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Manage windows without using the mouse


By Ed Bott


What do you do when you know a program window is open but its title bar is not visible on the screen? That phenomenon is fortunately rare, but it's frustrating when it happens. It can occur, for example, when you're switching from an external monitor to the built-in display on a laptop.


The secret of recovery relies on an old, mostly forgotten feature that's still part of every resizable window: the control menu. This menu features a handful of window-management commands: Restore, Move, Size, Minimize, Maximize, and Close.


If the title bar of the window is invisible, you can use the Move command and a few keystrokes to nudge it back into view.


Start by using Alt+Tab to select the invisible window. Then press Alt+Spacebar to open the control menu and tap M to select the Move command. Now tap the arrow keys to move the window until the title bar is visible. (Most often, the hidden window is off to the right and/or below the main display, so try the Left and Up arrow keys first.)


Once the title bar is visible, you can tap Esc to cancel the Move command and then use your mouse to move the formerly hidden window to the desired position.

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