Shidewin: Show or hide all of your windows

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Troubleshooting

Shidewin: Show or hide all of your windows

by Simon Kerbel Apr 3rd 2008

Shidewin is a simple program that allows you to reclaim all of your wayward windows, applications or otherwise.

Tell us if this has happened to you before: In a dual display setup, you need to unplug the second monitor for some reason, only to find that the programs that were displaying on the second monitor decided not to move back over to the primary one. Where are they?

Why, on the second monitor, of course. You know, the one that's now unplugged.

To rectify this situation in the past, you would have to plug in the second monitor again, then drag your programs back over to the primary monitor.

Shidewin will take care of this problem and more. Once launched, it will show you all open windows, including applications. To make a window appear (or, in the above case, reappear), simply click on its name. Voila!

Shidewin is also useful when your multiple virtual desktop software crashes, or if a window is only accessible via the system tray and the icon disappeared (when explorer.exe is killed, for example).

Shidewin is free, and Windows only.

(Thanks for the tip, Brett!)

Tags: dual display, DualDisplay, shidewin

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mark said 6:19PM on 4-03-2008

You could also do the following with lost windows on PCs where you don't have Shidewin installed:
1) Use Alt-tab to move focus to the wayward window
2) Press alt-space to open the window's control menu
3) Press M to select the Move option
4) Press any cursor key to attach your mouse to the window
5) Drag your mouse back onto your visible desktop, bringing the wayward window along with it

hazard said 10:23AM on 4-04-2008

what happens if Shidewin is on the disconnected monitor .. doh .. goto post above ;)

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