Gee's Blog World: AutoHotkey one-liner: Correct Windows 7's missing "minimize" hotkey

Saturday, July 10, 2010

AutoHotkey one-liner: Correct Windows 7's missing "minimize" hotkey

Windows 7 has some really cool hotkeys. My personal favorites are the ones for managing windows:

Win+Right (or left): Make the window take up right (or left) half of the screen.
Win+Shift+Right (or left): Bounce window to next monitor (very handy!)
Win+Up: Maximize window.
Win+Shift+Up: Maximize window vertically.
Win+Down: Restore window (unmaximize it if it's maximized), or minimize it if it's not maximized.

Does anyone else notice a glaring exception in the list above? If my window is maximized (like most of my applications are), I need to press down twice and watch it animate as it "restores" and then minimizes to the tray. Worse still, when I Alt-Tab back to that window, it's no longer maximized! Argh!

I don't know about you guys, but these things can really get on my nerves after a while. Well, as usual, it's AutoHotkey to the rescue:

  #+down::WinMinimize,a

This single line of code lets you minimize any window with Win+Shift+Down, just as Microsoft should have done in the first place. Now when you Alt-Tab back to it, it'll be maximized, just like it was when you left it. Doesn't that make you feel much better?