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The Simplest Way To Move An Off-Screen Window Back Into Sight

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off-screen window

If you used Windows long enough, you should have encountered a problem where a window was moved off-screen and you can't get it back to sight using all the methods you know.

I just faced this issue recently and found a simple way to do so with some help from Google. The method is quite simple and was there since Windows XP. (Why haven't I figured this out earlier?)

Here's how:

1) If you can see the window's button on the taskbar, right-click (in Windows 7, shift + right-click) and select 'Move' (If 'Move' cannot be selected you'll need to click 'Restore' first then retry again)

     move off screen window 1

2) Press one of the arrow keys on your keyboard once.

3) Move your mouse and notice that the window magically snaps to your mouse cursor!

4) Place the window anywhere you like by left-clicking.

 


Extra Notes:

If the window's button does not show in taskbar in step 1, try the following:

  • Alt-tab to switch to the off-screen window.
  • Alt-Spacebar to bring up system menu and press 'M' (if this doesn't work press 'R' first and retry).
    Note: For non-english version of Windows it might not be 'M' and 'R'.
  • Proceed to step 2.
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