Windows disappearing to the side...

PortPro · 01 Nov 2011

Hi,

My step daughter (11 yo) just called and told me that her paint and ie windows keep disappearing to the right when she tries to open them. I'm not up to speed with W7 yet (still using XP and Vista) so I tried shutting off Aero Snap. This didn't help. the windows minimize to the taskbar, and a right click only brings up the option to close. Tried rebooting and no difference. Can anyone help? My status as a hero in the 11yo's eyes is slipping away! - David -

Kari · 03 Nov 2011

Hi PortPro, welcome to the Seven forums.

This happens sometimes when Windows tries to open a window in a non-existing second display, for instance when you have had a second display connected which is then disconnected. To fix this is quite simple.

Do this, carefully and exactly as told:

Open the application in question, see if it disappears right or left (right in your case, as you told). Do not click anything else as to keep Windows focus on that application window
Press ALT + SPACE to open window context menu. Trust me, it opens although you are not going to see it
Press ENTER to exit full screen mode. You can not move a full screen window using this method so this is important. If window is not in full screen mode, this does nothing else than closes the context menu
Press ALT + SPACE to open window context menu again
Press M to select Move on that menu
Press and hold down LEFT ARROW if the window has disappeared to the right, RIGHT ARROW if the window has disappeared to the left
Release the arrow key when you can see the window on your display, press ENTER

That's it. If you want to, you can practise this with a window that is visible on your display, to see what each of the steps described above does.

Kari

IbanezRG989 · 03 Nov 2011

You can right-click on the desktop and select "Screen Resolution" to check if it thinks there is a second monitor/ reaffirm the single monitor is the primary display. That may also fix the disappearing issue.