How to Bring Misplaced Off-Screen Windows Back to Your Desktop

Have you ever used a secondary monitor with a laptop and then disconnected without moving the windows back to the primary desktop? Then have probably had this problem:

An application is still running but you cannot see it on the taskbar. You can’t see it on the screen as well because it still thinks it’s running on the secondary monitor. Every step that you try doesn’t do anything, and the window doesn’t move anywhere.

Before getting annoyed and rebooting Windows, try this simple trick first.

First, be sure that you have alt-tabbed to the window. Then, right-click on the taskbar and select Move.

Once you do this, you will notice that your cursor switches to the “Move” cursor, but you still won’t be able to move anything.

Next, hit any one of the arrow keys (Left, Right, Down, Up), and then move your mouse. By this time, the window should “pop” back onto the screen.

*If you are keyboard savvy, you may do this instead: alt-tab to the window, hit Alt+Space, then M, any arrow key, and then move your mouse.
**Remember that you can also right-click on the taskbar and select to Cascade your open windows to bring the windows back onto the screen.

This trick should work on any version of Windows.