www.winhelp.us

Content

Tip: keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F searches in the page contents

Organize open windows

Last modified: 2011-12-25 13:12:45 EET

When you have several programs open, they tend to overlap and hide information you need to see.

In all versions of Windows, you can use keyboard shortcut ALT+TAB to scroll forwards through windows and Desktop or use Alt+SHIFT+TAB to cycle backwards. Release keys to bring currently selected window to front.

In Windows Vista and 7, you can cycle through open windows only (excluding the minimized ones) with keyboard shortcut ALT+ESC.

Windows Vista and 7 also include Flip 3D that shows previews of windows and Desktop in three-dimensional style. Use keyboard shortcut WINDOWS KEY+TAB to scroll forwards through open windows or Windows Key+SHIFT+TAB to cycle to backwards. Release keys to bring currently selected window to front.
If you don't want to hold down WINDOWS KEY while cycling through windows, use keyboard shortcut CTRL+WINDOWS KEY+TAB to activate Persistent Flip 3D. Now you can use both arrow keys or TAB and SHIFT+TAB combination to cycle through windows. Press ENTER key to bring the currently selected window to front.
Windows Vista users have easy access to Flip3D on Quick Launch Bar - the Switch between windows button.
 

And this is how Flip3D looks like:

This all is good for displaying only one window at a time, but sometimes it is necessary to see two or three or four or even more windows, all at the same time. The effectiveness of this depends, of course, on your screen resolution - the higher the screen resolution (for example, 1440 x 900 is higher than 1024 x 768), the more information you can see. Screen resolution is always width in pixels x height in pixels.

Cascading open windows

You can always try cascading windows first. Cascading aligns all open windows so that you can always return to any open window by clicking on its Title bar or any corner you can see.

To cascade windows, right-click on an empty area of Taskbar and click Cascade Windows on the menu:
 

This command aligns them like in picture below. As you can see, you can always click on any of Title bars to activate a window and bring it to front.
If you don't like cascade, you can right-click on an empty area of Taskbar again and click on Undo Cascade command.

Showing windows side by side / Tiling windows horizontally

To tile open windows horizontally, right-click on an empty Taskbar area and choose Tile Windows Horizontally (in Windows XP) or Show Windows Side by Side (in Windows Vista and 7).
 

In case you need to undo the operation, right-click on an empty Taskbar area again and choose Undo Tile or Undo Show Side by Side.

Here are windows tiled horizontally, or side by side.

Showing windows stacked / Tiling windows vertically

To tile windows vertically, right-click on an empty Taskbar area and click Tile Windows Vertically (in Windows XP) or Show Windows Stacked (in Windows Vista and 7).
 

In picture below three windows are stacked, or tiled vertically. You can undo the operation by right-clicking Taskbar and choosing Undo Tile or Undo Show stacked.

When you have more than two windows open, the effect of tiling depends on your screen resolution. I have 1024 x 768 (width in pixels x height in pixels) resolution and such small resolution makes most of windows' contents unusable.
If you have more than three windows open, it does not really matter whether you tile windows horizontally or vertically - the result will look the same.

Minimizing all open windows

When you need to minimize all open program windows, you can click the Show desktop button on the Quick Launch Bar (in Windows XP and Windows Vista). In Windows 7, the button is on the very right of Taskbar's Notification area.
  

Or you can right-click on an empty Taskbar area and choose Show the Desktop. You can also use keyboard shortcut WINDOWS KEY+D for this. Keyboard shortcut Windows Key+M minimizes all open windows and Windows Key+Shift+M restores these.

Moving and sizing open windows in Windows 7

Windows 7 added several very useful keyboard shortcuts.If you need to minimize all other windows except for the one you're using, press WINDOWS KEY+HOME or click and hold left button of your mouse on a window's Title Bar and just shake the window. Cool, huh? 

If you want to see two windows side by side, you can also select a window and press WINDOWS KEY+Left ARROW KEY to move the active window to the left part of screen. Using the shortcut keys again restores the window's previous size and position. You can also drag the window to the left side of screen with mouse.
Naturally, press WINDOWS KEY+Right ARROW KEY for an active window to move it to the right part of screen. Or use your mouse to drag the window to the right side of screen. 

Pressing WINDOWS KEY+UP ARROW KEY maximizes current window. You can achieve the same by dragging the window to the very top of the screen with mouse.
To restore window's previous size, press WINDOWS KEY+DOWN ARROW KEY or drag the window down a bit with mouse. Pressing WINDOWS KEY+DOWN ARROW KEY again minimizes the window.

If you have multiple monitors, you can move windows between them. Use WINDOWS KEY+SHIFT+LEFT ARROW KEY to move a window to the left monitor and WINDOWS KEY+SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW KEY to move a window to the right monitor.

 Comments? Suggestions? Ideas? Let me know! 

Your name (public):

Your e-mail (will not be displayed):

Title:

Notify me of new comments to this page:

Your comments/suggestions/ideas (no HTML code!)
winhelp.us owners reserve the right to remove or not publish comments that they find unacceptable because of strong language, inappropriate contents, advertising or spamming.
winhelp.us Privacy Policy