[dba-Tech] Windows 10 Virtual Desktops

[John W. Colby]

I know we have some folks who are avid Windows 8 users.  Any of you out 
there using Windows 10?  What is up with that virtual desktop?

I do multi-window all the time, often a dozen copies of Chrome each for 
a topic, a couple of excel sheets, a word doc, a hand full or remote 
desktops etc.

In Windows 7 I have the task bar at the bottom of the screen.  All 
Chromes are represented by a "stack" of chrome buttons or icons on the 
taks bar.  All spreadsheets are a "stack" of excel icons.  Etc. I can 
simply hover my mouse over the stack and a menu pops up allowing me to 
select one from the stack.  or I can hold down the alt key and tab 
through all of the open items to select one.

So how does this play against the new virtual desktop.  Does the taskbar 
still work the same in Windows 10 as it does in Windows 7, and as 
described above?  If I have a virtual desktop, does each desktop have 
it's own task bar which I can do the above stacking and selection 
trick?  Can the desktops be saved or endure a reboot, reloading 
everything in each desktop?  Or do I have to rebuild the desktops if I 
have to reboot?

Does Windows 10 auto-update still force a reboot or are the windows 
updates more transparent now?

And If I (for example) created a half dozen virtual desktops and loaded 
10 Chrome instances with 12 tabs in one of them (not uncommon when I am 
researching stuff) would Windows handle the severe performance impact 
better, perhaps isolating the impact to just that one virtual window?  
And yes I understand that MS has a new and apparently quite slick 
browser.  How does that browser handle a dozen or more tabs?  Does 
anyone know if that browser will run under Windows 7?

I got badly burned with Windows 8 being so completely and utterly 
foreign that I am gun shy about installing Windows 10 on my work 
machine.  I am actually considering buying a new machine to run windows 
10, leaving my Windows 7 machine alone and in it's current state until 
such time as I have vetted the UI and thoroughly understand it.

-- 
John W. Colby