Quickly Close Open Windows Using Shortcut Keys

How to type your way out of a mess with Windows keyboard shortcuts

One of the advantages of Microsoft Windows PCs is that you can have many different programs and windows open at the same time. This advantage becomes a disadvantage, however, when you have to close dozens of open windows. Fortunately, you can carry out repetitive actions like closing windows with keyboard shortcuts.

Instructions in this article apply to Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.

How to Close Windows With Alt + Spacebar + C

One option for closing windows with keyboard shortcuts is as follows:

Open the window that you would like to close using your mouse.

Press and hold down the Alt key, then press the Spacebar to reveal the right-click context menu at the top of the program window you’re trying to close.

Release both keys and press the letter C. This will cause the window to close.

If you can execute this sequence using one hand while the other hand controls the mouse, you’ll be able to close roughly a dozen windows in about as many seconds.

How to Close Windows With Fn + Alt + F4

Another option is to select the window you want to close and then press Fn+Alt+F4. You’ll probably need two hands for this one.

Although the shortcut is officially listed as Alt+F4, you must hold down the Function (Fn) key for it to work.

How to Close Tabs With CTRL + W

The Ctrl+W shortcut only closes the current file you’re working on, but it leaves the program open. This feature can be handy if you want to leave the desktop program open but get rid of all the files you’re working on in quick succession.

Ctrl+W works in most browsers too, so you can close the current tab you’re looking at without taking your hands off the keyboard. If you use Ctrl+W when only one browser tab is open, then the program window will close.

How to Select Open Windows With Alt + Tab

It’s possible to select an open window without using the mouse. Press Alt+Tab to cycle through your open windows. Use this shortcut in conjunction with the other shortcuts to close all open windows without taking your hands off the keyboard.

How to See Your Desktop With Windows Key + D

Sometimes you don’t actually want to close all those windows; what you really want to do is just look at your desktop. To quickly access your desktop, press the Windows Key+D. Use the same shortcut to bring back all your windows.

If you are running Windows 7 or later, there are multiple ways to access your Windows desktop.

How to Close a Group of Windows With the Mouse

When you have numerous files open in the same program, like a bunch of emails in Outlook, Word files, or several spreadsheets in Excel, you can close all of them at once using the mouse. Right-click the program in the Windows taskbar and select Close all windows (or Close Group in older versions of Windows).

The fastest way to close all running programs in Windows

With just a handful of keystrokes you can shut down all active apps on your system via Task Manager’s Programs tab. Plus: power off your PC by pressing three keys.

Need to shut down your PC in a hurry? Simple. Here are two handy keyboard shortcuts to save you time and mousing.

Close all open programs
A little-known set of keystrokes will shut down all active programs at once in no time.

Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and then Alt-T to open Task Manager’s Applications tab. Press the down arrow, and then Shift-down arrow to select all the programs listed in the window. When they’re all selected, press Alt-E, then Alt-F, and finally x to close Task Manager.

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s seven steps that can be accomplished in less than 10 seconds.

If you’re concerned about having to remember these or other shortcut keys, press the Alt key to show the underline beneath the letter to press to activate each option.

There’s more than one way to turn off your PC
At the end of a long workday your last official act may be to press the power button on your PC to turn it off. Alternatively, you can click Start > Shut down.

But there’s a way to power off your system without taking your hands off the keyboard: in Windows 7, press the Windows key, then the right-arrow key, and then Enter; in Vista, press the Windows key, then the right arrow three times, and then u; in XP, press the Windows key and then u twice.

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Windows will prompt you to save any files that require it before closing the host app, just as it does when you press the power button or click «Shut down» on the Start menu (which is an odd place for a «Shut down» button, if you ask me).

Equal time for Mac users: open the shutdown dialog by pressing Control-Eject; activate sleep mode by pressing Option-Command-Eject; close all applications and restart the machine by pressing Control-Command-Eject (you’ll be prompted to save changes to open documents); close all applications and shut down by pressing Control Option-Command-Eject (once again, you’ll be prompted to save changes to open documents).

Keep in mind that some organizations want you to leave your PC running because updates and backups may be scheduled for the middle of the night. You can set the power button to put your system in hibernate or standby mode via Windows’ Power Options.

To open Power Options, press the Windows key, type «power options,» and press Enter. Click «Choose what the power buttons do» in the left pane, click the menu next to «When I press the power button» and make your selection: Shut down, Hibernate, Sleep, or Do nothing.

