Middle-Click To Close Applications From Windows 7’s Taskbar

@Shabaab Kamal:

I find Taskix ( [taskix.robustit.com] )is much better than taskbar shuffle it does the same job (taskbar reordering and middle click closing) with less memory (1.5mb) and without any nag screens or notification area icons.

According to the website it "runs in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008" 32bit and 64bit.

ritch0s

Another one of my favorites is Win-Left Arrow and Win-Right Arrow to get windows to size to half of the width of your widescreen. Very useful for comparing docs, or having two instances of Outlook running for purposes of filing emails, etc.

A big ole list is included below. This is a good read:

[blogs.msdn.com]

hhumbert

@James Hall: You can also make it do the same thing by grabbing the top edge of the window and dragg-resizing it to the top of the screen (it will automatically drag-resize the bottom to the bottom for you in response after a fraction of a second).

HunterZ

Oh, I see Kevin... Pick on Gina's new site by closing it rather than LH... my oh my how the fickle tides of change roll in....

=)

crouton976

@shallnot: microsoft mice with their special software are like that. default for ordinary mice is as this article claims. enters autoscroll mode in browsers, opens links in new tabs, closes existing tabs, opens new app instances from teh taskbar, closes apps from thumbnails, etc.

planetarian

@noroom: I did. I had gotten Taskbar Shuffle so deeply ingrained in my day-to-day use, I didn't notice/remember that it was the reason I could middle-click to kill a window/process.

I updated the post to reflect that. Sincere apologies for any lost time spent middle-clicking a taskbar button in futile window-killing attempts.

My bad, for real. ~ KP

By default my wireless mouse has Flip3D for middle wheel click. It says its the default. What's the default for middle click for ordinary mouse ?

shallnot

@Shabaab Kamal: >.< Oh DURR. I only found out I could middle-click to close stuff in XP like a week ago. i didn't realize was Taskbar Shuffle, which is on all my machines. (I sent that guy $20 and a fruit basket, everyone should do the same.)

cool!

Adam White

@shadows006:
There is no certain setting. Kevin has got his facts wrong.

noroom

@cha0tic: I forgot to add that moving taskbar buttons around comes standard in W7. If you have grouping enabled, you can drag the whole program group to re-order the taskbar.

There are two nifty tricks that I use to make my W7 taskbar more like XP.

1. You can create your own quick launch. [www.howtogeek.com]

2. You can drag tasktray icons onto the taskbar (next to the clock) so that whenever that program is active, the icon is there for quick access. I use it mostly for AIM and Bittorrent since I use those quite often and it makes it a little faster than having to click on that arrow everytime.

@mja1ajm: I can't get the middle-click to close anything in Vista. I wonder if there is a certain setting...

shadows006

@Shabaab Kamal: I was not aware of this either. I always used to complain that middleclicking taskbar buttons didn't close apps, and was ecstatic when I found the functionality in the win7 beta.

planetarian

@Taylor Wyatt: Vertical maximizing is really very useful at times, especially for vertically-oriented windows such as ssh consoles, browsers, IDEs, etc., and also for people with very large screens. on my 30" at work I don't know how I'd live without it.

planetarian

@Toribor: middle-clicking taskbar buttons in win7 does exactly that, as though the button were a hyperlink in a tabbed browser.

planetarian

I've been using this the whole time I've been on win7. It seems that the thumbnail previews in win7 are designed to be analogous to browser tabs, while the buttons themselves are designed more like links.

planetarian

I did not know this... And I must say, it is very useful to know there are actual nice shortcuts.

I'd rather middle click to open another instance of the program rather than having to right click and find the link to opening another instance.

Toribor

@Shabaab Kamal: I'm running Windows Vista Enterprise, and using my scroll wheel which is considered a "middle click" in every other app does not close an app running maximized, minimized, or otherwise in my task bar.

mja1ajm

Or if you really want to screw with people using your computer you can turn the right-click into the center click and the touch thing into the right click, works most of the time but some things get screwed up doing it this way.

Nathan Skittles Sharick

@Shabaab Kamal: Did you miss the part about "windows 7" not vista???

Nathan Skittles Sharick

@aharris: Exercise of the month.

@James Hall: awesome tip!... Win+Shift+Up also does this.

I find just clicking both buttons together on the touchpad works fine as the 'middle' button.

