Since computers are a part of everyday life, there are bound to be issues that arise occasionally. One particularly common problem is trying to find a window that has moved off-screen. Luckily, this problem has several solutions. One of the most common culprits for missing windows is a second monitor. If the second monitor is …
Since computers are a part of everyday life, there are bound to be issues that arise occasionally. One particularly common problem is trying to find a window that has moved off-screen. Luckily, this problem has several solutions.
One of the most common culprits for missing windows is a second monitor. If the second monitor is disconnected without turning off the “extend desktop” setting, the windows that were pulled onto the second monitor will remain there. Sometimes, an app can also be responsible for moving a window off-screen and not moving it back. Read below to find ways to retrieve disappearing windows and bring them back to your desktop.
The quickest way to solve the problem of a hidden window is to right-click on the taskbar and select one of the window arrangement settings, such as “Cascade windows” or “Show windows stacked.”
When you choose the “Cascade windows” option, all open windows will appear in a cascading fashion on the main screen.
Alternatively, this problem can be fixed by changing the display resolution on the device. First, open Settings by pressing Win+I or clicking the gear icon. Within Settings, click the “System” icon. Once this is opened, an option labeled “Display” should pop up on the left side of the screen. A drop-down menu will appear under “Display resolution.” Be sure to choose a resolution smaller than the one currently being used (which will be signified by a highlight).
The above tactic using the taskbar is unfortunately not an option on Windows 11. Thankfully, there are other methods to find missing windows.
Using a hotkey can be another quick way to recover windows. To use a hotkey, select a window by clicking the icon on the taskbar or by using the Alt+Tab key until the option appears.
To snap the window to one side of the screen, hold the Windows key and then use the left or right arrow key.
After snapping the window, left-click and hold the title bar of the window. Now the window is free to be placed wherever you like.
Note: The following trick will not work on every version of Windows. If using a version of Windows older than Windows 7, only clicking right-click on the taskbar is necessary (the Shift+Right-Click combo is not needed).
This is a useful keyboard trick that does not rearrange all of the windows. To achieve this, make sure the off-screen window is selected as the active window. Pressing the Alt+Tab buttons or the taskbar button can designate a window as active.
Then press Shift+Right-Click with the taskbar open and select “Move” from the drop-down menu. The cursor is now enabled as a “Move” cursor. When choosing this option, arrow keys can be used to move windows. Additionally, windows can reappear by pressing the arrow keys and moving the mouse slightly.
As an added bonus, there are third-party solutions that exist to solve the problem of missing windows. One is WinLister by NirSoft, and it’s compatible with Windows 8, 10, and 11.
After downloading the tool as a zip file, unzip the contents. Then run the “.exe” file. WinLister will then present a menu displaying all the windows.
Right-click on the window that has gone missing and choose “Center selected windows.” The program will then ask you to confirm the decision to center the window.
The window will now appear in the middle of the primary display. Once the window is selected, it will reopen there every time the application is launched.
Hopefully this guide has helped you rescue pesky runaway windows. Now you can continue to have fun surfing the web.
