Quietly, Google makes Virtual Desk templates available in ChromeOS 107 Stable

I just published a post earlier today about some of the productivity features available on Chromebooks that I hold very near and dear to my heart. With great additions like Phone Hub, Tote, Global Media Controls and Virtual Desks, ChromeOS has become a well-rounded operating system that helps me get a lot done in a lot less time.

One of those features – Virtual Desks – is a subject I’ve covered since the earliest of days, and it is a feature that has continued to blossom as time has passed. Where it was at first a simple ability to set up 4 total virtual work spaces, Virtual Desks has grown to 8 individual setups with trackpad gesture desk switching, drag-and-drop functionality and an added ability to save desks for later.

There’s no doubt that Virtual Desks are clearly set to keep growing, but one new ability that showed up nearly a year ago hasn’t yet arrived in the Stable Channel of ChromeOS just yet; but that’s only a technicality. Discovered months ago in the Dev Channel behind a flag, Virtual Desk templates have been a hotly-anticipated addition that we all expected to see by this point in 2022.

While not officially available out of the box just yet, it turns out this new feature is simply hiding behind a feature flag right in ChromeOS 107. There’s no need for any additional steps beyond enabling the flag (found here: chrome://flags/#enable-desks-templates), restarting ChromeOS, and taking it all for a spin.

There’s nothing really new, here, but the availability of this new feature in the Stable Channel is a pretty big deal and it makes Virtual Desk templates something absolutely worth checking out. How it works is simple: in overview mode, you can choose to click on the Save desk as template button and that desk layout will be stored with the name you give it.

Later on, perhaps after a reboot, you can go back to your overview mode and instead of adding a new desk, simply select the Library option up top, select the desk you want to bring back, and all the apps and windows will open back up and return to where you saved them.

It’s a sweet system that I’ve been waiting to add to my personal workflow. I hesitate to shut down my Chromebook when I’m done for the evening simply because I don’t want to have to repopulate my desks the next morning. With Virtual Desk Templates, I don’t have to worry about that. Now, I can shut things down at night and be back up and running in just a few clicks the next morning. It’s a small change that could make a big impact on my willingness to really set up my desks just right, and that just adds up to time saved. I don’t know about you, but that’s part of what makes me love Chromebooks.