Would the Real Alt + Space please stand up?


Time for a short tip today. While working on my PC I happened to hit the Windows Key + Tab to working with one of my virtual desktops in Windows 10. I think the virtual desktop feature is very under-rated – and you should give it a go but in this case I noticed an app on the preview and attempted to switch to it. Nothing! Absolutely nothing happened and I realised that the app might in fact  be visible outside the normal  screen co-ordinates. I have two screens and on occasion a window can appear with the top section off the top of a screen. Simple fix is to use ALT + SPACE to get the window menu (restore / move etc) and get the window back that way.

However what I got was a popup box saying “Start Typing”. Took a moment to realise that this is actually part of the Windows PowerToys application – and so changed the keyboard shortcut to another combination for that thinking this should return the correct ALT + Space action – but no !!

After some digging around on the internet I came across a Dell knowledgebase article  entitled “https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000136390/right-alt-click-does-not-work-in-windows-7” which in this case applied to my Windows 10 PC as well. Using the Windows Key + Space to bring up the  installed keyboard languages I was able to swap from the English US which I had inadvertently activated and back the UK version.

Finally the ALT + SPACE gives the window menu and the errant window can return to the screen where it belongs