Before embarking upon creating your own personal user experience there are a number of different components that you should know about. These can be customised to tweak their function, or used 'as is' if appropriate.
While you may already be familiar with most of the items listed below there may be one or two that are new to you, in which case you can learn more by following the links provided, or by looking up additional information yourself and googling the topic(s) in question.
Tab - the most basic item of your browser - one will be open for every active window - see Google Chrome Help
Tab Group - two or more tabs can be 'grouped' together for convenience - see Google Blog for more information
Bookmark - a basic reference [for a URL] to an existing site that you've visited - see Google Support page for more information
Bookmarks Bar - see this HowToGeek page for more information
Application Launcher for Drive - get it from Chrome Web Store, and click here to read more about it
Extensions Manager [black jigsaw icon] - read about it at this ghacks.net link
Reading List - read all about this at the Google Chrome Help support page
New Tab for Google Workspace - get it from Chrome Web Store
Profile Switching - see this aboutchromebooks article that explains how you can use the Lacros browser to get multi user things done more easily.
Each time you launch your browser you automatically run the first instance of a Desktop which manages the complete environment in which you carry out your work. The identity of this first Desktop, probably labelled Desk1 by default, may not be obvious or indeed readily visible unless you know where to look.
Press the 'Show windows' [aka the "F5"] key to view.
The implementation of Desks, or more accurately Virtual Desktops, in the Chrome browser is accomplished with what Google calls Virtual Desks.
The normal Desktop Environment that most users have on their computer, or laptop, is a single environment called a Workspace. This is displayed on screen when your computer boots up. What you see can vary from an almost blank screen [with some default options provided by the operating system] to something more 'cluttered' [where icons, bookmarks, widgets etc. have been added by the user] resulting in a busy screen that can make day to day use less user friendly.
Add even more distractions to what your eyes have to contend with when you open your favourite browser [with multiple tabs and / or tab groups] and things can very quickly start to look a pretty messy.
Enter the concept of Virtual Desks where the user can create a number of different Workspaces where each is identified as being a Desk. The content of each Desk can be customised to focus on just a few applications / browser pages that share a common topic.
Imagine a desktop just two Workspaces, like Work and Home, where you can easily segregate your work into two discreet areas that are entirely independent of one another.
These Desks {Workspaces} can be displayed along the top of your screen [in a similar way to tabs in a browser] and you simply select which to view by clicking the name to switch environments.
To activate on a Chromebook keyboard press the Show windows key, otherwise if running the Cloudready use the F5 key on a conventional keyboard.
The persistent presence of the names of these Desks could be turned on / off by setting / unsetting an experimental flag [#ash-bento-bar] in earlier versions of the Chrome browser but seems to be have been withdrawn.
When turned on they do not take up too much room and can be very handy, so you may prefer to have them showing all the time - it is down to your own personal choice - see View Desks Reminder at bottom of page.
See Google support page for more information.
With the release of Chrome 97 in early 2022 Google implemented “Desk Templates” that are described as being an extension of the Virtual Desks feature of Chromebooks which allow you to save, and later recall, different scenarios [Apps, Chrome tabs, and more] in dedicated Workspaces with ease.
One simple click and everything you were previously working with is automatically restored.
Turn on Templates with chrome://flags#enable-desks-templates
Click here to join into a video [after about 4 mins] from Chrome Unboxed that demonstrates several features found in v.98 - but at the point the video is entered it discusses using "desk templates".
There does not appear to be much official Google documentation available yet, but there are a couple of articles online that tell a little bit more.
Click here for an article "Virtual desk Templates Will allow You To Launch Dedicated Apps And Workspaces With Ease" from Chrome Unboxed that has more information.
Click here to for an article in the Google Blog called "Organize your workspace with Virtual Desks".
How to remove a Template is not immediately obvious - you need to start by clicking on the "Templates" icon to display all of your templates. You can now roll your mouse over any of your templates that you wish to remove and a small 'trash can' icon will appear in it's top right corner - click this to permanently remove the template.
N.B.
These templates can be defined using chromeOS on Chromebooks, or when using other equipment running chromeOS Flex, and can be reused as expected.
The objective is to let users synchronise the templates for Workspace definitions and allow them to float between devices so that as the user moves between different chromeOS environments they have the option of accepting the changes made to individual templates.
In Q2 2022 it was proposed that the way 'floating workspaces' or 'floating desktop templates' are shared by synchronising the definitions across devices in the cloud 'at account level'.
On any given device the 'working set' of active desks are stored locally and are not automatically updated if the template used to create them is updated by another device.
This means the user has the choice of deferring changes to templates to a time convenient to them [by deleting the current desktop, then reinstating it from the updated template] which all makes sense when you think about it.
See these articles for more information ...
(1) This Chrome Unboxed page from 21st August 2023 called "The new ‘Floating Workspace’ feature is finally beginning to show up in ChromeOS Canary channel" indicating that at last this work may be coming to fruition.
(2) This Chrome Unboxed page from 24th January 2022 called "Chromebook Sync May Be Getting Turbo-Charged with Floating Workspaces"
(3) This 9to5Google page from 20th January 2022 called "‘Floating workspace’ for Chrome OS will seamlessly move tabs and windows between Chromebooks"
Create a new desk: Press Search + Shift + =.
Switch to a different desk: Press Search + [ or ] (left or right square bracket).
Move a window to a different desk: Press Shift + Search + [ or ].
View all windows in your desk: Press Alt + Tab.