Windows 7’s Power Options dialog lets you change the power button’s action from the default «Shut down» to either «Hibernate,» «Sleep,» or «Do nothing.» screenshot by Dennis O’Reilly/CNET

(If Windows seems to take forever to turn off your PC, check out my post from March 2008 titled » Shut down Windows in an instant .»)

How to quickly close all Finder windows on Mac

Have you ever had a ton of Finder windows open and took the time to close each window one-by-one? I think some people get into the habit of doing this simply because Command (⌘)+Q doesn’t work with Finder. You can’t “quit” the Finder app, so that popular shortcut for closing apps won’t work.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be relegated to the tedious effort required to manually close a bunch of Finder windows. Instead of individually closing out of each window that you have open, there’s a simple way to quickly close all open Finder windows.

How to close all Finder windows at once

Step 1: Open Finder.

Step 2: Hold the Option key while clicking the File menu.

Step 3: Click Close All.

This will close all Finder windows in one fell swoop. Actually, the Close All command works with pretty much any app, but it’s especially useful for Finder since you can’t actually quit the Finder like you can with other apps.

If you’d prefer to avoid the menu bar, you can just use this keyboard shortcut instead:

Do you use this shortcut to quickly close out of the Finder windows on your Mac? Share your thoughts down below.

Close all apps/windows shortcut?

Shotgun OS

macrumors 6502a

Is there a keyboard shortcut that closes all apps and windows (besides the finder)? Is there a specific way to make a shortcut that does? or a script?

iBookG4user

macrumors 604

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus

Do you really need to CLOSE them? A lot of people make use of one of the following:

— Exposé’s show desktop feature, which pushes all the windows off to the edges temporarily

— If you press apple-option and click the Finder dock icon, it hides everything except Finder.

TheAnswer

macrumors 68030

The app Quicksilver can do this.

You’ll need to install Extra Scripts plug-in in the Plug-ins panel (which might require you to select Enable advanced features in the Preferences panel). once installed, it’s just a matter of summoning Quicksilver and starting to type «Quit Visible Apps». once you get to «Quit V» then you can hit return to run the script. It won’t quit any apps you have hidden, though.

Shotgun OS

macrumors 6502a

Do you really need to CLOSE them? A lot of people make use of one of the following:

— Exposé’s show desktop feature, which pushes all the windows off to the edges temporarily

— If you press apple-option and click the Finder dock icon, it hides everything except Finder.

How to close all open windows at once?

How do I close all opened windows at once?

12 Answers 12

All answers I could quickly find on this topic involve either the tip Molly gave or using an application (or coding it yourself). For example (I haven’t tried this), Close All Windows.

Also, by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc you get the Windows Task Manager, where you can see all running applications at once (among other things), select them, and End Task them.

I like to see my open windows ungrouped, but realized that this i.e. closing multiple windows at once was a problem with such a setting. A less time-taking method would be to use the command line like this :

And then restart explorer using :

Caution : This will cause processes like file copying on the default Windows interface to abort.

Simultaneously close all open windows:

1. While pressing the Ctrl key, successively click each of the task icons on the taskbar.
2. Right-click the last task icon, and choose Close Group.

If you only want to minimize the windows, use the ‘Show Desktop’ shorcut.

I usually (yes, this happens a lot to me..) just press Alt key and then go crazy on the F4 key until everything is shut down. Not one click, but it’s pretty fast. Or, depending on your system, reboot.. Don’t forget to save anything.

Or maybe you could simply switch users to continue your work without all these tabs. Then when you’re down, shutting down the computer will kill all the processes for the first user.

Not the best solutions, I just thought Id give this one a try.

It’s not a one-click solution but it is the fastest I know with my Windows 7 Pro

1. Open taskbar properties (right click > properties) or (Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Taskbar and Start Menu)
2. Select «Group similar taskbar buttons» = «Group similar taskbar buttons», and click OK
3. Your windows are group, right-click and select «Close all windows»
4. Go back to taskbar properties to restore you old settings

After doing Ctrl-Shift-Esc, go to applications. Then, press shift down and end task, all of them will end (You might get a confirmation message or something depending on the program).

Sometimes, even when you close a program, the processes of the program (The biggest example is an unclosed connection to a local file) may still be on your computer. Most of the time, these processes are mainly overlooked by the owner software because they use almost no space. However, if you still want to end them, just to be meticulous, go to processes and you’ll have to end them one by one.