Minimize all windows

[Peter Kinross]

I was absolutely fed up with Windows automatically docking any window than came near the edge of the screen. So I carried out the following Control Panel adjustment.
Control Panel | Ease of Access Centre. Scroll down and click on "Make it easier to focus on tasks". On the following screen, scroll down and check "Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen".
But now shaking a window' doesn't minimize all windows and the 'View Desktop' icon didn't survive the upgrade to Win 7.
I can use Windows & D, but would dearly like the shaking to be re-instated, but not at the expense of re-introducing docking.
Any ideas anyone?

[HansV]

See Fix for Aero Shake Feature Stops Working in Windows 7. Try the registry editor or policy editor tips mentioned further down.

[Peter Kinross]

Thanks Hans. Nope that didn't do it.
I turned the docking back on and shaking worked again. Looks like shaking is inextricably linked to docking.
Only a company as incredibly good at non-intuitiveness and obscurity as Microsoft could possibly think of something so ridiculous.
One good thing came of this. The link in your answer showed how to open the Aero troubleshooter. After using this and turning on docking, the docking wasn't nearly as aggressive as before. But I haven't rebooted, who knows what will happen then.

[JoeP]

Thanks Hans. Nope that didn't do it.
I turned the docking back on and shaking worked again.

See if How to Enable and Disable Aero Snap (Docking) Feature in Windows 7 - The Winhelponline Blog helps.

Joe

[Peter Kinross]

Thanks Joe, that's what I did to turn docking on & off. But shaking appears to be connected to docking. Turn off docking and you have turned off shaking. Weird eh?
If anyone hears of a way to turn off docking and still leave shaking intact, please let me know.

[HansV]

If the NoWindowMinimizingShortcuts registry entry affects both features at the same time, I fear that there is no way to set them separately.

[Peter Kinross]

Following Joe's link, the 'Fix for Aero Shake Feature Stops Working in Windows 7' item appears to be not a fix for if shake stops working, it is a fix to un-enable Shake.
Even so the registry branch referred to ('HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Explorer') doesn't exist on my Win 7 Home premium computer. Nor does the key 'NoWindowMinimizingShortcuts'.
Thanks anyway guys.

[HansV]

The policy mentioned in that article disables the Aero Shake option. Removing the registry entry removes the policy, i.e. it should enable Aero Shake.
Since you don't have the registry entry, Aero Shake has not been disabled by a policy on your computer. (The policy, if existing, would override the Control Panel setting)

[Peter Kinross]

So this is just another weirdness I will to add to the list of Microsoft weirdnesses I have to put up with.
Thanks Hans.

[HansV]

I'm afraid so...

[Peter Kinross]

Solution found.
Use 'Ultimate Windows Tweaker' http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate- ... ws-7-vista.
this allows you to independently disable Windows docking &/or Shake to minimize.
I used this to disable only windows docking and Shake still works.
Wonderful!

[HansV]

That's great! Thanks for letting us know, I'm sure it will be useful to others too.