How to hide windows on Windows 10

[PobloPomodoro]

Hi, so yeah I know you can do it by pressing the windows key and D, but is there any other way. More like in Mac OS (I come from using all my life mac os, so Im adapting)

[Guest]

You can also press WinKey+Tab instead of Alt+Tab to get a tiled view of open windows, which gives you the option at the top left for a new desktop.  You could add one, then WinKey+Tab and click to the empty desktop.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Click the litte button on the very right of the task bar will hide all windows.

[startrek03]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Click the litte button on the very right of the task bar will hide all windows.

Yep, here's an image of that corner with a red arrow pointing at the aforementioned corner.  You can't really miss it.

Besides acting like Win+D it also previews the Desktop without Windows, when hovering above it .

[homeap5]

Shake single window and rest will be minimized.

[GoodBytes]

On 10/19/2020 at 6:00 PM, homeap5 said:

Shake single window and rest will be minimized.

This may disappear. Microsoft is considering removing it.

[GoodBytes]

If you have a touchpad that uses Microsoft Precision Drivers (if it does, you have a variety of options that will show under the Settings panel under the Touchpad section), there is a gesture (configurable) to minimize all windows. 3 finger down.

[Mark Kaine]

21 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

This may disappear. Microsoft is considering removing it.

that would be great it's so annoying, I move windows around a lot and sometimes, randomly they just disappear to the taskbar and I have to open them all again... imo there should be an option to turn off all "automatic" windows size and positioning options... also it never remembers positioning of windows, it remembers the last position, of one window, and then opens the next one just on top of it! 

 

I know there's cascading which would almost solve most of my issues, though unfortunately that "cascades" all windows and there isn't an option to "lock" certain windows as far I know so I can't really use it... 

 

Tho some programs seem to remember their position or just always open at the same position (like precision x1 for example) , problem is my steam "window" (on the left) which should not ever change position or size... since it's really annoying and tedious to bring it in exactly that position again.

 

 

 

 

this isn't as much a complaint, more than saying I don't know if there are options for these things, I just have to guess probably not.

[GoodBytes]

4 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

that would be great it's so annoying, I move windows around a lot and sometimes, randomly they just disappear to the taskbar and I have to open them all again... imo there should be an option to turn off all "automatic" windows size and positioning options... also it never remembers positioning of windows, it remembers the last position, of one window, and then opens the next one just on top of it! I know there's cascading which would almost solve most of my issues, though unfortunately that "cascades" all windows and there isn't an option to "lock" certain windows as far I know so I can't really use it... 

Aero Shake can be turned off from the registry. 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Create a DWORD (32-bit) called: DisallowShaking, and set it to 1.

Restart or logout/login

 

Yes, there is should have been an option since its introduction.

But anyway, looks like it is... at the very least, in consideration to be removed. We will see if that really happens by the end of 2021.

 

 

As for Window positioning and sizing, this is actually controlled by the application.

Each application can choose to let Windows manage it (Windows will use its cascading layout), or itself take control. This is why for some application if you kill them from Task manager, they don't save their last position/size' cause it is typically coded so that it saves that info on exit (other capture the events and saves, so that trick doesn't work).

 

Some programs always open at the middle of the screen or screens (which is another problem when you have dual screen setup, as the program is split between 2 screens). This is again, the apps managing this, hence the discrepancy on the definition of "center" between each app that start at the center of the screen.

 

4 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

this isn't as much a complaint, more than saying I don't know if there are options for these things, I just have to guess probably not.

Nope. There can be a program that can hook to a program window and reposition it (and scale) to your specifications. This is how Aero Snap feature work (and any other third-party software that does something similar work)

[Mark Kaine]

22 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

As for Window positioning and sizing, this is actually controlled by the application.

Oh yeah I actually thought that's how it works its just some applications don't remember anything, or like that Steam skin it always remembers its *last* position, except if you move it that position changes, and since sometimes while moving windows around windows thinks it should "reorder" all other windows... it would be super useful to have an option to "lock" certain windows until "unlocked".  Oh well I see it's complicated but is really one of those things I think windows should give the user more control... 

Oh also why is it that windows itself only seems to remember the position for one window (file explorer for example)?  It should just remember the last 10 or so positions, that would help so much... 

And ok good to know if this "shake" option ever annoys me more than it currently does I'll try this registry tweak (thankfully it doesn't happen often also now I have an idea how it gets triggered lol...) 

[abc_123]

23 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

This may disappear. Microsoft is considering removing it.

 

Guess I wont be updating Windows or find some 3rd party program to add it back in once we reach that point since I find it really useful.

[Mark Kaine]

@GoodBytes (idk if you get a notification when I edit my previous post...)

 

But with the info you just gave me I found a way to manually cascade windows (with aero snap) and it doesn't change the position of the Steam window!   That should be super useful as it's at least less tedious then arranging windows manually in a similar way, at least I hope so! 

 

 

 

(I'm copying / editing a lot of files, usually mods and dragging around windows so I can access them easily has really always been pretty tedious in win 10 so yeah...) 

