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0 pointsKlathmon5y ago0 comments

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.

0 comments

eatingCake5y ago

That thing is the worst!

  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

set DisallowShaking dword to 1

ianlevesque5y ago

This thread has come full circle. An undiscoverable registry key to disable an undesirable feature.

voldacar5y ago

Honest question: where do you discover registry stuff like this?

coldpie5y ago

Google "Windows disable shaking".

SilasX5y ago

lol, the pinnacle of feature discoverability...

1 more reply

MetallicCloud5y 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.

bobbob19215y 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)

mdoms5y 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.

squiggleblaz5y 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_425y 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.

endless12345y 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.

appleflaxen5y 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!

Anthony-G5y 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.

acqq5y 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.

Negitivefrags5y ago

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

It’s insanity.

seemack5y 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.

userbinator5y 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.

Tossrock5y 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.

olyjohn5y 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.

baggy_trough5y ago

Horrific.

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