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How to recover a window that is off screen in Windows

The app is running, its taskbar button is there, but the window is nowhere to be seen. It is usually sitting on a monitor that is no longer connected, or at coordinates outside every screen after a resolution change. Windows has a few keyboard tricks to drag it back, and WindowLayout can fix it with one key and keep it from happening again. Here are the methods, from simplest to most reliable.

Updated 6 steps

  1. Try the keyboard shortcuts

    Click the app's taskbar button or press Alt+Tab to select it so it has focus, even though you cannot see it. Then press Win+Up to maximize it on its current screen, or Win+Left to snap it to the left half of the screen. If that does not help, press Win+Shift+Left or Win+Shift+Right to move it to a neighboring monitor. On many apps, one of these brings the window back into view immediately.

  2. Move it with the arrow keys

    Select the window, press Alt+Space to open its window menu and press M for Move. Then press any arrow key once and move the mouse: the window follows the cursor until you click. On Windows 10 and 11 you can also Shift+right-click the app's taskbar button and choose Move. Some modern apps have no window menu, in which case the snap shortcuts above are the way to go.

  3. Bring it back with one hotkey

    With WindowLayout installed, select the lost window and press Ctrl+Alt+Numpad5, Center on monitor. The window is centered on the nearest monitor's work area and shrunk if it is larger than the screen, so it is fully visible. Ctrl+Alt+Right moves it to the next monitor and also fits it onto that screen. If several windows are lost, Ctrl+Alt+G gathers every window on other monitors to the main display.

  4. Pick the window from a list

    If you cannot select the window at all, open WindowLayout's Windows & Zones page. Open windows lists every window, including ones you cannot see, with its app and monitor. Choose Move to on the lost window and pick a monitor; WindowLayout places it fully inside that screen. Window actions on that page apply to the last window you used outside WindowLayout.

  5. Change the resolution as a last resort

    If nothing else works, temporarily change the display resolution in Settings, System, Display, or press Win+P and switch to PC screen only and back to Extend. Windows re-checks every window position after a display change and pulls windows that are completely outside the desktop back onto a screen. Some apps still remember the bad position and return there on the next start, so close the app normally once it is visible again.

  6. Stop windows going off screen

    Windows usually get lost when an app reopens at a position saved while another monitor was attached. Switch on Remember app positions in Window Profiles: WindowLayout remembers where each app was when it closed and reopens it there when that monitor is connected, and it never sends a window to a monitor that is missing. Save a window profile and turn on Restore windows after monitor changes, sleep and unlock so windows from a missing monitor come back when it returns.

Frequently asked questions

Why does an app open off screen even with one monitor?

It saved its position while a second monitor or a higher resolution was in use. Bring it back once, close it normally so it saves the new position, or let Remember app positions handle it.

The window has no taskbar button. Can I still recover it?

Use Alt+Tab to select it if it appears there, or the Move to menu in Windows & Zones. Tool windows and system windows without a taskbar button may not appear in the list.

Does Center on monitor change the window size?

Only if the window is larger than the screen's work area; then it is shrunk to fit. Otherwise it keeps its size.