[abc_123]

7 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

But with the info you just gave me I found a way to manually cascade windows (with aero snap) and it doesn't change the position of the Steam window!   That should be super useful as it's at least less tedious then arranging windows manually in a similar way, at least I hope so! 

 

 

If you shift right click on the programs icon in taskbar you can select cascade all windows or arrange them horizontally or vertically and it wont affect other programs.

[Mark Kaine]

5 minutes ago, Emily123 said:

 

If you shift right click on the programs icon in taskbar you can select cascade all windows or arrange them horizontally or vertically and it wont affect other programs.

yeah but that has been my problem, it will cascade my Steam / skin window as well and I want it to stay at its position... otherwise yeah that would be easier of course. 

 

 

this is my "Steam client" 

 

 

it's aligned in a way so other apps that open in always the same position (like chrome, precision etc) don't overlap with it, basically perfect, *if* I could lock it's position, but anyway the aero snap thing seems a good enough work around. 

[abc_123]

9 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

yeah but that has been my problem, it will cascade my Steam / skin window as well and I want it to stay at its position... otherwise yeah that would be easier of course. 

 

 

Are you shift right clicking on the program icon rather than the task bar? You get a different menu if you're doing on the program icon and it shouldn't affect windows from any other program, I just tried it again and it only cascades explorer windows for me.

 

Edit: I think you need to have combine taskbar buttons turned on for this to work.

Using the aero snap work around is totally valid too though.

[Mark Kaine]

22 minutes ago, Emily123 said:

 

Are you shift right clicking on the program icon rather than the task bar? You get a different menu if you're doing on the program icon and it shouldn't affect windows from any other program, I just tried it again and it only cascades explorer windows for me.

 

Edit: I think you need to have combine taskbar buttons turned on for this to work.

 

Ah, I see. No, I haven't tried that... so shift right click on the explorer icon? 

[abc_123]

8 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Ah, I see. No, I haven't tried that... so shift right click on the explorer icon? 

 

Yeah. Should work for most programs.

[abc_123]

13 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

it would be super useful to have an option to "lock" certain windows until "unlocked".  Oh well I see it's complicated but is really one of those things I think windows should give the user more control... 

 

Super bored and considering developing a small program that creates a global hotkey to cascade the active window from a keyboard shortcut. Maybe even a feature where you can lock windows in place with a toggle and remember the position of windows for ones that don't save it.

 

Wonder if many people would be interested in something like that though?

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, Emily123 said:

 

Super bored and considering developing a small program that creates a global hotkey to cascade the active window from a keyboard shortcut. Maybe even a feature where you can lock windows in place with a toggle and remember the position of windows for ones that don't save it.

 

Wonder if many people would be interested in something like that though?

I think that would be super awesome (both of those things)! 

 

And idk either but I can imagine I'm not the only one who's annoyed by the seemingly randomness some windows appear... 

 

so this would keep positions until you reboot or even forever? 

 

another thing I noticed sometimes if you play a game with weird resolution or use NVIDIA DSR that can mess up sizes and positions too, but I guess that's just a driver bug that couldn't be fixed in this way. 

 

 

[abc_123]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

so this would keep positions until you reboot or even forever? 

 

Forever should be possible.

 

3 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

another thing I noticed sometimes if you play a game with weird resolution or use NVIDIA DSR that can mess up sizes and positions too, but I guess that's just a driver bug that couldn't be fixed in this way. 

 

I think its just due to the resolution changing so it theoretically should be possible to either get the position for all windows and then set them but account for the change by moving them relative to the change in resloution.

 

Another thing I was thinking about that - maybe - would be possible could be something I'm going to call 'window stacks' where a group of windows could be cascaded and then when you move one window in the stack all others could move too maintaining their position relative to the one you're moving.

[Mark Kaine]

7 minutes ago, Emily123 said:

Forever should be possible.

I see that would be nice. 

 

 

8 minutes ago, Emily123 said:

I think its just due to the resolution changing so it theoretically should be possible to either get the position for all windows and then set them but account for the change by moving them relative to the change in resloution.

reason I think it might not fix this is because it's not consistent, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't... tho it's always like 'wrong' and then windows *remembers* and either puts it back how it was, or messes it up (so bug) 

 

9 minutes ago, Emily123 said:

window stacks' where a group of windows could be cascaded and then when you move one window in the stack all others could move too maintaining their position relative to the one you're moving.

Thats also something I thought that would be nice (and was wondering why it doesn't do that by itself already) so yeah this would be the perfect addition! 

 

[Mark Kaine]

On 12/16/2020 at 8:13 AM, Emily123 said:

Super bored and considering developing a small program that creates a global hotkey to cascade the active window from a keyboard shortcut. Maybe even a feature where you can lock windows in place with a toggle and remember the position of windows for ones that don't save it.

Funny enough, while I'm sure my Steam client window is *not* locked, neither are the explorer windows *positions* it now "stacks" automatically when I open a new window just like it would in Windows VISTA since I did the shift right click thing... 

 

 

>

 

 

 

Baffling that this isn't the default behavior, which I'm pretty sure it isn't........... 

 

 

But yeah, how's your "lock windows in place™" app going btw???