Geek Speak.

I haven’t written in quite some time, but I thought I’d take some time this morning to share a little tidbit of information that I found quite handy. Every once in a while I’ll dock my laptop or log into a machine that had been in use via remote desktop and a window will be off the screen. So far to one direction that there is no practical way to get it back into the main desktop area of the machine.

Logically you’d think that since this is such a common occurrence that you’d be able to return it to the normal positioning on the screen with a couple of clicks. Following that logic you’d think that you’d be able to move the window using the “Move” prompt when you right click on pretty much any application in the windows task bar.

Well in Microsoft’s omnipotence they have decided that since this is such a useful function that they’d include it in nearly every windows dialog. The only draw back being that the only time you’d find such a function useful, when the window is outside of the clickable area, the “Move” option doesn’t do squat but move your cursor to the very edge of the screen.

I shared my frustration with a co-worker here and he shared what must be the most useful key combination since CTRL+C, CTRL+V. Behold the Right Click + Move + [Arrow Key].

This particular key combination will allow you to move the window, even if it is outside the viewable area. It’s a slow process, moving only a pixel at a time, but its usefulness is undeniable.

Ok, for clarification, you right click the window you'd like to move in the task bar and select move. You're mouse cursor will turn into a 4 way arrow. Then can use the appropriate arrow key in the direction that you'd like to move the window.

Go now, and rest easy knowing that I've made you slightly smarter.