Bring to front all windows for a certain application in Windows 7

Question

Trying to find some key+click combination to bring all windows for a given application to the top of z-order. For example, I have several Putty terminal windows open in the stacked taskbar icon and I want to display all of them, not just the last used. The only work-around I have found so far is to shift+right-click and "minimize all windows" followed by "restore all windows". Any simpler way to do this?

Answer 1

A better option than the Windows key is to hold down Control and click once for each window on the taskbar icon.

Answer 2

Hold down Shift, Right click on the taskbar Icon, Select "Restore all windows."

Found here with a bunch of good shortcuts:

http://lifehacker.com/5390086/the-master-list-of-new-windows-7-shortcuts

Answer 3

As suggested by Wil, AutoHotkey can do it.

Here is a script that will put on top all PuTTY windows. It is activated when pressing the Win+p hotkey:

#p::
WinGet, id, list, ahk_class PuTTY
Loop, %id%
{
    this_id := id%A_Index%
    WinActivate, ahk_id %this_id%
}
return

Answer 4

Hold ctrl as you click on the grouped icon. Should bring each one up successively.

Answer 5

Let putty be one of the first 10 programs docked on the taskbar. Let's say putty is #4 from the left. To bring one of the open putty sessions to the front, hit Ctrl-Windows-4. Repeat to bring each session to the front until they are all on top.

I am using a Microsoft keyboard. There is a macro assignment feature in the keyboard software (free download from Microsoft). I've created a macro that does Ctrl-Windows-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4 and assigned it to the calculator key on the keyboard. Now I can bring all of the putty sessions to the front with just one key press.

(Hint for using the macro software: right click on a key icon to split it means to keep it pressed down.)

Answer 6

I do not think that such a thing exists.... Possibly you could write a AHK script, but I am not an expert there.

The only built in function I know of is to do what you have done, or, if the application has a stack, you can bring them all up by pressing Windows Flag+Number (1-0), keep holding Windows Flag and press Tab to cycle through the selection.... But I think this is probably even longer.

Answer 7

A little old a topic, but it's topical to me, as I switched to Win7 at work only recently.

I just left-click rapidly on the group icon in the task bar: each single click takes one more of the windows to the front, at some point you start cycling though them...

This continuous fire feels moronic, but maybe this impression is correct.

Answer 8

Following on from @Snark's answer, here's a modified version of the Autohotkey script that will bring all windows of the current application to front with Alt+`.

This means you can Alt+Tab to your desired application's window; then, hit Alt+` to bring all the other windows to front.

!`::
WinGetClass, class, A
WinGet, currentWindowId ,, A
WinGet, id, list, ahk_class %class%
Loop, %id%
{
    this_id := id%A_Index%
    WinActivate, ahk_id %this_id%
}
WinActivate, ahk_id %currentWindowId% ;bring the current window back to front
return

Answer 9

Shift+Right click the task grouping - show all windows stacked (or side by side)