Maximize All on a PC

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

Use 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.

Source.

Answer 3

1. Open Windows Task Manager ( Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
2. Make sure the Applications tab is selected.
3. Go to the menu item Windows, then select Maximize.

This will maximize all windows regardless of their current state.

Answer 4

If 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.

Answer 5

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

Answer 6

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:

1. launch task manager (I already have a desktop shortcut for this, define one if needed)
2. go to application tab if not already there (ctrl-pageup/ctrl-pagedown)
3. select all by press home, then ctrl-shift-end to select all (ctrl-a doesn't seem to work unfortunately)
4. shift-F10 (equivalent to right click)
5. 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