passing through the others. Optionally Ctrl+Win+1 … 0 (number row or numpad) jumps straight to desktop 1 to 10.

Can I give each virtual desktop a colour or an icon?
Yes. Right-click a tab and pick a colour, an icon from the built-in library of 1500+ Windows icons, a website's icon, your own image, or simply its number.

Can I track how long I work on each desktop or project?
Yes. If you keep one desktop per project, DeskTabs writes a monthly CSV with every stay per desktop and pauses when the screen is locked or you are idle. Open it in a spreadsheet or let an AI assistant summarise it.

Why does Windows suddenly jump to another desktop?
When you open a file whose program already runs on another desktop, Windows switches there without asking. DeskTabs flags these switches: the tab flashes orange and a short hint names the app that is now in front, so no time ends up on the wrong project unnoticed.

Is it free? Does it need admin rights?
DeskTabs is free and open source (GPL v3). The setup installs per user without admin rights, and there is a portable ZIP as well.

DeskTabs compared with Windows 11 alone

Other tools cover parts of this: hotkey scripts for switching, tray icons that show the desktop number, or full desktop managers. DeskTabs combines a visible, clickable indicator on the taskbar with names, colours, icons and a time log.

Requirements

• Windows 11: developed and tested on 25H2 (build 26200). Works from 24H2 (26100).
• AutoHotkey v2 (tested with 2.0.29), default path C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\v2\AutoHotkey64.exe.
• VirtualDesktopAccessor.dll (bundled in this repo), built from the source of Ciantic/VirtualDesktopAccessor at commit 7ff9ef8 (October 2026) with one added export, MoveDesktop (see vda/ and the workflow build-dll.yml).

Installation & start

Option A: ready to run (no AutoHotkey needed)

1. Download the latest DeskTabs-vX.Y.Z.zip from the Releases page.
2. Extract it anywhere and keep the folder together: DeskTabs.exe, VirtualDesktopAccessor.dll, lang\ and data\.
3. Double-click DeskTabs.exe. On the first start DeskTabs says hello and points at the right-click menu.

Windows SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC" because the executable is not code-signed (a certificate costs money per year; this is a free tool). Click More info → Run anyway. If you prefer not to trust an unsigned binary, run the script instead (Option B) or build the executable yourself with Ahk2Exe.

Or install (and update) in one line, from PowerShell:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/paehtz/DeskTabs/main/setup.ps1 | iex

That installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\DeskTabs, adds an autostart entry and starts DeskTabs. Run it again any time to update: your settings.ini, the icon cache and the time logs are kept. Options: -NoAutostart, -NoLaunch, -Uninstall.

Uninstall

.\setup.ps1 -Uninstall

It stops DeskTabs, removes the autostart shortcut and the program folder, and asks whether to keep your settings, icons and time logs (they are moved to a folder in %TEMP% if you say yes). DeskTabs writes nothing to the registry and installs nothing outside its own folder, so removing that folder is enough if you installed manually.

Note: an AutoHotkey-compiled .exe can trigger false positives in some antivirus scanners. That is why both the .exe and the full source are provided; you can always run from source instead.

Option B: from source

1. Clone the repo or download it as a ZIP and extract it to a folder of your choice.
2. Install AutoHotkey v2 (if not already present).
3. Double-click DeskTabs.ahk (opens with AHK v2), or run it from the command line:

"C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\v2\AutoHotkey64.exe" "<path-to-folder>\DeskTabs.ahk"

Autostart: place a shortcut in the startup folder
(%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\)
→ target: AutoHotkey64.exe, with the path to DeskTabs.ahk as the argument.

Quit / control: tray icon (DeskTabs symbol) → right-click: the full settings menu (Rebuild bar and Reset position are under More settings), Help (docs, feedback, updates, About) and Exit.

Configuration

Using an AI coding agent (e.g. Claude Code)? Fork the repo and see CLAUDE.md: it tells your agent how to run, validate and safely customize DeskTabs for your own setup.

