How to slide all opened windows across the desktop at once in Windows [Tip]

Microsoft added Aero Snap to Windows with which you can quickly adjust two open application windows. However, there’s no way to move all the open application windows across the desktop at once. Nevertheless, if you add Desktop Slider to Windows you can slide all the open application windows across the desktop and navigate through them.

You can add Desktop Slider to Windows XP, Vista and 7 from this page. There press the Download button to save the Zip file. Then right-click the Zip file, click Extract All and choose a location for the extracted folder. When you launch the software, you’ll find a Desktop Slider icon in the system tray.

Desktop Slider

Next, open a few application windows; and select the Restore down button at the top right of their windows so they are half-open on the desktop as below. Then select one of the windows, hold the Ctrl key and middle mouse button. Now when you drag the mouse to the left and right all the open windows will move across the desktop, as demonstrated in this video. Note that the windows slide across the desktop in the opposite direction you move the mouse.

Desktop Slider2

You can drag all the windows off the desktop if required. If you drag the windows off the desktop, you can quickly put them back on it with the Show all windows option. Left-click the Desktop Slider system tray icon to show all the windows on the desktop.

Go to selected window is another handy option. When you select that option, the selected window moves to the center of the desktop. Right-click the system tray icon and select Go to selected window to center the window as in the shot below. Alternatively, press the Win + C hotkey.

desktop slider3

You can select further options by right-clicking the software’s system tray icon and clicking Options. That opens the window in the shot below. There you can select alternative mouse and keyboard buttons to slide the windows across the desktop with. If you select the Invert X axis and Invert Y Axis check boxes, the windows will slide across the desktop in the same direction as you move the mouse.

desktop slider4

So with Desktop Slider you can now quickly center active windows and move all your open windows at once to clear up a cluttered desktop. As such, it’s a handy utility to add to Windows.

Related Posts