Nowadays, “How do you close a window on your desktop?” is usually one of the questions that catch the interest of novice Windows users. If you own a Windows PC, you should be able to close windows on the desktop via the close button, Taskbar, keyboard shortcuts, Task View and title bar. Continue reading to be able to keep the number of windows on the desktop under control and minimize cluttering in the process.
Table of Contents
Closing Windows: A Beginner’s Guide
Via Close Button
Here is the most common way to close a window: look to the top right side of the window then hit the X icon.
Via Taskbar
- Step 1: Look at your Taskbar then hover the cursor over the window you want to close.
- Step 2: The moment the preview of the window appears, move your cursor towards it then click the X button on the top right.
Note: It’s possible to right-click the window icon on your Taskbar then pick Close window to close a window. Alternatively, you may hold down Shift, right-click the window icon on your Taskbar and pick Close. You could also hover the cursor over the window icon and when the preview pops up, right-click it and pick Close.
Via Keyboard Shortcuts
There are plenty of keyboard shortcuts you can use to close open windows.
If your keyboard is equipped with an Alt key, hold it down then press F4 to close your window. Another combination that involves the Alt key is Alt + Space which reveals the context menu as well as the Close option. If you do not want to use the context menu for some reason, you should give Alt + Space + C a go. To close a browser with one tab, press Ctrl + W and to close multiple tabs, hold down Ctrl then repeatedly press W.
Via Task View
- Step 1: Press Alt + Tab. When Task View opens, release Tab but keep Alt pressed.
- Step 2: Hover the cursor over the window you want to close and hit the X icon.
Note: Keep in mind you could also open Task View by pressing Windows + Tab. Depending on the settings, Task View would open if you hit the Cortana icon on your Taskbar as well.
Via Title Bar
On the window, navigate to its title bar, right-click it then pick Close. If you cannot see the title bar, you might have switched to full screen. Exit full screen by pressing F11 and the title bar is going to come into view.
Is There A Way To Restore A Browser Window That I Accidentally Closed?
- Step 1: Launch your browser, look to the top right and click the three-line icon.
- Step 2: Select History then choose Recently closed windows.
- Step 3: Locate the window you want and hit it.
Close Button Not Working: Solutions
Make Use Of Task Manager
- Step 1: Right-click an empty space on the Taskbar then choose Task Manager.
- Step 2: In the Processes tab, locate the window you want to close, right-click it and pick End task.
Perform SFC & DISM Scans
- Step 1: Right-click the Start menu then choose Command Prompt (Admin).
- Step 2: In Command Prompt (Admin), run each of the commands down below to perform SFC and DISM scans.
- SFC /scannow
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
- Step 3: After the scan finishes, close the window again and determine whether the issue persists.
Turn Off Tablet Mode
- Step 1: Press Windows key, type tablet mode and hit Enter.
- Step 2: Click Change additional tablet settings, toggle off the Tablet mode switch and restart your computer.
What Must Be Done When Browser Tabs Won’t Close
If the browser tab won’t close, there is a good chance that your browser is bugging out and you should restart it. In addition, you could update the browser, clear the browser cache, uninstall and reinstall the browser, etc.