All options live in the CONF block at the very top of DeskTabs.ahk:

settings.ini (created automatically)

[Position]
X=10
Y=1392

[Colors]
; Override the colour coding per desktop name (RRGGBB):
Design=E5471D
Buchhaltung=1565C0

[Compact]
; Desktops shown as icon only (right-click a tab → Compact):
Miller & Sons=1

[Short]
; Abbreviation per desktop name, used by the compact levels
; (short: "4 · BPH", icon: "BPH" instead of just the number):
Acme Bakery=ACME
Buchhaltung=BH

[View]
; Written by the right-click menu (and Ctrl + mouse wheel); each key
; overrides the CONF default: CompactMode, ThemeMode, Language,
; ShowIndex, ColorCoding, SnapToTaskbar, TimeLog
CompactMode=short
ShowIndex=1

Languages

DeskTabs speaks German and English out of the box and picks the language from your Windows display language. To add a language, copy lang\en.ini to lang\<code>.ini (e.g. lang\fr.ini), translate the lines (key=Text, keep the {1} placeholders, \n is a line break, file is UTF-8) and set Language=fr in settings.ini under [View]. Pull requests with new languages are welcome.

Time log

With TimeLog=1 (default) DeskTabs writes one line per stay on a desktop into desktop-log_YYYY-MM.csv in the subfolder timelog\ of the program folder (up to v1.1.4 the files sat directly next to the program; they are moved on the next start). More settings › Time log › Open folder shows the files:

start,end,seconds,desktop_index,desktop_name,subproject
2026-09-22T09:02:11,2026-09-22T10:47:30,6319,4,"Acme Bakery",""
2026-09-22T10:47:30,2026-09-22T11:15:02,1652,1,"Web projects","Miller & Sons"

• A stay ends when you switch desktops, lock the screen, or stop giving input for TimeLogIdleMin minutes (the stay is then closed at the moment the inactivity began, so breaks are not counted).
• Stays shorter than TimeLogMinSec seconds (default 5) are transitions, not work: stepping 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 gives one row for 4 (including the travel time), and a quick glance from A to B and back continues the row for A. Because of that, the newest row is written once the next real stay is certain; locking, idling or quitting writes it immediately.
• subproject is the sub-project that was active on that desktop (empty if none). Files started before version 1.1.12 got the column added to their header; their older rows simply have five fields.
• Times are local, ISO 8601. desktop_index is 1-based like the bar's numbers; desktop_name is the name at the start of the stay.
• The file is plain UTF-8 CSV: open it in Excel, or let a coding agent sum it up per client for your invoice. It is personal data and git-ignored.

How it works (architecture)

• Reading the desktops via VirtualDesktopAccessor.dll (in-process, fast): GetDesktopCount, GetCurrentDesktopNumber, GetDesktopName, PinWindow, RegisterPostMessageHook.
• Switching via the DLL in one step (SwitchMethod=dll), with a safety net that moves the foreground window back if a Windows build drags it along; native emulates the keyboard shortcuts instead.
• Drawing: RenderBar() paints the whole bar with GDI+ into one bitmap and puts it on screen at once; it only redraws when something visible changed (active desktop, hover, drag target, blink).
• Moving windows via MoveWindowToDesktopNumber; on all desktops via PinWindow / PinApp (and their counterparts). Dragging a window onto a tab is detected with SetWinEventHook(EVENT_SYSTEM_MOVESIZESTART/END).
• Live highlight update through RegisterPostMessageHook (desktop-change notification) plus a 1.2 s fallback timer (Refresh), which also refreshes the desktop count and names and rebuilds the bar when needed.
• Always on top (on the taskbar): a combination of
  • SetWinEventHook(EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND) → an immediate AssertTop() on every window switch,
  • a short burst (10× every 25 ms) to cover maximise animations,
  • a 250 ms backstop timer.
• The window is -Caption +AlwaysOnTop +ToolWindow +E0x08000000 (WS_EX_NOACTIVATE → clicks do not steal focus from the working window) and pinned to all desktops.
• Theme is detected via the registry (SystemUsesLightTheme under …\Themes\Personalize, the same value that controls taskbar brightness). ApplyTheme() copies the matching set (THEME_LIGHT/THEME_DARK) into the CONF colour keys; the Refresh timer detects a theme change and rebuilds the bar.

Lessons learned / pitfalls (for future maintenance)

