Windows Basics: How to Move a Lost/Off-Screen Window Back to Your Desktop

Article Type: How To

Question: How to I move a Window that is "lost", partially off-screen, or fully off-screen?

• One of the Windows I was working in has somehow moved off screen.  I either can't see the window on my desktop or the top of the window is not visible so I can't move the window.

Answer: Use one of the following methods to move your window back to the desktop.

Method 1 (easy method) Get Hidden Windows Back with Window Arrangement Settings.

1. Right-click the Taskbar.
2. Select one of the Windows arrangement settings like "Cascade windows" or "Show windows stacked".

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• The “Cascade windows” setting, for example, will immediately arrange all open windows in a cascade, moving all windows back onto the main screen in the process.

Method 2: Get Hidden Windows Back with a Keyboard Trick.

1. First make sure you’ve got the off-screen window selected as the active window. You can do this by pressing Alt+Tab until that window is active or clicking the associated Taskbar button.
2. Shift+right-click the Taskbar button and choose the “Move” command from the context menu.

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• Note: Your cursor will now change to a "Move" cursor.

3. Use your arrow keys to move the window.