Mark Rowland

@aharris: Be careful, don't pull a hammy

angrysteel

Aforementioned Taskix ([taskix.robustit.com])also has this function, with VERY minimal memory usage compared to Taskbar Shuffle.

Thoriq Muthohari

I usually re-program my middle-click to a double-click. I'll just stretch a little more and click the red X.

aharris

@Shabaab Kamal: You're not the only one, it doesn't work for me either. Would be nice to have though, I'll check out Taskbar Shuffle.

Graeme Donaldson

@James Hall: ...or you can just double-click in the title bar to maximize to the entire screen.

Taylor Wyatt

@Shabaab Kamal: Yeah, that doesn't seem to work for me either, in Vista Business at least...

"Thanks again for the taskbar jujitsu, Felipe."

Maybe it's because I'm in a half dazed state, but that line really cracked me up. I apologize about anything I post before I am fully awake.

Good tip though. I'll look it up.

On an un-maximized window, put you cursor at the top so you get the resize arrow, then double click. This will expand just the height of the window to the full height of you screen.

Also works from the bottom.

:)

James Hall

Hold on, did I miss something? The only way that I can close applications with a middle-click in Vista is with Taskbar Shuffle...

Shabaab Kamal

A quick note re: TaskbarShuffle, the link in the TBS article is broken. I couldn't find the new homepage for the prog, but there is no shortage of download sources.

@hhumbert: I found this Win7 feature useful, too. Anyone know of a program that gives this to XP? I'll be heading to google after devouring these here threads, just wanted to see if someone could save me the time :)

@Mark Rowland: Yeah, it works great if the drivers support it. I know my Dell Inspiron with a Synaptics touchpad works that way, but my sister's older Latitude, without a Synaptics touchpad, doesn't.

It drives me crazy when I try to browse the web on her computer, as I'm constantly trying to middle-click links into new tabs.

Just an idea for those with touchpads, and making the middle click easier too pull off, I've been running a cool app called TwoFingerScroll (a Google code project found here: [code.google.com]), which also has options to enable other mouse actions, like middle-click, by using two or three fingers at once.

Makes life on my netbook with Windows 7 so much better.

I figured this out on day one of using the Windows 7 beta and it really is a great shortcut. The only thing I have with it is that if you close the last open window of something that you may want to run in the background (such as the Pidgin Instant Messenger), it will exit the program instead of closing the window.

Alex Alber

I've always been a hardcore middle-clicker! Tattoos, piercings... no... more like opening links in a new tab, and then later closing said tab in FF, so this all came very natural to me in windows 7.

Aarrrgh

I have two cool tricks, not sure if you talked about them before:

1.

If you middle-click any taskbar button it will clone a new "whatever you click"

For instance, I have my Music folder open, If I middle-click it in the taskbar (not the preview, the real button) it will open the Music folder again.

2.

Win Key +left/right: resizes your window to half your screen.

Win Key + Up: maximize

Win Key + Down: minimize

Gonçalo Motta

Yeah, you can also use SHIFT+WIN+ARROW to move windows from one monitor to the next if you work on 2 screens. Also, holding shift when you click on an icon will launch a new instance, so the same happens when you middle click it.

EffieAeneas

In IntelliMouse software, default action is Flip3D, but this setting is sooo useless... it overrides middle click event, so it can't be used in applications and (annoys me). Set it like here: http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/8003/captured.png

EgbertClio

@shallnot: Well thanks for this comment - on the Logitech Revolution the default for rolling the side 'scroller' (which I've never seen a need to use) is "Document Flip" - which in Win7 turns out to be Flip3D - Love it - thanx.

idodialog

lIKE IT dUDE

Nadeem Ehsan

While I'm not a fan of Windows 7's default grouping/stack window management mode, setting it to run in the "classic" style (no grouping, small icons) makes it work like a prettier version Taskbar Shuffle. The only thing you can't do is reorder windows in a particular group, which is actually probably a good thing since it makes dragging groups of windows around more straightforward.

Don't know if this is known already, but if you press Ctrl and click on a program on the taskbar, then it will open the first one if multiple instances are running.

i.e. Ctrl-Click Firefox will show the first window open, and the next ctrl-click will show the next one.

josephp22

@eternicode: DisplayFusion will give you that functionality: Ctrl+Win+Arrow

wshoh

This is one of my favorite of Windows Se7en's time saving tricks. I am a regular user.

MarkBirn