I'm sure you have faced this situation many times when a program window opens in a way that you can't see either its titlebar or the whole program window. Most of the times it happens when you close a full screen program like a game or movie.
I have faced this problem many times with Internet Download Manager (IDM). I think its a bug in IDM. Whenever I open IDM, each time its window automatically shifts a few pixels to the left side of screen. After many open and close operations, one moment comes when the whole program window disappears and moves off-screen. Sometimes you can only see its border as shown in following screenshot:
There is one more similar problem when a program window automatically moves a few pixels to the top of the screen which hides the window titlebar completely as shown in following screenshot:
In both situations, you can't move the program window as you need to click and hold the cursor on program titlebar and then you can move it on the screen by dragging the window.
So if you face such kind of problem in future, how will you fix it? How will you move or resize an off-screen window? Don't worry! Here is the solution.
Today in this tutorial, we'll tell you a very simple and easy to use trick to move and resize a program window which is not showing properly on screen or the window is too large and wide that you can't resize it.
There are 2 ways to move or resize an off-screen program window:
- Using keyboard shortcut
- Using mouse
METHOD 1: Using Keyboard Shortcut
You just need to press "ALT+SPACEBAR" keys together and it'll open the System Menu which shows minimize, maximize, restore, close, size and move options.
Once you get the menu, you can use arrow keys to go to the desired option and press Enter key.
For example, to move the window select "Move" option (or press m key to select the option) and then you can use arrow keys to move the program window to left, right, top or bottom.
Similarly, to resize a large and wide window, select "Size" option (or press s key to select the option) and then use arrow keys to resize it.
METHOD 2: Using Mouse
If you don't want to use keyboard shortcut, you can use your mouse to access system menu. Just right-click on the program button present in Taskbar. Windows 7 users will need to press SHIFT key while right-clicking on the program button otherwise it'll bring jumplist.
Right-clicking on the program button will show the same system menu and then you can click on the desired option but you'll still need to use arrow keys to move or resize the program window.
Have you faced such kind of problem in Windows? How did you fix it? Did you know this trick? Feel free to share your experience in your comment...
Posted by: Vishal Gupta | Categories: Troubleshooting, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP
SMBR
Wow Nice ...
sasja
handy, on Linux you can just press ALT (I changed it to windows-key) and drag.
sandeep sharma
i tried similar method. R.click on task bar and select cascading view.
SonicBlue
Sizer is a freeware utility that allows you to resize any window to an exact, predefined size.
brianapps.net/sizer/
RA
Thanks for the tip, I face this problem a lot with installers and other programs.
Ashish
VG you are a life saver..:) Thnx
Ron
Here are a couple more ways:
• With more than 1 app open, right click on task bar and select “Cascade Windows”
• Let Windows reset the application location. Right click on desktop / Personalize / Display Settings, to display the Display Settings dialog. Move the resolution slider to the left one or two clicks. Click on apply. The window will resize, pulling all applications onscreen and resizing them to fit. Do not accept the change, cancel it. The window will resize back to "normal", with all of the applications stacked in the upper left corner.
I also use the shortcut. But I press and release them in sequence, one after the other. Then I can use the arrow keys to start the move. After using an arrow key, the application window "sticks" to the mouse pointer. So making large swiping moves of the mouse will tend to expose at least one corner of the app window to give you a clue which way to continue mousing to bring it on screen.
jelson
Thanks for this!!!!
Had this happens at times and never could figure out a fix! Wonderful!!
rez
Press Windows key plus left or right arrow key will activate the aero snap to the edge of the screen and up arrow key will maximize it.
Greg Fortune
It saved me from a lot of grief... Thanks for sharing.
Greg
Pat
I can't thank you enough. You resolved my issue in a way that was easy for me to understand.
Regards
Parm
Hi Thanks for your help. unfortunatley the methods on the main page didnt work for me as the "Move" was greyed out but the cascade option worked a dream. thanks Ron
Parm
Hi
for me the main options didnt work as the "move" was greyed out however Ron's option of cascading worked like a dream. thanks Ron and thanks Vishal for having htis page on the net
Asx
Easiest way is to click on escaped program's taskbar button, and then use Win+Left or Win+Right key combo...
ben
or if you don't want to waste time with the move command and cascade as they don't always work change res drag it so the title bar is low on screen and change res back.
those other solutions don't always work and are posted everywhere by idiots -.-