Did you know that there are tons of shortcuts, time savers, and tricks for your Windows PC? If you’re not using them, you may not be aware of them. One of these tricks is the “Aero Shake” feature, which can quickly turn a messy desktop into an organized one. 

What does Aero Shake do?

Have you ever had many, too many windows open on your computer? We’ve all been there. Aero Shake functions how it sounds and is an incredibly useful trick to bring organization to your messy desktop. 

You simply grab the window you want to keep open and “shake” back and forth. When done properly, it keeps the window you shake open while minimizing all other windows on your computer. 

When to use Aero Shake?

This question is a simple one to answer. You use Aero Shake when you have several different windows open on your desktop and you need to focus on just one. 

How do you use aero shake?

Aero Shake is simple to use: grab the window you want to keep open by selecting the title bar at the top of the window by clicking and holding the left mouse button. Next, while continuing to hold down the left mouse button, you shake the mouse back and forth quickly. Once you shake back and forth a few times, all of the other open windows on your desktop will minimize to the taskbar (The taskbar is located at the bottom of the screen and allows you to locate and launch programs through the Start menu, or view any open program). 

You may reverse the process by repeating the same shake routine, bringing up all of the windows that we minimized with the Aero Shake.

Aero Shake can take some getting used to. It is easy to move the window you’re shaking a little too far and triggering a hot corner feature, negating your attempt at Aero Shake. With some practice, Aero Shake can save you time and energy. 

Why would you use Aero Shake?

As we mentioned above, when used properly, Aero Shake is a significant time-saver. 

Often, we have many windows open on our desktop and we need to focus on a single window. You could individually go through each open window and minimize them one by one. That takes time, much more time than using the Aero Shake feature. It’s all about efficiency here, being more productive with less work.

How to Stop Aero Shake from Minimizing Your Windows

While Aero Shake is a great time saver when used correctly, it can get in the way from time to time. You may grab a window to move it to a different spot on your desktop and accidentally trigger Aero Shake, which can be frustrating. 

To disable the Aero Shake feature on your Windows 10 PC, you need to adjust one setting in the Windows Registry. 

For those of you that don’t know, editing your Windows Registry can have drastic consequences and isn’t something that should be taken lightly. Making a mistake in the Windows Registry could render your computer unstable or even inoperable. We recommend you seek a professional to help in this instance. However, if you feel comfortable with it, here are the steps to disable Aero Shake:

1. Before making any changes to the registry, we recommend you back it up first. We’re all human, we can all make errors. Having a backup of the registry will ensure you can restore your PC in case an error is made.
2. Open the Registry Editor by opening the Start menu and typing “regedit” into the search field. Select the Registry Editor once it appears in the search results. 
3. Once the registry editor is open, navigate to the following registry key: 
   1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

4. Right-click on the “Windows” key in the sidebar and choose New > Key.
5. Name the new key “Explorer” (no quotes).
6. Click on your new Explorer key and right-click on the right-hand pane. Choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and call it NoWindowMinimizingShortcuts. Give it a value of 1.
7. Exit out of the registry editor and restart your computer (or log out and back in).

Simple, right? If you found Aero Shake annoying, this may be the best option for you. Once completing the above steps, you will find that Aero Shake no longer functions; you can grab a window and shake it back and forth without causing all of the other windows to minimize. 

Final Thoughts

Shortcuts are a great productivity hack. When used correctly, they give you a boost in efficiency and are time-savers. We’re all busy these days, doing much on our PC’s. Aero Shake allows you to bring organization and focus to a chaotic desktop by minimizing all open windows other than the one you shake. 

Please share your experience with Aero Shake in the comments below. Are there any other productivity hacks that you use?