Controlling Active Windows With Your Keyboard
This tip is for Windows 10 & 11
Some shortcuts make managing windows quicker and easier. For instance, you can quickly switch between your email, browser, e-mail, graphic programs, chat apps, and others using your keyboard. There are many of these time-saving keyboard tips.
Here are a few of them:
Minimize a window to your taskbar
With the window you want to minimize in focus (on top), press ALT + SPACEBAR + N (in sequence)
Maximize a window so it takes up your whole desktop
With the window you want to maximize in focus (on top), press Alt + SPACEBAR + X (in sequence)
Switch to the last window you had open
Hold down ALT, then click the TAB key
Switch to any open program/window
While holding down the ALT key, press the TAB key until the window you want is visible/on top
Close a window
With the window you want to close in focus (on top), hold down the ALT key and tap F4
Restore a window so it’s visible but does not take up your whole desktop
ALT + SPACEBAR + R (in sequence)
If you use these shortcuts often, you’ll know them by heart, and they will save you time. If you don’t use them often, you’ll forget them, but at least now you know they exist.
What I would like to know, and maybe you’ve covered it before, is how to split my screen. My check register is on quicken – other people use a spreadsheet. I would like to be able to have email open so I can see the “You have a new statement from…” , quicken AND the bill paying site open all at once so I am not switching from one to another. Occasionally I’ll get a little display in the upper right hand corner of the screen showing me different choices in how many blocks I can have open and where on the screen, but I cannot figure out how to (1) get that screen up when I want it, not when it wants to be open, and (2) how to get it to work.