API for Windows 10 virtual desktops

Question

Is there any way to enumerate, switch, add virtual desktops and move window between desktops from code? Preferably, WinAPI.

Answer 1

I fear that all about "Virtual desktops" in Windows 10 is undocumented, but in a Russian page I've seen documented the interfaces. I don't speak Russian but seems that they have used reversed engineering. Anyway, the code is very clear (Thanks to them!).

Keep an eye here: http://www.cyberforum.ru/blogs/105416/blog3671.html

I've been trying to see if the old API's CreateDesktop, OpenDesktop, etc... is linked to the new Virtual-Desktops, but no way...

The interfaces work with the final production release of Windows 10 (2015-05-08), but you shouldn't use them in a real wide distributed application until Microsoft documents them. Too much risk.

Regards.

Answer 2

The Windows SDK Support Team Blog posted a C# demo to switch Desktops via IVirtualDesktopManager:

[ComImport, InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown), Guid("a5cd92ff-29be-454c-8d04-d82879fb3f1b")]
[System.Security.SuppressUnmanagedCodeSecurity]
public interface IVirtualDesktopManager
{
[PreserveSig]
int IsWindowOnCurrentVirtualDesktop(
    [In] IntPtr TopLevelWindow,
    [Out] out int OnCurrentDesktop
    );
[PreserveSig]
int GetWindowDesktopId(
    [In] IntPtr TopLevelWindow,
    [Out] out Guid CurrentDesktop
    );

[PreserveSig]
int MoveWindowToDesktop(
    [In] IntPtr TopLevelWindow,
    [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStruct)]
    [In]Guid CurrentDesktop
    );
}

[ComImport, Guid("aa509086-5ca9-4c25-8f95-589d3c07b48a")]
public class CVirtualDesktopManager
{

}
public class VirtualDesktopManager
{
    public VirtualDesktopManager()
    {
        cmanager = new CVirtualDesktopManager();
        manager = (IVirtualDesktopManager)cmanager;
    }
    ~VirtualDesktopManager()
    {
        manager = null;
        cmanager = null;
    }
    private CVirtualDesktopManager cmanager = null;
    private IVirtualDesktopManager manager;

    public bool IsWindowOnCurrentVirtualDesktop(IntPtr TopLevelWindow)
    {
        int result;
        int hr;
        if ((hr = manager.IsWindowOnCurrentVirtualDesktop(TopLevelWindow, out result)) != 0)
        {
            Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(hr);
        }
        return result != 0;
    }

    public Guid GetWindowDesktopId(IntPtr TopLevelWindow)
    {
        Guid result;
        int hr;
        if ((hr = manager.GetWindowDesktopId(TopLevelWindow, out result)) != 0)
        {
            Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(hr);
        }
        return result;
    }

    public void MoveWindowToDesktop(IntPtr TopLevelWindow, Guid CurrentDesktop)
    {
        int hr;
        if ((hr = manager.MoveWindowToDesktop(TopLevelWindow, CurrentDesktop)) != 0)
        {
            Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(hr);
        }
    }
}

it includes the API to detect on which desktop the Window is shown and it can switch and move a Windows the a Desktop.

Answer 3

There is this guy that made a application to map keyboard shorcut to move a window between virtual desktop. https://github.com/Grabacr07/SylphyHorn (I use it every day )

He has a blog where he explain what he did http://grabacr.net/archives/5701 ( you can use google translate it is in japanese)

He in fact used the same api mantionned in the Alberto Tostado response. http://www.cyberforum.ru/blogs/105416/blog3671.html and the api can be found on his github https://github.com/Grabacr07/VirtualDesktop

The api is really simple to use BUT it seems impossible to move a window from another process.

public static bool MoveToDesktop(IntPtr hWnd, VirtualDesktop virtualDesktop)
    {
        ThrowIfNotSupported();

        int processId;
        NativeMethods.GetWindowThreadProcessId(hWnd, out processId);

        if (Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id == processId)  // THAT LINE
        {
            var guid = virtualDesktop.Id;
            VirtualDesktop.ComManager.MoveWindowToDesktop(hWnd, ref guid);
            return true;
        }

        return false;
    }

To workaround this problem they made another implementation that they use alongside the one in the russian blog

if (VirtualDesktopHelper.MoveToDesktop(hWnd, right) //<- the one in the russian blog
                    || this.helper.MoveWindowToDesktop(hWnd, right.Id)) <- the second implementation

The second implementation can be found here: https://github.com/tmyt/VDMHelper This one can move a window from another process to another desktop. BUT it is buggy right now. For exemple when i try to move some window like google chrome it crash.

So this is the result of my research. I m rigth now trying to make a StickyWindow feature with these api.