Disappearing Windows

Often when using multiple screens with a laptop then traveling away with just the single laptop screen applications my remember the second screen and disappear when windowed. Often you can “get them back” by maximizing the window.

A better method is to:

There’s a simple trick to get around this. First make sure you’ve alt-tabbed to the window, or clicked on it once to bring it into focus. Then right-click on the taskbar and choose Move

At this point, you should notice that your cursor changes to the “Move” cursor, but you still can’t move anything.

Just hit any one of the arrow keys (Left, Right, Down, Up), move your mouse, and the window should magically “pop” back onto the screen.

Note: For keyboard savvy people, you can just alt-tab to the window, use Alt+Space, then M, then Arrow key, and then move your mouse.

4 Comments

  1. narayanan Said,

    April 15, 2009 @ 5:50 pm

    wow, thanks for this tip. it made my day. i had this problem of disappearing windows for one of my apps. i tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app. but that didn’t solve my issue. finally a simple search on google led me to this post.

  2. Trevor Said,

    June 23, 2009 @ 1:24 pm

    Worked like a charm! You rock. I can now move my disappearing windows back into actual screens!

  3. Robin Said,

    July 22, 2009 @ 5:28 pm

    I’m so happy. I noticed the move option, I just had no idea how to use it. THANK YOU.

  4. jwd Said,

    June 28, 2010 @ 8:52 am

    I beleive this is the first time I ever searched for a solution to a problem ("disappearing windows" I use "Dogpile") and found it on the very first link i clicked on. I don't know who you are but you made my day!

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