Comments on: The Boss Key

By: Hide desktop

Hide desktop — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:45:05 +0000

Anti-Boss Key – All in one bosskey application. Hide windows quickly.

You can use this all in one bosskey application. A real gem that I found that supports windows vista and hides tray icons too.

By: skip tracer

skip tracer — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:38:27 +0000

Hey secret squirrel, I tried the CBSonline.com website, it’s nothing but a search engine with popup ads.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:59:17 +0000

Get a 5 button mouse and assign the button next to your thumb to “show desktop”.

By: John

John — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:46:42 +0000

I don’t yet have a boss, but I do have the prying eyes of parents. So, when I’m playing a game, I either hit Alt-F4, which completely closes the application, or I hit Alt-Tab. :)

By: secret squirrel (I work for the govt)

secret squirrel (I work for the govt) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:48:48 +0000

A group of us here at the U.S. Dept. of *** (agency name redacted) watched the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on our office computers (live streaming of EVERY game–better than on TV). CBSonline.com includes on the screen during the stream a Boss button, bringing up a fake spreadsheet. It didn’t do us any good, since we don’t deal with spreadsheets here, but it’s nice to know CBS has its viewers’ interests at heart.

By: CJ Casey

CJ Casey — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:10:22 +0000

Umm, the Start Key + ‘m’ instantly minimizes every single window on a Windows machine unless you have something up that’s waiting for a response (such as a dialogue box saying ‘Please select where you’d like to save “HOT WASHING MACHINE LOVE XI”‘) And ‘alt-tab’ or ’shift-alt-tab’ will toggle to the next window. The first one is the one I always use for a ‘boss key.’

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:06:49 +0000

Many multi-button (more than two) mice come with utilities that allow you to configure the purpose of the buttons. Most side buttons are forward and back to be used with IE. I changed one from forward to minimize. One click and the top-most window is hidden. (Much faster than moving the mouse to the minimize button)

By: JaneM

JaneM — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:05:28 +0000

I actually bought a stealth switch but never got around to installing it. Anyone want to buy it? lol

By: Jess

Jess — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:41:42 +0000

Arrange windows of programs that you use in a very productive layout. Outlook, Excel, Word, whatever.

Find a space to position the icons on your desktop so that they will not sit behind any window that you’ve got open. Remove all icons from your desktop.

Take a screenshot.

Put your icons back in their pre-set locations. Set the screenshot as your wallpaper.

Your new bosskey is Windowskey+D. This will minimize all slackerwindows to your screenshot of your open “good” windows. Hitting Windowskey+D again will bring your slackerwindows back.

Icons in the wrong places can throw the illusion off, as can your boss actually asking you to show you something in a “program” that you’ve got screenshotted.

Additionally, if you’ve got money to burn, you can get one of these: http://www.stealthswitch.com

By: n2y2

n2y2 — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:39:17 +0000

I believe that the ‘boss key’ disappeared along with computer interfaces that did not allow multi-tasking.

Now-a-days you can use Alt-Tab to toggle from your browser window to a window that has the actual work you are supposed to be doing (as opposed to a fake spreadsheet that is easily detected.)

Conveniently, you can keep a thumb and finger on these keys with your left hand while mousing with your right.