How To Close Several Applications in One Step [Quick Tip, Windows]

When ever you work, you often open several applications. Now suppose, you have to go somewhere and you are in a hurry. To shutdown Windows, you have to first close each applications individually, which is very annoying at that moment of time. You want a simple way to close all the programs in just one step and want a simple solution to this problem. Well, Windows provides you with an in-built feature that addresses this problem.

To close several applications and open windows in just one step, keep pressed the [Ctrl] key when you select the buttons of the programs and windows in succession in the Taskbar. You will see that as you select the buttons, they seem pressed. After doing the selection, release the [Ctrl] key and right-click the last selected pushed-button. Select “Close group” from the context menu. Windows will now close all the selected applications and windows at once.

Another way of obtaining the same result is by using a small portable application “Close All Windows“. Close All Windows is a very simple utility that doesn’t require installation. 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.

After downloading, extract the Zip archive. Create a shortcut to the application in the Start Menu, Quick Launch, Windows 7 Taskbar or elsewhere. You can also add a hotkey to this shortcut. It works just as if you were pressing the close button for each application. When you run Close All Windows, it will automatically close all windows and applications for you.

You can also prevent some applications from being closed automatically by adding a simple exclusion list to the CloseAll.exe command line. Just add -x="app-to-exclude.exe". For example, in the Run as dialog box, type C:CloseAll.exe -x="explorer.exe". Here we assume that CloseAll.exe is in the C: drive.

You can separate multiple values with “|” (vertical pipe), such as:
-x="explorer.exe|firefox.exe|msnmsgr.exe". Remember to test these settings before using it.