• 25H2 compatibility: the Ciantic DLL is labelled "24H2" but runs fine on 25H2 (26200). A Windows feature update that changes the virtual-desktop COM vtable could break the DLL → then grab a fresh build from Ciantic's repo.
• GoToDesktopNumber and the foreground window: on 24H2 the DLL internally uses switch_desktop_and_move_foreground_view, which used to drag the focused window to the target desktop. Measured again on 25H2 (26200) with a foreground window from another process, it no longer does, so the direct jump is the default; DeskTabs still checks after every jump and moves the window back if needed. SwitchMethod=native restores the old shortcut emulation.
• One picture instead of controls: early versions built the bar from text controls, which turned & into an accelerator marker and hid overlapping colour bars. Today RenderBar() draws the whole bar with GDI+ into one bitmap, so a & shows literally and highlights, colour bars and dividers cannot cover each other.
• AHK semicolon trap: a ; without a preceding space is NOT a comment but throws "Illegal character in expression". Always put a space before inline ;.
• Sitting on the taskbar: the bar fights the taskbar over z-order (a brief flicker on window switch despite the WinEvent hook + burst). Up to v1.1.4 there was a DockMode=above that parked the bar just above the taskbar instead: flicker-free, but it covered the bottom edge of every window (status bars, scroll bars, input fields), so it was useless in daily work and was removed in v1.1.5. An old DockMode=above in settings.ini is cleared on start and the bar returns to the taskbar.
• Multi-monitor: the bar always sits on the primary taskbar (Shell_TrayWnd) and follows automatically when the primary monitor changes in Windows. Secondary taskbars (Shell_SecondaryTrayWnd) are not served.
• Settings by name, recognised by ID: settings.ini keys per-desktop settings by the readable desktop name. [Ids] remembers the last name seen for each desktop GUID (GetDesktopIdByNumber); when a name changes, SyncDesktopIds() moves [Colors], [Icons], [Short] and [Compact] to the new name. Windows' fallback names ("Desktop 3") are not treated as names, so reordering unnamed desktops moves nothing.
• Reordering desktops: the official DLL release (2024-12-16-windows11) has no function for it. The underlying winvd crate gained move_desktop in October 2026 (PR #114), but the DLL did not export it, so DeskTabs builds the DLL itself from that source with one extra export, MoveDesktop(desktop, newIndex). CanMoveDesktop() checks for the export, so an official DLL dropped in by hand simply disables reordering by drag.

Ideas for the future

• Finally solve the residual flicker on the taskbar: stay permanently on the taskbar without the twitch on window switch. Approaches: additional WinEvents (EVENT_OBJECT_REORDER, EVENT_SYSTEM_MINIMIZEEND), a denser burst, or making the bar a child of the taskbar (SetParent).

About this project

DeskTabs was built AI-assisted with Claude Code. My background is in strategy, design and concept work, not classic software development: my programming experience came mainly from template languages, HTML and CSS. With AI-assisted work I now turn my own ideas directly into working tools. DeskTabs is one of them, and at the same time a hands-on example of exactly what I pass on to companies as AI consulting.

Privacy and builds

DeskTabs collects nothing, shows no ads and has no telemetry. The only request it ever makes is a once-a-day check for the latest version number, which you can switch off: see docs/privacy.md for what that request contains and what the program writes to disk.

Release artifacts are built by a GitHub Actions workflow from the source in this repository, with checksums for every file, not compiled on a maintainer's machine. Who may approve a build is written down in the code signing policy.

License

DeskTabs is free software © Henning Pähtz, licensed under the GNU General Public License v3 or later, with additional terms under section 7 in NOTICE:

• Credit the author. Anyone who passes on DeskTabs or a program based on it keeps the attribution “DeskTabs by Henning Pähtz” with a link to this repository, in the program's About dialog (or credits) and in its documentation. This also applies when DeskTabs becomes part of a larger tool collection.
• Mark modified versions as different from the original, and do not call them DeskTabs.
• As usual with the GPL, a program that includes DeskTabs code must itself be released under the GPL, with its source.

Using DeskTabs, also at work, is not affected by any of this. Versions up to and including 1.1.8 were released under the MIT License and stay available under it.

Disclaimer: DeskTabs is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind and without any liability, as stated in the GPL. Use at your own risk.

Third-party components

• VirtualDesktopAccessor.dll (Ciantic) is bundled under the MIT License, built from its source with one added export (MoveDesktop).
• The compiled DeskTabs.exe (in the releases) embeds the AutoHotkey interpreter, which is licensed under GPL-2.0 or later. The compiled executable as a whole is distributed under GPL v3; the script source is in this repository and AutoHotkey's source is at its project page. Running from source (DeskTabs.ahk) does not bundle AutoHotkey.

Full notices: THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md.

Author

Henning Pähtz: media scientist (Dipl.-Medienwiss.) based in Lutherstadt Eisleben, Germany. Web design, brand strategy, AI consulting and process automation.

🌐 paehtz.de · ✉️ [email protected]

Credits

• Ciantic/VirtualDesktopAccessor: the DLL that provides access to the Windows virtual-desktop API.
• AutoHotkey v2