How to limit Show Desktop to the active screen on Windows 10
Windows 10 has only one hot corner. It’s located at the bottom right of the screen and is indicated by the line that separates it from the system tray. The Show Desktop hot corner does one thing; when you click it, every window on your screen is minimized and you’re taken to your desktop. If you hover the mouse cursor over this little strip, you’ll be able to peak at your desktop. The hot corner can also be triggered with the Win+D keyboard shortcut. The shortcut applies to all screens which means if you have multiple monitors connected, clicking the hot corner or tapping Win+D will minimize all apps on all your screens. If you only want to minimize windows on the current screen, you need an app called ShowDesktopOneMonitor. This app can limit Show Desktop to the active screen.
Show Desktop active screen
Download and run ShowDesktopOneMonitor. The Github page recommends adding a new task in Task Scheduler and setting this app’s EXE as a trigger. This is so that it can run at system start up however, if you want to try the app first before you do that you can. Simply extract the folder that you’ve downloaded from Github, and run the EXE inside it.
Use the Win+Left Shift+D keyboard shortcut to Show Desktop on the active screen. The active screen is determined by your cursor. Whichever screen the cursor is on will be the active one and all windows on it will be minimized. Tapping Win+Left Shift+D again will restore the windows.
Creating Task
Open the Task Scheduler and click Create Task in the column on the right. Give your task a name that will be easy to remember and look up should you later decide to modify or delete it.
On the General tab, select ‘Run only when user is logged on’, and ‘Run with highest privileges’.
Go to the Triggers tab and click New at the bottom. In the dropdown at the top, select At startup.
Go to the Actions tab and click New at the bottom. In the Action field, select Start a program. Under Program/Script, click the Browser button and select ShowDesktopOneMonitor’s EXE file.
Last, go to the Settings tab and uncheck the ‘Stop the task if it runs longer than’ option. Click OK. From the list of tasks, right-click the task and select Run.
With the task running, the app’s icon will be added to the system tray and you can use the Win+Left Shift+D keyboard shortcut to limit Show Desktop to the active screen.
