Microsoft added three buttons to the top right of all windows since Windows 95 which allows you to close, maximize/restore and minimize the window. To be honest I can’t remember when was the last time I used the mouse cursor to click on those buttons because I normally use the shortcut keys which is way faster and convenient. Alt+F4 to close, Alt+Space+N to minimize, Alt+Space+R to restore, Alt+Space+X to maximize. It wasn’t easy at first because I have to make an effort to get use the the hotkeys but once I’ve gotten used to it, I am able to manage Windows more efficiently and quickly.
Computer today are very powerful which allows us to open multiple windows until Microsoft had to figure out a solution to keep the taskbar clean. So they came up with combining the buttons at taskbar and even hiding the labels to save space. However, your computer screen can still get quite messy with a lot of Windows opened. This is when eXtra Buttons comes into play.
eXtra Buttons is a freeware that gives more control and flexibility over any program window by adding 13 more buttons to the top right of the window so that you can have more commands other than close, minimize, restore and maximize.
The available extra buttons are:
- Always on top
- Send to tray
- Bookmarks
- Send to tray menu
- Send to box
- Roll up/unroll
- Send to Back
- Transparency
- Adjust transparency
- Copy window
- Move to monitor
- Full screen
- Click Through
For users like me that doesn’t use the cursor to click on the buttons, eXtra Buttons supports configuring custom hotkey for every buttons at Options. What I like about eXtra Buttons is it is very configurable so you can customize to work the way you want it to. For example, not everyone requires to use all 13 buttons which may in fact backfire and make the window more messy, so they can add only the necessary buttons that they would normally use and then set a hotkey that is convenient for the user. If there is a software that don’t play nice with eXtra Buttons, you can add it to the exclusion list at Options.
You may notice that the extra buttons are not added to Chrome but the hotkey still works. Even in Firefox, the extra buttons are not shown but the functionality is still there. Enabling the Menu Bar (View > Toolbars > Menu bar) in Firefox fixes the problem.
eXtra Buttons shows a splash screen during startup and it can be disable as well in Options. eXtra Buttons requires to be running in background which sits quietly at notification area for the extra buttons to work. During testing, eXtra Buttons takes less than 4MB of memory usage which makes it very light.
moo0.com/software/WindowMenuPlus/
I’ve been using this which seems great but sadly doesn’t work with browsers such as firefox and opera anymore.
I disagree with your short-cut key method. Very few PC users would consider trying to remember short-cut keys when it’s so simple to move the mouse and click, perhaps more useful for laptop users but even then I would still prefer to use a mouse on a laptop too as I find the pad difficult and too sensitive at times.
As far as I know most normal users would prefer to use the mouse but a more advanced user would prefer using keyboard.
Also, while PowerMenu can activated with a simple right click on Windows XP (or earlier), a shift+right click is required to activate it under Windows 7 (and maybe Vista)!
I just wish I could find one that will freeze a windows size as well as keep it on top.
gud 1 …….
Raymond, check out PowerMenu also if you haven’t already. I’m using it currently, its very powerful and very unobtrusive. Currently, it’s using only 316K on my ststem. While it hasn’t been updated in many years, it’s still very useful. Here’s the website. abstractpath.com/powermenu/
Does it work under Windows 7 x64?
if you google powermenu, you will see different people have had different results using it under x64 windows 7 i.e., it works perfectly for some people but not for others. you will have to try yourself and see how much success you have. there is no risk involved i.e., it doesn’t create any registry entries or anything and there is a portable installer also available