# Minimize, Maximize and Close Windows: Shortcuts

> Every keyboard shortcut for minimizing, maximizing, snapping, switching and closing windows on Windows 10 and 11, and what each one does to a snapped window.

- Source: https://zepe.online/guides/minimize-maximize-close-windows-shortcuts
- Author: Robert Moca (https://zepe.online/author/robert-moca)
- Topic: Desktop and display
- Published: 2026-08-20T09:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-08-27T09:00:00+00:00
- Author: Zepe editorial team (https://zepe.online/editorial-standards)
- Image: https://zepe.online/img/minimize-maximize-close-windows-shortcuts-featured-639a7baa41.webp

## The short answer

**Win + Down** minimizes the active window, **Win + Up** maximizes it, and **Alt + F4** closes it. **Win + D** clears the screen. On a maximized window, Win + Down restores it first and only minimizes on the second press.

## Key takeaways

- Win + Down is a two-stage key: restore first, minimize second. That surprises people who expect one press to do one thing.
- Alt + F4 closes the active window; with the desktop focused it opens the shut-down dialog instead, which is why it sometimes appears to do the wrong thing.
- Win + D and Win + M both clear the screen, but only Win + D restores everything when pressed again.
- Win + Shift + Left/Right moves a window to another monitor without touching its size: the shortcut most people never find.

Window management is something you do a few hundred times a day without ever thinking about it, which makes it the place where a handful of shortcuts pay for themselves fastest. Most people learn Alt + Tab and stop there. The rest of this set takes maybe ten minutes to pick up and removes an enormous amount of mousing.

**The complete window management shortcut set for Windows 10 and 11**

| Shortcut | What it does | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Win + Down** | Restore, then minimize | Two presses from maximized |
| **Win + Up** | Maximize, or restore from snapped | Also un-minimizes a snapped window |
| **Win + Left / Right** | Snap to half the screen | Repeat to move between monitors |
| **Win + Shift + Left / Right** | Move to the next monitor | Keeps the current size |
| **Alt + F4** | Close the active window | Shut-down dialog if the desktop has focus |
| **Ctrl + W** | Close the current tab or document | App-specific, not a Windows shortcut |
| **Win + D** | Show the desktop, toggle | Press again to bring everything back |
| **Win + M** | Minimize everything | Win + Shift + M to undo |
| **Win + Home** | Minimize all except the active window | The 'clear the clutter' key |
| **Alt + Tab** | Switch windows | Hold Alt to keep the picker open |
| **Win + Tab** | Task View | Also shows virtual desktops |

## Minimizing a window

Minimizing tucks a window away to the taskbar without closing it. The program keeps running, keeps its memory, keeps whatever you had open. That difference matters more than it sounds: a minimized document has not been saved, it has just been put out of sight, and it is entirely possible to lose work by forgetting which one you did.

- **Mouse:** click the underscore icon at the top right of the window, or click the program's taskbar button while the window is in front.
- **Keyboard:** **Win + Down**. On a maximized window this restores it to its previous size; press again to minimize.
- **Everything at once:** **Win + M** minimizes every open window. **Win + Shift + M** brings them back.
- **Everything except this one:** **Win + Home**, or grab the title bar and shake the mouse — the Aero Shake gesture, which is off by default in Windows 11 and can be re-enabled under Settings → System → Multitasking.

> **Shortcut — Win + D is usually the one you want**
>
> **Win + D** shows the desktop and, crucially, pressing it again puts every window back exactly as it was. **Win + M** does not — it minimizes, and restoring means Win + Shift + M, which only works if you have not clicked anything in between. Use Win + D by default.

## Maximizing and snapping

Maximizing fills the screen. Snapping fills half of it, or a quarter, and on any monitor wider than about 24 inches snapping is by far the more useful of the two.

### Snap two windows side by side

1. Click the window you want on the left to focus it.
2. Press **Win + Left**.
   The window fills the left half. Windows then offers thumbnails of your other windows for the right half — Snap Assist.
3. Click one of the thumbnails, or press **Tab** and Enter to choose with the keyboard.
   If nothing appears, Snap Assist is off: Settings → System → Multitasking → Snap windows.
4. Drag the divider between the two windows to resize both at once.
   This only works on windows snapped as a pair; two manually resized windows have no shared divider.

Windows 11 adds **Snap Layouts**: hover the maximize button, or press **Win + Z**, and pick a layout from the grid. On a wide monitor the three-column layout is the one worth learning. Windows 10 has quarter-snapping through Win + Left then Win + Up, but no layout picker.

**Figure: What Win + Down does depends on the window's current state**

The same key produces different results depending on where you start. This is why one press sometimes appears to do nothing useful.

- **Maximized window** — First Win + Down restores it to its previous size
- **Restored (floating) window** — Win + Down minimizes it to the taskbar
- **Snapped to half the screen** — Win + Down restores it to floating, not minimized
- **Minimized window** — Win + Down does nothing — use Alt + Tab to bring it back

## Closing a window, and the Alt + F4 confusion

**Alt + F4** closes the active window, and if that is the application's last window it usually closes the application too. The thing to appreciate is that it is a polite request: the program gets its chance to ask you about unsaved work. That is the important difference between closing something and force-quitting it.

