Power Tips: How to Juggle Multiple Windows and Programs in Windows 10

Introduction & Tips 1 to 5

How many apps and windows do you typically have open in Windows 10 at one time? Two? Three? Four? More?

Windows lends itself to multitasking, so you can run and juggle multiple apps, bouncing from one to another. But multitasking can sometimes be a challenge. You often end up with so many apps and windows open at once that you lose track of where each one is hiding.

Windows 10 offers a bunch of tools and key features to help you more easily and effectively juggle multiple apps. Master them, and you can keep better track of all your open windows, reducing screen clutter and keeping them from getting lost in the mix.

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Window and Program Juggling in 10: A Few Basics

One such critical tool is virtual desktops. Through the Task View button on the taskbar, you can create and use virtual desktops, each one housing a different set of apps and windows. When you want to jump from one set to another, you simply hop over to its virtual desktop. You can create as many virtual desktops as you want. (On a practical level, four or five should more than suffice for almost everyone.)

Beyond that are some simple in-OS features to remember. For example, here are three ways to juggle your open apps. The first is Cascade windows. Right-click on the taskbar, and you’ll see a pop-up menu with three different options for organizing your windows. “Cascade windows” arranges your open windows so each one appears behind the one in front of it. The benefit here is that the cascaded windows don’t take up much space, and part of each window is visible. As a result, you can access any of the windows just by clicking on its visible portion.

The next one is Show windows stacked. Choose this from the same menu, and it attempts to place your open windows one on top of the other so you can see two or more of them at the same time. And finally, there's Show windows side by side. It insta-arranges your open apps so they’re next to each other, again allowing you to view and work with any of them.

Snap Assist is a more precise way to organize your windows than by showing them stacked or side by side. With Snap Assist, you can arrange all your open windows so they appear in one half of the screen, or in all four corners of the screen. Flip is another way to view and access your open windows, allowing you to select which window you wish to see in the foreground. And Peek is a feature through which you can temporarily hide all your open windows as you return to the desktop. You can then make all your hidden windows reappear.

Need to juggle an app or file on another computer? No problem. Windows 10 offers two options for that. The Remote Desktop feature lets you remotely log on to another computer to run apps and access files. And the Remote Assistance feature is typically used to access another PC with the intention of resolving a technical problem. But you can also use it to launch apps and open files on that computer.

Okay, let’s delve into each of these different ways of juggling multiple windows and apps to see which methods might work best for you.

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1) How to Use Virtual Desktops in Windows 10

With the virtual desktop feature accessible through the Task View button, you can organize your open windows and apps into different subsets and devote a desktop to each one. The idea is, you might set up a virtual desktop for work, another for playing PC games, and another for, say, a hobby. Here’s how.

From the Start menu, open a few apps on your current screen in Windows 10—let’s say, Mail, Maps, and Microsoft Edge. Okay, you’re probably already running low on screen real estate by doing that, and you have more apps you want to open. Click on the Task View button (the one to the right of the Cortana search field; it looks like a square with two smaller rectangles on both sides). We've got the cursor on it below...

Your three open windows appear as large thumbnails across the screen, like so...

Arranging your apps into thumbnails looks helpful. But we’re interested in something else. Take notice of a button with a plus symbol that says “New desktop” in the lower right corner. Click on that button...

A small thumbnail named “Desktop 2” pops up at the bottom of the screen. Click on the Desktop 2 thumbnail. You’re now presented with a fresh new desktop in which you can open and store more apps. You might want these to be things with a different theme than on Desktop 1.

For our example, let's open some apps in Desktop 2, such as the Windows Store, Photos, and News, like so...

Click on the Task View button again and click on Desktop 1 to return to your first virtual desktop. Click on the Task View button once more and then click on the button for New Desktop to open a third virtual desktop. Click on Desktop 3.

Open a couple more apps, such as Calculator and Alarms & Clock. Click on the Task View button yet again and open up a fourth virtual desktop. In Desktop 4, open Groove Music.

Now, let's say that you decide that four virtual desktops are one too many, so you want to delete Desktop 4 and move Groove Music into Desktop 3. Click on the Task View button again. Click on the large thumbnail for Groove Music. From the pop-up menu, move your mouse to the "Move to" option, then click on the entry for Desktop 3.

