Windows Hider Review

No matter the reason, keeping your work private is of utmost importance. Preventing others from viewing what’s going on your desktop can be easily achieved these days just by pressing a keyboard combination. Windows Hider follows that exact principle and what’s more, allows you to group the currently opened windows and thus, hide more of them at a time.

Any computer junkie knows a few ways to make their PC activity invisible. Some keyboard combinations, such as Win+L – to lock the computer, Win+D – to minimize all opened windows to taskbar or setting the taskbar to auto-hide are just a couple of methods to keep your work away from prying eyes. As effective as these are, none of them manages to really hide the applications that are running on your computer, as they would still be visible in the taskbar. If you’re looking for a piece of software that can make it all go away without actually closing the running processes, then Windows Hider is definitely a winner.

This little app goes out of its way to protect your privacy and it’s got an additional purpose. By letting you group the opened windows and hide more of them at a time, it’s a solution to a cluttered taskbar and it will definitely come in handy for organized people. If you don’t want your attention distracted from your work by a messy taskbar, then Windows Hider will allow you to keep it simple.

It bears no cost and the installation process is smooth, no third-party toolbars or applications involved. You can also use it from an USB stick, in the portable form, if you like this alternative better.

In terms of looks, we could say that it serves its purpose better than it serves style. The interface of Windows Hider is kept simple and is best described as organized. It features only two menus, both of which feature very simple functions: the File menu can be used to minimize the application to tray or to exit it and the Options menu is for configuring the settings.

The main window of the program is divided into two areas. The one on the left side holds the currently opened windows, while the one in the right is split into four groups and covers the hidden applications. The use for these groups is obvious: aside from the fact that you can hide multiple windows at a time, you can also divide the applications that you need to be invisible into several categories, thus keeping your taskbar items more organized.

Just between the two aforementioned areas, there are two buttons that allow you to move the applications from one section to another, another button to clear all the hidden windows, and one for refreshing the active windows. Actually, you won’t get to push this last button very often, because the speed at which the program updates the currently running applications is amazing, almost instantaneously. Lower in the main window, there are two more buttons, one for hiding or showing the current group and another for clearing the contents of that specific group.

Now that you got acquainted with its looks, you might as well start exploring what it has to offer. There are four groups that you can use to hide active windows and to avoid any confusion, they can be renamed from the Settings section. In the spirit of making it easier on the user, the names of the groups are each displayed with a different color and the applications you choose to hide will be listed in the section that holds all the active processes with the same color as the parent group. As a consequence, the windows that are not hidden will always be colored, in black, by default, and will be easier to spot, especially if you’ve got a lot of applications open. However, the colors corresponding to the groups are not customizable, but, on the upside, they’re vivid enough to appeal to you visually.

Moving an active window from one side to another can be done using the ‘Add’ and ‘Remove’ buttons, but also by double clicking the application of interest. Even if you placed an application in a certain group, it will still be displayed in the section that holds all the open windows, showing you that the process is still running, but it can’t be seen by the naked eye. Also, an application can be assigned to one group only, and to move it to another group requires you to remove it from the invisible area and then, to add it to the one you wish. So, an option to move windows between groups would come in handy, to say the least.

In order to make a group invisible, you can use the designated button, but if you want to speed things up, you can hit a hotkey that you can configure from the Settings window. This dialog will also enable you to mute the sound along with hiding your work and it even features an option to assign a hotkey for hiding Windows Hider. If by chance, you pick a keyboard combination that’s also a standard Windows hotkey, both tasks will be performed at the same time. In other words, the application won’t fail to do its job, even if you press a hotkey that’s also a default key combination of your OS.

The Good

The Bad

The Truth