6 ms·

There's a windows feature like this which I hate with a passion. If you grab a window and shake it side to side, it minimizes all open windows... So sometimes

There's a windows feature like this which I hate with a passion. If you grab a window and shake it side to side, it minimizes all open windows... So sometimes I'll grab a window to move to my left monitor, decide instead I want it on the right one, and suddenly everything is gone and I now need to go open every single window one at a time. It even took me months to understand that the shaking was what caused it. I would just sometimes be working and suddenly everything is gone and I had no idea why.

MetallicCloud 6y ago
I also very much hate this feature, and trigger it often. However if you shake the window you have again, all the minimised windows should be restored.
- bobbob1921 6y ago
  Agreed (re shake again to reverse), but not always - ie if you let off the mouse click , there is no option to shake again to undo the initial shake. Bottom line , I disableded this “feature”. I do think this is one of the best examples of the issues called out by this article/thread. (Or maybe how google docs has a button covering the scroll bar slider once you scroll to the very bottom of a docs file)
  - mdoms 6y ago
    This isn't correct. Shaking the window again will restore the minimised windows, whether it's from the original mouse-down or a future mouse-down. But I agree that it's a bad feature, and IMO it's a rare miss from the Windows UI team who if nothing else have developed excellent window management.
    - squiggleblaz 6y ago
      This isn't correct. There is something that happens which makes it forget which windows were open. I am not sure what it is. But is definitely the case that sometimes, I can shake again to put everything back the way I always wanted it, and sometimes I cannot.
- Geezus_42 6y ago
  You can also disable it but if you want to keep snappy windows you have to do it through a regedit since the two features are not independent for some imo stupid reason.
eatingCake 6y ago
That thing is the worst! HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced set DisallowShaking dword to 1
- fizzled 6y ago
  THANK YOU! I had no idea what was going on, or how to describe it. I wouldn't have thought of using the word "shaking". There was a time when every feature you needed was visible (yes, I had crazy FVWM bars for a while), but "discoverability" is becoming increasingly frustrating and annoying.
- ianlevesque 6y ago
  This thread has come full circle. An undiscoverable registry key to disable an undesirable feature.
- voldacar 6y ago
  Honest question: where do you discover registry stuff like this?
  - coldpie 6y ago
    Google "Windows disable shaking".
    - SilasX 6y ago
      lol, the pinnacle of feature discoverability...
      - CarbyAu 6y ago
        Oh yeah. Google to: - discover which registry key - discover how to craft shit in a game - to find where my Android setting is and what the searchterm/keyword for it is. Without google/duckduckgo 80% of the options in my world would be undiscoverable or take waaaay too much time to figure out.
baggy_trough 6y ago
Horrific.
appleflaxen 6y ago
OMG. you just solved a problem I've had for years and couldn't figure out wtf was happening, or even how to google for it. THANK YOU!
Tossrock 6y ago
That sounds awful - glad I've never encountered it. FYI, you can use a lot of the built-in window management functions via keyboard shortcuts - Windows key + Shift + [Left|Right] arrow key moves a window between monitors.
olyjohn 6y ago
That fucks with me all the time. I hate it so much... But I figured out how to deal with it. Shake the window again, and they will all come back.
seemack 6y ago
I've been back on my windows machine recently for a new side project and, ironically, I've really enjoyed this feature. It's akin to shaking my head before focusing on a specific task. I shake the task window and the other applications that I still want open but won't be using for a bit all hide away.
acqq 6y ago
The one I'm unlucky to hit is the "icon resizing" that happens when a moving action on the thumbpad is performed in combination with the pressed ctrl key, which sometimes is not actually pressed but the OS believes it is (some "zombie" state). Happened to me on different notebooks and even on the desktop. I don't think anybody needs that "quick" way to do that, and that nobody needs to change the icon sizes often. I have no idea if that misfeature could be blocked.
Anthony-G 6y ago
Upvoted because I never knew about this. As a user who prefers keyboard short-cuts, I usually press Windows key with D (alternatively, right-click on the task-bar and choose Show Desktop) if I want to minimise all windows. Anyhow, I just tried shaking a window from my work laptop and discovered that this behaviour activates on the second change of the direction in rapid succession. While I was experimenting, I also discovered that shaking the window again restores the other windows so you don't have to restore them individually if/when this happens accidentally.
userbinator 6y ago
There's another "feature" which I rarely hit, and I don't even know how I did, what it's called or for, but when it happens, a draggable divider shows up in the middle of the screen, all my windows get "crushed" on the left side, and the right side is a dark blue/purple blank. I can drag the divider to restore the desktop, but it seriously angers me since none of my windows' original positions nor sizes get restored. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to disable it either. I believe it appeared starting with Win8, as I never saw it in earlier versions.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Negitivefrags 6y ago
A lot of people don’t know that to undo text operations on IOS you shake the whole phone. It’s insanity.
endless1234 6y ago
The most amazing thing about this feature is that no matter how much I try, I never seem to be able to re-shake the window in the proper way (which would bring all windows back up again). But nice that it's at least possible to disable it via a registry hack.

