Moving a window from a disconnected monitor to connected monitor on Vista

You still get the icon for the app down in your taskbar, yes? If so, select the icon for the app and hit ⎇ alt+space and then M. That'll select Move for that window. Now use your keyboard arrow to move the window in the proper direction to the active monitor.


When you load the app/program, the focus is on the program even though you cant see it. Then use the windows-key and left/right arrow to move the window across (windows snap). Thats what I do :)

  • This only works in windows 7 and later

For Windows 7 if you turn off one monitor you can move the application over to the current active screen by using the following quick keys (depends on which side your monitor was originally on).

Press either ⊞ Win+ or ⊞ Win+

The above is actually normally used for moving a window on the current monitor to either side of the current display but works well when a program is lost on a detached monitors desktop. This trick will bring the active screen to its current desktops left or right side half but, since there is no desktop, it moves it to the current active desktop.

If your monitor is still attached you can use ⊞ Win+⇧ Shift+ or ⊞ Win+⇧ Shift+ to move a window from screen to screen (this will not work if the monitor is not attached).