How to restore all minimized windows?

Question

I want to know how to restore all windows which I have minimized (using the mouse). I find it annoying to have to browse through my windows manually to restore all of them.

Both GUI-based and command line solutions work for me.

To show that I have searched for answers before posting here:

I'm not looking to view my Desktop (toggling windows), so I'm not duplicating this question on Ask Ubuntu, nor am I duplicating this question.
A solution can be found on SuperUser, but this is a solution for Windows.
This link to Unix & Linux includes two possible solutions, but both seem to be buggy and/or slow. I hope there is a better way on Ubuntu.
Furthermore, I've searched outside of StackExchange as well, but did not find a satisfactory solution.

Ubuntu 18.04, $DESKTOP_SESSION is 'ubuntu' – DriesB Sep 11 '19 at 15:13 — DriesB, Sep 11 '19 at 15:13

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 11 '19 at 15:32

4

There's a package called xdotools which can do this. The command to be used is;

xdotool search --onlyvisible --name '.*' windowactivate %@

You can add this to a shortcut and place it on the toolbar so a single click opens everything.

edited Sep 11 '19 at 15:32

Kulfy

17,696

answered Sep 11 '19 at 15:15

Tsundar

51

Yes, this works! But I get an error message as well: XGetWindowProperty[_NET_WM_DESKTOP] failed (code=1). – DriesB Sep 12 '19 at 10:04
Yes sorry it did error for me, but I figured if I really wanted to I'd script something to catch and dispose of the error messages, sloppy I know but it's a way around the initial question. – Tsundar Sep 16 '19 at 15:53

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 12 '19 at 15:05

4

Based on this post by user55822 on closing all open windows, I found the following solution:

WIN_IDs=$(wmctrl -l | awk '$3 != "N/A" {print $1}')
for i in $WIN_IDs; do wmctrl -ia "$i"; done

edited Sep 12 '19 at 15:05

pomsky

68,507

answered Sep 12 '19 at 10:22

DriesB

51

I prefer this solution, as it does not raise warning messages. – DriesB Sep 16 '19 at 12:14

How to restore all minimized windows?

2 Answers2