MetallicCloud 6y ago

I also very much hate this feature, and trigger it often. However if you shake the window you have again, all the minimised windows should be restored.

bobbob1921 6y ago
Agreed (re shake again to reverse), but not always - ie if you let off the mouse click , there is no option to shake again to undo the initial shake. Bottom line , I disableded this “feature”. I do think this is one of the best examples of the issues called out by this article/thread. (Or maybe how google docs has a button covering the scroll bar slider once you scroll to the very bottom of a docs file)
- mdoms 6y ago
  This isn't correct. Shaking the window again will restore the minimised windows, whether it's from the original mouse-down or a future mouse-down. But I agree that it's a bad feature, and IMO it's a rare miss from the Windows UI team who if nothing else have developed excellent window management.
  - squiggleblaz 6y ago
    This isn't correct. There is something that happens which makes it forget which windows were open. I am not sure what it is. But is definitely the case that sometimes, I can shake again to put everything back the way I always wanted it, and sometimes I cannot.
Geezus_42 6y ago
You can also disable it but if you want to keep snappy windows you have to do it through a regedit since the two features are not independent for some imo stupid reason.

eatingCake 6y ago

That thing is the worst! HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced set DisallowShaking dword to 1

fizzled 6y ago
THANK YOU! I had no idea what was going on, or how to describe it. I wouldn't have thought of using the word "shaking". There was a time when every feature you needed was visible (yes, I had crazy FVWM bars for a while), but "discoverability" is becoming increasingly frustrating and annoying.
ianlevesque 6y ago
This thread has come full circle. An undiscoverable registry key to disable an undesirable feature.
voldacar 6y ago
Honest question: where do you discover registry stuff like this?
- coldpie 6y ago
  Google "Windows disable shaking".
  - SilasX 6y ago
    lol, the pinnacle of feature discoverability...
    - CarbyAu 6y ago
      Oh yeah. Google to: - discover which registry key - discover how to craft shit in a game - to find where my Android setting is and what the searchterm/keyword for it is. Without google/duckduckgo 80% of the options in my world would be undiscoverable or take waaaay too much time to figure out.

baggy_trough 6y ago

Horrific.

appleflaxen 6y ago

OMG. you just solved a problem I've had for years and couldn't figure out wtf was happening, or even how to google for it. THANK YOU!

Tossrock 6y ago

That sounds awful - glad I've never encountered it. FYI, you can use a lot of the built-in window management functions via keyboard shortcuts - Windows key + Shift + [Left|Right] arrow key moves a window between monitors.

olyjohn 6y ago

That fucks with me all the time. I hate it so much... But I figured out how to deal with it. Shake the window again, and they will all come back.

seemack 6y ago

I've been back on my windows machine recently for a new side project and, ironically, I've really enjoyed this feature. It's akin to shaking my head before focusing on a specific task. I shake the task window and the other applications that I still want open but won't be using for a bit all hide away.

acqq 6y ago

The one I'm unlucky to hit is the "icon resizing" that happens when a moving action on the thumbpad is performed in combination with the pressed ctrl key, which sometimes is not actually pressed but the OS believes it is (some "zombie" state). Happened to me on different notebooks and even on the desktop. I don't think anybody needs that "quick" way to do that, and that nobody needs to change the icon sizes often. I have no idea if that misfeature could be blocked.

Anthony-G 6y ago

Upvoted because I never knew about this. As a user who prefers keyboard short-cuts, I usually press Windows key with D (alternatively, right-click on the task-bar and choose Show Desktop) if I want to minimise all windows. Anyhow, I just tried shaking a window from my work laptop and discovered that this behaviour activates on the second change of the direction in rapid succession. While I was experimenting, I also discovered that shaking the window again restores the other windows so you don't have to restore them individually if/when this happens accidentally.

userbinator 6y ago

There's another "feature" which I rarely hit, and I don't even know how I did, what it's called or for, but when it happens, a draggable divider shows up in the middle of the screen, all my windows get "crushed" on the left side, and the right side is a dark blue/purple blank. I can drag the divider to restore the desktop, but it seriously angers me since none of my windows' original positions nor sizes get restored. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to disable it either. I believe it appeared starting with Win8, as I never saw it in earlier versions.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Negitivefrags 6y ago

A lot of people don’t know that to undo text operations on IOS you shake the whole phone. It’s insanity.

endless1234 6y ago

The most amazing thing about this feature is that no matter how much I try, I never seem to be able to re-shake the window in the proper way (which would bring all windows back up again). But nice that it's at least possible to disable it via a registry hack.