You’ll notice the QuickLaunch toolbar contains a couple of menu items by default to help you manage windows: “Show Desktop” and “Switch between windows”. This is handy but many of us prefer to make use of the keyboard when we can for such things.

Show Desktop (WIN+D) simply minimizes all windows so you can see the desktop. You can access this from the QuickLaunch shortcut or by holding down the Windows Key and pressing the letter “D”. Press the key combination again to restore all the windows again.

Switch between windows (ALT+TAB) lets you see a list of available windows (all running programs). You can press it again and again to cycle through what windows are available. You’ll see the window’s icon as well as the window title for the selected window. Just let go and the selected window will be brought to focus. If you are on a Vista system that supports Aero, you have an even more slick option: WIN+TAB. Referred to as Windows Flip 3D, this view lets you cycle through the actual contents of the windows visually so that you can select which window you want from a live (the contents are updated in real-time) 3D representation of the window. Beyond simply being a very cool thing to look at, this is very functional in that you can see the contents of more than one screen at a time which can help with your selection of the Window you want (particularly when you have several similar windows from which to choose).