Close All Windows - The Easy Way

At the end of the day I always like to close the open applications to prepare my computer for the next day. Since I rarely reboot my desktop, I manually close each application. Depending on the number of open applications this can be a waste of time.   The people at NTWind Software have a perfect utility for this situation aptly called Close All Windows. Instead of manually closing each application just click the Close All Windows button on your taskbar.

In this article I will show you how to install and configure Close All Windows on your computer for easy access on the taskbar.

This little tool lets you to close all running applications with just one click. It doesn’t use system resources because it only flashes a ‘close’ signal to all open windows on the desktop and then ceases. Just create a shortcut to the tool in the Start Menu, Quick Launch, Windows 7 Taskbar or elsewhere.



Close All on Windows XP Quick Launch




Close All on Windows 7 Taskbar/Superbar
You can always add a hotkey to this shortcut. It is really very handy if you are running ~20 applications and want them all to quit instantly. It works just as if you were pressing the close button for each application.

How To Install

Close All Windows is a very simple utility that doesn’t require installation. No settings are stored in the Windows Registry or file system. Just follow the steps below to set it up on your computer.

1. Download the ZIP archive and extract it somewhere on your hard drive.

2. Open the extracted folder, right-click CloseAll.exe and choose Send To -> Desktop (create shortcut) from the context menu.

3. Switch to the Desktop and rename the created shortcut to “Close All” or whatever you want.

4. Now you can drag this shortcut to the Quick Launch Bar or to the Windows 7 Taskbar for quick access.

Advanced Options

If you want to prevent certain applications from being to be closed by Close All, you can add a simple exclusion list to the CloseAll.exe command line.

1. Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties from the context menu:

2. Go to the Shortcut tab, Target and add -x="app-to-exclude.exe":

You can separate multiple values with “|” (pipe), example:

-x="explorer.exe|firefox.exe|msnmsgr.exe"

Click OK to save the shortcut properties. Remember, you'd better test it before using it!

Close All Windows v1.3, updated on February 18, 2010 (32-bit and 64-bit):

Download - CloseAll.zip (36 KB)