I know that WinKey+M and Winkey+D will essentially minimize all windows and show me my desktop. However, I have been unable to locate a similar shortcut key that either maximizes or restores all windows. Is there a pre-existing way to do this in Windows 7? I'd rather not mess with the BiOS if I don't have to.
6 Answers
Well, I doubt that it is really the answer that you are looking for, but on Windows 7, you could save this as a powershell script somewhere:
$dllInfo = '[DllImport("user32.dll")] public static extern bool ShowWindowAsync(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);'
Add-Type -MemberDefinition $dllInfo -name NativeMethods -namespace Win32
foreach($proc in Get-Process){ $hwnd = $proc.MainWindowHandle # Restore window [Win32.NativeMethods]::ShowWindowAsync($hwnd, 4) | Out-Null
}Then bind a key to run that script.
5Use WinKey+Shift+M to restore minimized windows to the desktop.
Use WinKey+Up Arrow to maximize the current window.
Use WinKey+Left Arrow to maximize the window to the left side of the screen.
Use WinKey+Right Arrow to maximize the window to the right side of the screen.
10- Open
Windows Task Manager( Ctrl + Shift + Esc). - Make sure the
Applicationstab is selected. - Go to the menu item
Windows, then selectMaximize.
This will maximize all windows regardless of their current state.
3If you press WinKey+D again, it will restore all windows back to their previous state before you pressed WinKey+D the first time. Works in Windows 7.
In this solution, you can toggle status of "only one window":
You can use WinKey+1, WinKey+2, ..., WinKey+9, WinKey+0 to toggle between minimized and restored status of each one of:
- the first 10 tasks in taskbar (including the not initialized ones but that are fixed in taskbar), when not showing tasks in groups
or
- the first 10 groups of tasks in taskbar (including the not initialized ones but that are fixed in taskbar), when showing tasks in groups - while holding WinKey, the list of tasks of a determined group related to number chosen is opened, clicking repeatedly in the same number chosen you can select a determined item in list and releasing WinKey you toggle status of chosen item in that group
this is not 1 key but is faster than it looks. Think you could do it with one key if you have AUTOHOTKEY, but I didn't bother. Anyway:
- launch task manager (I already have a desktop shortcut for this, define one if needed)
- go to application tab if not already there (ctrl-pageup/ctrl-pagedown)
- select all by press home, then ctrl-shift-end to select all (ctrl-a doesn't seem to work unfortunately)
- shift-F10 (equivalent to right click)
- X for maximize.
Note, unlike what you see in some posts, windows-shift-M does not maximize all, it is 'undo the previous minimize all', i.e. windows go back to how they were
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