Enhancing the 'Show Desktop' Experience in Windows 10 and 11

The PC desktop is the workspace for billions of Windows users around the globe. This virtual landscape is home to your apps, files, and folders and is the starting place for many people when they sit down at their computers each morning. With the unique options and enhanced functionality in Fences 4, we've made desktop access that much easier. 

Fences is known for its ability to organize the apps on your desktops into shaded areas we call fences. But, the application has advanced customizations that make it easier to access your desktop content, even if it is not inside a fence.

If you do have content inside a fence, the fastest way to access it will always be with Peek. Peek brings your fences on-top of all your other content by pressing Win key + space. If you want to access your full desktop, you have two customization options in the Fences configuration panel.

Out of the box, Windows 10 and 11 allow you to reveal the desktop by pressing Win key + D, but the experience is not exactly smooth. What Windows does is minimize the windows, but the way that it is executed feels rough as the windows don’t all collapse at the same time, leaving the experience looking a bit elementary.

To fix this, we implemented our own solution with Fences 4. Under the Hotkeys setting, you can configure the 'Show Desktop' functionality with two settings of toggle or press and hold. You can also change the hotkey key commands as well if you do not want the feature to be linked to Win key + D.

Once enabled, this allows you to instantly access your desktop without the jarring transition that exists today from the default “show desktop” experience.

This small feature in Fences is not the primary reason most people use the app, but once you see how we have improved the experience, it’s nearly impossible to go back to the way Microsoft implemented it in Windows 10 and 11.