Well, you are not the first one who is saying that VDT is hard to start with, so we will try to improve.

If we correctly understood your problem, you will have to use virtual desktops and scenarios. But first of all, you cannot define a set of shortcuts that are specific to a desktop and that will appear on desktop's background only when you are on this desktop (the only virtual desktop manager that does this is Multi User Desktop http://www.multiuserdesktop.com); using VDT, all shortcuts that you will create on your background will appear within all virtual desktops.

To define virtual desktops (and programs) that will be executed on demand, you must define scenarios. Use the Desktops Explorer to define your scenarios (either by using the contextual menu on the Scenarios node, or by dragging and dropping an existing virtual desktop to the Scenarios node).

Once scenarios are defined, you can execute them easily using the Scenarios option of the VDT menu; after you installed VDT, you should have two predefined scenarios called "Microsoft Office" and "Accesories".

If we misunderstood your question or if you need more help, continue on this board