Crowded desktop? Jealous of Windows 10’s extra desktops? You want the free Windows Desktops 2.0 utility for Windows 8, from official Microsoft developer subsidiary Sysinternals.
The extras desktops can be set up purely for creative work, such as one for 2D, one for 3D, one for creative writing or music production. You can’t drag icons between them, so each has to be set up purely as a standalone desktop.
It’s a tiny utility that gives Windows three new desktops for free, with simple keyboard command to switch between them. Alt + 1, 2, 3, 4 seems the keyboard command(s) least likely to overlap with other software. Alt + 1 is always the main desktop you have already. If you have mouse-gesture software like StrokesPlus you can tie these keyboard commands to mouse-gestures, and so forget about doing hand-yoga on the keyboard to switch between desktops.
You can also right-click the icon on the taskbar, and select the required desktop from there.
Tested by me, and works fine on Windows 8.1.x. Doesn’t appear ‘at first test’ to interfere with a two monitor setup (e.g. a draw-on-the-screen pen-monitor such as the Ugee).