One of the features that I like best in Mac OSX is the built-in hot corners feature. By specifying the action for each corner of the screen, I can quickly get my Mac to do stuff with the flick of the mouse to the respective corners. For example, when I move my mouse to the top left corner, it will show the desktop. The bottom left corner will start the screensaver, bottom right corner to show the dashboard etc.
Windows does not come with this feature, but that doesn’t mean you can’t put the functionality into it. With the third party application Hot Corners, you can get your Windows corners to work just like the way in Mac.
Hot Corners is a small and lightweight application that not only brings the Mac’s Hot corners functionality to your Windows, it also providing more configuration option than the real Mac’s deal.
Download the Hot Corners application.
To install the app, you need to run it with administrator privilege. Right click on the installer and select “run as administrator”.
The installer will now run.
After you have installed the app, you will see a mouse pointer icon in the taskbar. Right click on it and select Configure.
In the configuration window that appears, you can select the action to be performed for each corner of the screen.
Actions include:
- Access Control Panel
- Open My Documents
- Lock computer
- Show desktop
- Start screensaver
- Search Google
- Standby the computer
- Perform window specific action like close/minimize the current window
It also comes with a Run option that allows you to choose which application to run or which folder to open. If you are more tech savvy, you can even write up your own script and get it to run upon moving your mouse to the assigned corner.
Perform actions with mouse movement
Hot Corners also comes with another feature call the Mouse Move. This allows you to run the action when moving the mouse in a specific direction (up, down, left or right). You will need to press the Win + X combo key to run in this mode.
Note: In my Windows 7, I am not able to get this to run as the Win + X shortcut key is mapped to the Windows Mobility Center. It would be great if there is an option to change the Mouse Move combo key in the configuration option.
Run Hot Corners during startup
For better automation and efficiency, you may want to set Hot Corners to load during startup so you don’t have to start it manually everytime.
Conclusion
All in all, the Hot Corners performed what it supposed to do – enable Mac Hot corners functionality – well, and even surpassed that in Mac. If you are looking for ways to improve your efficiency and productivity, this can easily be one of the task.
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Doesn’t have an option to “show all windows”. Stupid, since that’s what I want. Uninstalling now . . . Sigh.
Open a blank document in notepad app, write following script:
C:Windowssystem32rundll32.exe
DwmApi #105 next save as a batch file, use a memorable name like ‘show
windows script.bat’ then get hotcorners run command to point to this
script and hey presto you have a windows switcher jus like ubuntu or os x
funny. it doesn’t seem like Hot Corners in Win 7 likes doing scripts at all. Anyone have any examples of what scripts it will take?
This application doesn’t make me coffee, uninstalling. ;-)
This download is infected with a virus! McAfee scanned the executable on launch, and found it was infected with viral payload.
1.Open a blank document in notepad app, write following script:
C:Windowssystem32rundll32.exe DwmApi #1052. save as a batch file, use a memorable name like ‘show windows script.bat’3. now get hotcorners run command to point to this script and hey presto you have a windows switcher jus like ubuntu or os x
sorry didn’t type out properly before, let me try again……..
Open a blank document in notepad app, write following script: C:Windowssystem32rundll32.exe
DwmApi #105 next save as a batch file, use a memorable name like ‘show
windows script.bat’ then get hotcorners run command to point to this
script and hey presto you have a windows switcher jus like ubuntu or os x
Does this work on Windows XP SP3?
Raja, I did as you suggested and I’m not impressed. It is a weak attempt at the functionality Ubuntu or OSX has. All that your work around does is auto run that crappy windows tab slider deal.