Hover your mouse over Desktop 4 and click on the X to delete it...

 Then click on Desktop 3. You’re now finished, so you can close each desktop.

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2) How to Cascade Your Windows in Windows 10

One method to organize all your open windows is to cascade them. Cascading places one behind another, but with enough showing of each window so that you can click on any one of them to access it. Let's try it out.

Open a few apps in Windows 10. Right-click on the Taskbar and click on the “Cascade windows” command from the popup menu...

All of your open windows line up one in front of the other. Click on the title bar of the window you wish to access. Then, click on the title bar of another window to access it...

At some point, you may find it difficult to access certain windows as you click from one to another. If this happens, just click on the “Cascade windows” command again to bring your windows back to attention.

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3) How to Show Your Windows Stacked in Windows 10

Another way to arrange your open windows is to stack them. Stacking puts one window on top of another. But the arrangement depends on how many windows you have open and the size of your monitor. Here is how it works.

Open two apps in Windows 10, then right-click on the taskbar and click on the “Show windows stacked” command from the popup menu...

Both windows are arranged one on top of the other.

Now, open another window and then click on the “Show windows stacked” command again. One window takes up a spot to the right of the window in the upper left corner. Open another window, then click on the “Show windows stacked” command again. All four windows appear in their respective corners.

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4) How to Show Your Windows Side by Side in Windows 10

Here’s a twist on the option to show windows stacked.

Instead of arranging the windows one on top of the other, this move places them next to each other horizontally. First, open two apps in Windows 10. Then right-click on the taskbar, and click on the “Show windows side by side” command from the popup menu...

The two windows should appear next to each other...

Open up two more windows, then click on the “Show windows side by side” command. Your open windows will begin to display in columns, one next to the other.

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5) How to Use Task View in Windows 10

Hey, wait a minute, didn’t we already cover the Task View feature as a way to trigger virtual desktops? Yes, we did. But you can also use Task View to arrange your windows without having to use virtual desktops.

For our example, open four or five windows, but don’t arrange them in any particular order. Click on the Task View button. All your open windows appear as large thumbnails, like you see here...

Click on the thumbnail of the window you wish to use. That window appears in the foreground of all the other windows. Click on the Task View button again, then click on the thumbnail of a different window. Now that window appears in the forefront, like you see here...

The takeaway? By using Task View alone, without opening any virtual desktops, you can arrange and access any open window on a single desktop.

Tips 6 to 10

      

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6) How to Arrange Your Windows With Snap Assist in Windows 10

The Snap Assist feature can be a more effective method of arranging your windows than using the older Cascade, Stacked, and Side by Side commands.

Open two windows in Windows 10. Move one to the left side of the screen by dragging its title bar until you see a faint transparent window taking up half the screen. Release your mouse. The window you dragged takes up half the screen, while the other window shrinks to a large thumbnail, like the iteration of Edge you see here...

Click on the thumbnail, and it expands to take up the right half of the screen...

Here’s another way to perform the same maneuver, but using a keyboard shortcut instead of your mouse. Close both windows, then open two other windows. Click on one of the windows. Then hold down the Windows key on your keyboard and press the right-arrow key. The window snaps into place in the right half of the screen. Click on the thumbnail of the other window, and it snaps into place in the left half of the screen.

Close those two windows and open two other windows. Click on the title bar of one of the windows. We’re now going to tour the different positions to which you can snap this window. Hold down the Windows key and press the right-arrow key. The window snaps to the right half of the screen. Still holding down the Windows key, press the down-arrow key. The window snaps to the lower right corner of the screen, like you see below. But don’t let go of that Windows key yet...

Press the down-arrow key again, and the window gets minimized to the taskbar. Press the up-arrow key; the window reappears in the lower right portion of the screen. Press the left-arrow key, and the window snaps to the lower left part of the screen. Press the up-arrow key, and the window takes up the full left half of the screen.

Release the Windows key, and the other window appears as a thumbnail. Click on that to snap that window to the right side of the screen.

Open another window. Click on that window, hold down the Windows key and press the right-arrow key and then the down-arrow key. The window snaps to the lower right corner, while one of the other open windows appears as a thumbnail in the upper right. Click on that thumbnail, and you’ll see two windows arranged on the right side of the screen and the third window on the left side. Open one more window and click on its title bar. Hold down the Windows key and press the left-arrow key, then the up-arrow key. The window takes up the upper left corner, while a third window appears in the lower left as a thumbnail. Click on the thumbnail, and now all four windows are positioned in their respective corners of the screen.

