The current virtual desktop feature is really only a fancy way of handling open windows, and personally, I never found it to be much use.
I always wanted to have a home desktop, and a work desktop and was disappointed such a useful feature has never been developed (emojis coming first of course /s).
As an experiment, I actually devised a method of displaying different icons for home and work.
I just setup a two source folders (home folder and work folder) with all the desktop icons I needed for home or work, and I had a batch file (desktop.bat) which depending on which parameter I entered e.g. desktop 1 or desktop 2, deleted all icons in my desktop folder and copied relevant ones from the relevant source folder.
If I wanted common apps, I left them in the public desktop folder.
background
Then if I installed a new app for work, I would install to my personal desktop if possible (or move from public desktop), and then copy personal desktop to the source folder.
I never really developed this (admittedly clunk DIY) solution further but it basically worked.
Of course, it did not handle different backgrounds, but maybe could probably be included with a bit of thought i.e. copying background images to a display image, but that would probably need a reboot to activate change.