The confusion is what happens when nothing is focused. Click the desktop, press Alt + F4, and you get the shut-down dialog. That is correct behaviour — the desktop is a window and this is its close action, but it looks like a bug the first time.

- **Ctrl + W** closes the current tab or document rather than the whole application. In a browser, Alt + F4 closes every tab and Ctrl + W closes one.
- **Ctrl + Shift + T** reopens the tab you just closed, in every major browser.
- **Middle-click** a taskbar button to open a second window of the same application; middle-click a tab to close it.

> **Careful — Alt + F4 will not close a frozen program**
>
> It asks the window to close, and a hung program is not listening. When nothing happens, escalate to Task Manager rather than pressing it repeatedly — the guide on [force quitting an app on Windows](https://zepe.online/guides/force-quit-app-windows) covers the sequence, including what to do when the process will not die at all.

## Switching between windows

**Alt + Tab** flips you to the last window you used. Hold it down and you get a picker you can move through with Tab or the arrow keys. **Ctrl + Alt + Tab** opens the same picker but leaves it up when you let go, which is much easier when you have a dozen windows and need a moment to find the right one.

**Win + number** jumps straight to the application at that position on the taskbar — Win + 1 for the first, Win + 2 for the second. Pinning your four most-used applications in a fixed order and learning those four keys removes most of your Alt + Tab traffic.

**Win + Tab** opens Task View, which also holds virtual desktops. **Win + Ctrl + D** creates one, **Win + Ctrl + Left/Right** moves between them, **Win + Ctrl + F4** closes the current one. Virtual desktops are genuinely useful for separating work from everything else on a single-monitor machine.

## Windows across two monitors

**Win + Shift + Left** and **Win + Shift + Right** throw the active window to the next monitor without resizing it. Pressing **Win + Left** repeatedly also walks a window across monitors, snapping to each half on the way, which is fiddlier but handy when you want it snapped the moment it arrives.

If the shortcut sends a window somewhere unexpected, your monitors are probably arranged in Windows in a different order from the way they sit on your desk. Setting up [dual monitors properly](https://zepe.online/guides/set-up-dual-monitors-windows-10) fixes that once, and the cursor stops catching on invisible edges too.

> **Editor's note — On a window that has gone off-screen**
>
> Here is one worth filing away. A window that opens somewhere off-screen, which happens constantly after unplugging a second monitor, can be rescued without a mouse at all. Select it with Alt + Tab, press **Alt + Space** then **M** for Move, then use the arrow keys: the window follows the cursor until you press Enter. In practice **Win + Shift + Left** usually sorts it in a single press.

## The four worth learning first

1. **Win + D** — clear the screen, and put it all back with a second press.
2. **Win + Left / Right** — two windows side by side without touching the mouse.
3. **Alt + F4** — close what is in front of you.
4. **Win + Shift + Left / Right** — throw a window onto the other monitor.

Everything else in the table above is worth having somewhere findable, but those four cover the large majority of day-to-day window handling. If you are keyboard-minded generally, the guide to [opening a terminal in Windows](https://zepe.online/guides/open-terminal-windows) covers the launch shortcuts that pair with these.

## Common questions

### What is the shortcut to minimize a window?

**Win + Down**. On a maximized window the first press restores it to its previous size and the second minimizes it, so it can take two presses. To minimize every window at once use **Win + M**, or **Win + D** to show the desktop with a toggle that restores everything.

### Why does Alt + F4 shut down my computer?

Because nothing was focused when you pressed it. With no application window active, Alt + F4 targets the desktop, and the desktop's close action is the shut-down dialog. Click into a window first, or press Escape at the dialog — nothing happens until you confirm.

### How do I close all open windows at once?

There is no single built-in shortcut that closes everything, and that is deliberate — mass-closing would discard unsaved work without prompting. **Win + M** minimizes everything, which is what most people actually want. To genuinely close a set of programs, close them individually or end them from Task Manager.

### How do I get back a window that has disappeared off the screen?

Select it with Alt + Tab so it has focus, then press **Win + Shift + Left** to pull it onto the other monitor. If that fails, press **Alt + Space**, then **M**, then move the mouse — the window attaches to the cursor and you can drag it back into view, then press Enter.

## Sources

- [Keyboard shortcuts in Windows](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/keyboard-shortcuts-in-windows-dcc61a57-8ff0-cffe-9796-cb9706c75eec) — Microsoft Support. Supports: The full shortcut list, including Win + Down, Win + Up, Win + D, Win + M, Win + Home and the Win + Shift + arrow monitor moves.
- [ShowWindow function](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winuser/nf-winuser-showwindow) — Microsoft Learn. Supports: That minimize, maximize and restore are distinct window states at the API level, which is why Win + Down behaves differently depending on the starting state.

## Related guides

- https://zepe.online/guides/force-quit-app-windows
- https://zepe.online/guides/set-up-dual-monitors-windows-10
- https://zepe.online/guides/open-terminal-windows

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