For some reason I don't quite totally fathom, Windows allows modal dialog boxes to be covered over by their parent windows. This can create annoying catch-22 where the parent window cannot be resized, moved, or even closed until the user acknowledges the modal dialog box, but the user can't get to the modal dialog box to acknowledge it.

I would propose a desk-tray gizmo that, when clicked, would scan through the windows lists for all applications and bring to the front any modal dialogs that had gotten out of sequence.
-- supercat, Jul 15 2006

Doesn't the "minimize windows" or "show desktop" solve this problem? The modals will not minimize, AFAIK... Could be wrong... To lazy to check... Heat wave... Just enough energy to type and suck on the straw from my ice tea.
-- James Newton, Jul 17 2006


I've tried that, but sometimes the parent windows of dialogs don't seem to want to minimize; they refuse all events until the dialog is dealt with.
-- supercat, Jul 17 2006


baked - a long time ago by Mac OS X. What you need is a new application called Squeegee. This scrapes down your screen, cleaning away the rubbish, and replacing it with a nice new, virus free, shiny operating system called OS X, like mine.

I have seen more ideas on this site that are Windows wish lists, but never one posted by a Mac user.
-- xenzag, Jul 17 2006


I thought this was a real sanity check, to prevent:

ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO CANCEL?

[YES] [CANCEL]
-- phundug, Jul 17 2006


Yes, well under MacOS with multifinder 6.1b9 (my favorite) I had HeirDA, Boomerang, and BlastFKEY. Windows can kinda-sorta do HeirDA; I wish it had the other functions, though.
-- supercat, Jul 17 2006


Alt-Tab~?

Or perhaps sort windows by parentage
-- Dub, Jul 18 2006


//sort windows by parentage//

It's easy: everyone knows Windows is a right bas-
-- imaginality, Jul 18 2006


The first law of windows is not to touch it unless you know how and are prepared to reinstall every 6 months to a year

The sails slogan for win 98 was "it crashes lest often"
-- dev45, Oct 04 2006


Provided that the modal dialog still has focus (even though you still can't see it), [Alt] will select its little top-left-corner menu, then [space] will open up that menu, then [m] will select the 'move' option (still out of sight at this point), and THEN the arrow keys can be used to tease the little sod out from where it's hiding.

Of course, if it's behind a full-screen window, you're still stuffed.
-- pertinax, Oct 06 2006



random, halfbakery