15

How do I close all opened windows at once?

6
  • 4
    Define “close”, “opened”, “windows”, and “at once”.
    – Synetech
    Oct 27, 2013 at 20:49
  • 3
    Alt+F4+F4+F4...
    – Jet
    Jun 19, 2014 at 14:45
  • There is no a proper answer here yet ((
    – zhekaus
    Jan 20, 2017 at 8:30
  • 1
    An improper answer would be to restart the machine :)
    – rassa45
    Sep 9, 2017 at 2:47
  • @zhekaus I added a proper answer: superuser.com/a/1314359/116475 Apr 16, 2018 at 0:13

13 Answers 13

7

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.

4
  • 1
    Why i asked yesterday i accidentally opened 500 images . and then i manually closed one by one Dec 10, 2009 at 13:20
  • @Jitendra - yeah has happened to me too. But I never thought to ask if there was a simpler way to close all the windows at once :)
    – Anand
    Dec 10, 2009 at 13:46
  • Depending on what you used to open the images, there may be a command in the application to close all. Generally I see the shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+W used.
    – ale
    Dec 10, 2009 at 13:52
  • NTWind CloseAll is paid software now. $20 FYI
    – Morgan T.
    Apr 7, 2020 at 18:01
6

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 :

taskkill /im explorer.exe -f

And then restart explorer using :

explorer

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

2
  • 1
    Extremely dangerous. I would not suggest this at all!!!
    – MistyD
    Sep 1, 2019 at 1:26
  • 2
    i don't know how dangerous it is. i know that i have visual studio, vmware (with several machines running) and another 15 or so windows open. i just rant this code. it closed explorer and nothing else. i used my existing cmd console to bring it back. how did this answer get so many votes, if someone can explain that. Jul 19, 2020 at 8:54
4

I just found myself a quick way of doing this after a very long overtime work today.

Win10 user here:

Windows Key + Tab ( Will bring up something like Win Aero )

then

Press Delete until every window on your display is gone.

Sadly, if you have multi monitor/display, I don't know how to Delete/close the other windows yet.

1
  • Thank you! This solved a frozen program in my case. By pressing Windows Key + Tab, you may also open a second a Workspace and use the Task Manager there.
    – Ramon Dias
    Nov 21, 2021 at 23:29
3

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.

5
  • 2
    Win+D is the keyboard shortcut for Show Desktop to minimise all windows. Win+D a second time brings them all back.
    – David Webb
    Dec 10, 2009 at 13:14
  • 8
    This doesn't work on Windows 7 Professional
    – Paul C
    Jul 31, 2013 at 9:33
  • This is intended for Windows XP. Jul 29, 2016 at 8:18
  • Does not work in Windows 10
    – Sébastien
    Oct 13, 2020 at 11:49
  • I wish Windows gave me that option. It's very frustrating that I have to change Windows settings to group similar items to allow "Close all windows" to be shown when right clicking on a program.
    – KlingL
    Jan 5, 2023 at 8:33
2

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.

2
  • Go crazy on the F4 key until everything is shut down. Not one click, but it's pretty fast You can hold down F4, but you may need to click windows with the mouse since they may not automatically grab focus.
    – Synetech
    Oct 27, 2013 at 20:50
  • Log off from Windows and then log back on is also the fastest method that I have found. Unbelievable that 12 years after this question has been asked, Microsoft still does not provide a functionality for this issue.
    – Scripter22
    Oct 17, 2022 at 19:27
2

You can use the command line utility NirCmd (freeware) (archive.org's mirror for the webpage; archive.org's mirror for the binary) and execute:

nircmd.exe win close alltopnodesktop

I use it on Windows 10 Enterprise x64 version 1709, and it works as intended: it will close all windows.

The program is supposed to work on Windows 9x/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

1
  • works pretty good although it made my desktop icons disappear and can't right click on desktop anymore... haha
    – Morgan T.
    Apr 7, 2020 at 17:56
2

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 now grouped, right-click and select "Close all windows"
  4. Go back to taskbar properties to restore your old settings
2
  • The question is on Windows-XP. See question tag
    – Prasanna
    Apr 5, 2015 at 13:12
  • I find it so frustrating that Windows forces you to group such items to allow "Close all windows" to be shown when right clicking on a program.
    – KlingL
    Jan 5, 2023 at 8:33
1

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.

0

Easiest way I've found, sorry if someone already posted...

Go to task bar settings and set "Combine taskbar buttons" to "When taskbar is full". Right click on the group and click "Close all windows". Revert "Combine..." back to "Never".

Voilà

-1

Powershell command: Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.MainWindowTitle -ne ""} | stop-process

I got this from another SO answer here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9725629/how-to-close-all-windows

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  • 2
    That seems like a pretty strange approach; doesn't that just close processes that don't have an empty-titled main window?
    – SamB
    Aug 27, 2016 at 4:55
-1

quickly click ALT+F4 many times :)
p.s. But till that, all windows should be active, for that click ALT+TAB.

1
-1

For closing all windows of a program by using only the keyboard:

windows button > esc > tab > right arrow till you reach desired program > right-mouse button > arrow up > enter

Note: This only works when 'always combine' is selected in the taskbar options and your keyboard has a right-click mouse button, usually somewhere next to the spacebar

-1

To minimize all windows, you can press Win + D.

1
  • We want unique answers. Whats the point of repeating an exisying answer? Jul 22, 2023 at 10:43

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