Windows positioned off screen. Best way to quickly reset?

Question

I have 2 monitors (using Windows 10 latest version). Main monitor is 4k resolution and the other one is 1080p@144hz.

Occasionally I have to switch my main monitor across to the 1080P for certain games or when I want the higher refresh rate and have no other way to switch the monitor inside the game or app.

But I also use 3D art software and other software such as Maya and Blender and Unreal Engine. Sometimes (especially with Maya) windows will pop-up into non-existing screen space and hence I cannot click them or even drag to move them.

The only way I can get them to come back is switching my main monitor over to the 1080P. But this then gives me other problems where now all pop-ups go onto the 1080p monitor when I am trying to work using the 4K and just use the 1080P for videos etc.

I am hoping there is some kind of hotkey for Windows to just 'reset all windows positions' or something like this.

Answer 1

With the window active, you can use Win-Shift-left/right arrow to move the window to another monitor. This is often enough, but there are situations where this is not enough.

If the window for example is minimized and then closed, if the program remembers the window position on close, the window will become in a situation where the first trick won't work either. For those situations, the following trick will work. Its a trick that almost always works, but is slightly harder to do than the first trick.

Hold shift while right-clicking on the program in the taskbar. From this menu, ensure that the first item in the list is grayed out. If its not, then it means the window is maximized, and you need to click the first item first. If you have done that, repeat the step again to ensure that this time it is indeed grayed out.

Now, from this list, click the second item, move. The mouse cursor changes to a 4 directional arrow and is moved to the titlebar of the window. While the mousecursor is like this, press any of your arrow keys on the keyboard. This will snap the window to your mouse cursor. Moving the mouse now effectively moves the window where you have it. Click or press escape to release the lock and if the window is now a tiny bar, resize the window to get it back to normal working order.