How to hide a window on Windows with a keyboard shortcut

The built-in shortcuts

Hide a window completely with Hushwin

1. Run Hushwin. It lives in the system tray and doesn't need administrator rights.
2. Look at the window and press Ctrl+Win+W. It disappears from the screen, the taskbar and Alt+Tab.
3. Hold Ctrl+Win+W for about a second to bring it back.

To hide windows from several apps at once, press Ctrl+Win+S on each to make it a hidden window. Then Ctrl+Win+E hides them all, and holding it shows them again. The shortcuts match the Mac version, with the Windows key in place of ⌘, and they work in any input language.

Choose how windows are hidden

In Settings, pick one of three styles:

• Hide completely (default) — gone from the screen, the taskbar and Alt+Tab.
• Transparent — invisible and click-through, but it still takes up its space.
• Cover — a dark opaque cover sits over the window and follows it; it lifts after you authenticate.

Cover just part of a window

Press Ctrl+Win+R and drag over the part to hide — a balance column, a chat list. An opaque cover sits there and follows the window as it moves or resizes. Windows you bring in front still go over it, and in a browser it stays with the tab you covered. It hides when the window is minimized or hidden, or when other windows cover that area completely, and it's removed when the window closes. Press Esc or right-click to cancel the selection. To remove them all, press Ctrl+Win+X; to remove one, hover over it and click the ✕.

To use the same covers again, choose Save Current Covers… in the tray menu. Later, hold Ctrl+Win+R to put them all back. A cover attached to a window finds it again by its title, even after the app restarts.

A cover shows in screen sharing only when you share your entire screen. If you share a single window, the cover isn't included.

Lock windows with Windows Hello

Turn on the lock next to a hidden window in Settings. It then opens only after a long press plus Windows Hello — fingerprint, face or PIN. If Windows Hello isn't set up, Hushwin refuses to unlock instead of letting it through.

You can also set a Hushwin password. Locked windows then open with Windows Hello or that password, which is stored only as a PBKDF2 (SHA-256) hash — so even someone who knows your Windows sign-in can't open them.

To see how this compares with what Windows itself can lock, read How to lock an app on Windows.

Hide automatically

• After 1, 3, 5, 10 or 30 minutes with no input
• When an external display is plugged in or unplugged
• When you lock the PC (Win+L) or it goes to sleep
• When the mouse touches a hot corner you choose
• When a window's title contains a keyword you set — it's locked and hidden as it opens
• When a video-call app starts sharing your screen — Hushwin looks for Zoom's share toolbar and the "sharing" bars and notices that Teams, Meet and others show (best effort, off by default)

Safe even after a crash

Hushwin writes the list of hidden windows to %AppData%\Hushwin\hidden.json. If it's closed unexpectedly, the windows stay hidden, and the next launch takes them back — locked windows are locked again, so they don't open without Windows Hello. A normal exit, sign-out or shutdown shows every window again.

FAQ

Is there a boss key for Windows?

Windows has Win+D and Win+↓, but windows stay in the taskbar. Hushwin's Ctrl+Win+W hides the current window from the screen, the taskbar and Alt+Tab; hold it to bring the window back.

Does Hushwin need administrator rights?

No, it runs from the system tray without them. To hide windows of apps that run as administrator, run Hushwin as administrator too.

What happens to hidden windows if Hushwin crashes?

The list of hidden windows is saved in %AppData%\Hushwin\hidden.json. The windows stay hidden, the next launch takes them back, and locked windows are locked again.