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7) How to Flip Through Your Open Windows in Windows 10

Here’s a quick, simple way of viewing and accessing your open windows. It's an oldie but a goodie.

Open three or four windows in Windows 10. Now, hold down the Alt key and keep pressing the Tab key. Your open windows appear as large thumbnails. Each time you press the Tab key, a different window is selected. Let go of the Tab key when the window you want to access is highlighted, like Groove Music here...

That window then moves to the foreground of the screen as the active window.

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8) How to Peek at Your Desktop in Windows 10

Here’s another useful classic. What do you do when you have so many apps on the screen that you can’t see or access icons on the desktop? You take a peek.

To try it out, open several windows so your desktop is totally obscured. Then, move your cursor all the way to the lower right corner of the screen until you see a small, vertical transparent line. Click on that line, and all your open windows disappear as the desktop takes center stage.

Click on that Peek button again, and your open windows reappear.

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9) How to Access Another PC Through Remote Desktop in Windows 10

Need to launch a program or open a file on another computer? One method for doing so is through the Remote Desktop feature built into Windows. Through Remote Desktop, you can open a separate and dedicated window into that other PC and arrange it along with any open windows on your current PC. Here’s how.

Launch Control Panel on the PC you wish to access. At the Search Control Panel field in the upper right corner, type the word remote. From the search results, click on the link to “Allow remote access to your computer.” At the Remote tab in the System Properties window that pops up, find the subsection for Remote Desktop and make sure the option for “Allow remote connections to this computer” is enabled. You can also turn on the check box for “Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication (recommended).” Click OK...

Any user who has an administrative account on the remote PC can access it, so the easiest option is to use such an account to log in remotely. At the Search Control Panel field in the upper right corner, type the word users. From the search results, click on the link for “User Accounts.” At the window to “Make changes to your user account,” click on the link to “Manage another account.” Look at the accounts that show up and see which one is designated as an Administrator.

Now, log in to the client PC, meaning the PC you wish to use to access the remote computer. Open a couple of windows. Then press Win+R.

In the Open field in the Run window that pops up, type mstsc.exe to launch the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) feature. At the RDC window, type the name or IP address of the remote PC in the Computer field. Click on the Show Options button. Type the username of the admin account you’ll use to log in. Then click on the Connect button. Enter your password when asked, then hit OK. You should now be connected to the remote computer.

Remote Desktop runs in a normal window, so you can use any of the methods already described to position and arrange the Remote Desktop window along with your other open windows. This can be handy if you need to consult details, say, on the Web on the same screen side by side with the Remote Desktop view.

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10) How to Access Another PC Through Remote Assistance in Windows 10

Remote Assistance is normally used to log in to a remote PC to troubleshoot a problem. But like Remote Desktop, you can use it to access another computer to launch apps or view files and arrange the remote window with any open windows on your current PC. The one difference is that someone needs to be at the remote PC to allow the connection.

On the computer you wish to access, launch Control Panel, or have someone else launch it. At the Search Control Panel field in the upper right corner, type the phrase remote assistance. From the search results, click on the link to “Allow Remote Assistance invitations to be sent from this computer.” From the System Properties window that pops up, make sure the check box to “Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer” is checked...

Return to the Control Panel results window and click on the link to “Invite someone to connect to your PC and help you, or offer to help someone else.” At the Windows Remote Assistance screen, click on the option to “Invite someone you trust to help you.” At the next screen, click on the option to “Use e-mail to send an invitation.” The default email program pops up, ready to send the invitation as a file attachment. Send the e-mail to whichever address you use on the computer that will access the remote PC...

Click on the invitation e-mail on the computer that will access the remote PC and double-click on the file attachment. Click on the Download button and then choose the option to open the file with Windows Remote Assistance. Type the password displayed on the remote PC and then click OK. On the remote PC, click on Yes to allow the other PC to connect. You can now see the remote PC’s display.

Like Remote Desktop, Remote Assistance runs in a normal window, so you can use any of the methods described in this article to position and arrange its window along with your other open windows.

Credit: computershopper.com