Member Avatar for skypilotpete

I routinely work with large numbers of open documents (such as web pages, word docs etc) and it can be very difficult to remember exactly what is open and to move efficiently between them. The only way I know to see what is open is the Windows Taskbar (which doesn't provide enough space or enough information to be really effective) or the Windows Alt + Tab command, with similar problems.

I would love to find some piece of software that lists all open documents/windows, with full filename/path etc clearly visible, and which allows me to select which one I want to go to.

Does anyone know of any way of doing this?

I use Windows XP Pro SP3, xplorer2 lite.

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Short summary and an actionable workflow that complements the replies from , , and .

A quick, low-effort trick (suggested by ) is to use a vertical, auto‑hide taskbar so titles show more characters. For a durable, accurate list that shows full filenames/paths and lets one jump to the owning window, use a handle-based approach (enumerate file handles, map them to PIDs, then bring the owning process/window forward). The Sysinternals tools are designed for this task and are stable, well‑documented options. Process Explorer and the command‑line Handle utility expose which process owns every open file. (learn.microsoft.com)

Practical, copy‑paste workflow (works on modern Windows; same idea applied on XP-era systems with compatible tool versions):

  1. Run Handle or Process Explorer elevated.

  2. To dump all file handles to a text file:

    handle -a > handles.txt

    or search for a name:

    handle partial-filename.docx

    In Process Explorer use Find → Find Handle or DLL (Ctrl+F) to search interactively. The output shows process name and PID. (learn.microsoft.com)

  3. Map PID to a user‑visible window and switch to it:

    tasklist /v | findstr 1234

    or in PowerShell:

    Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.MainWindowTitle } | Format-Table Id,Name,MainWindowTitle

    Then use the Applications tab/Alt+Tab or a window activation command to bring that process to front. (learn.microsoft.com)

Notes and cautions

  • On Vista/7+ the built‑in Resource Monitor (resmon.exe) can search “Associated Handles” for a quick, GUI search. (learn.microsoft.com)
  • Do not force‑close handles unless prepared for instability or lost work — both Handle and Process Explorer warn that closing handles can crash apps or corrupt data. (learn.microsoft.com)

This complements the thread’s simple UI tricks and third‑party pointers by showing a reliable, forensic workflow that reveals full paths, ties files to processes, and then maps processes to visible windows so switching is precise.

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Member Avatar for FearlessFourie

I don't know of a program, but can make a very good sugestion, I had the same problem, I can now see 20 open Items with most complete names, and 40+ with less of the name due to limited screen sizes. Here is how I did it in XP:

Right click Taskbar, uncheck the "lock taskbar" tab, click and hold left mouse button and drag the bar to the left or right side (wich eva you prefer - now the bar runs down with start at the top, drag the task bar to it's full size, now you see the full names and can see 20items on rez 1024 x 768 (mine), and it halves the page for another 20, then right click on the tab, select properties check the "auto-hide the taskbar" check box in the "Taskbar apperance" tab, this will hide the huge taskbar when not in use until you move your mouse to the way end of the screen where you put the taskbar.

Hope I helps.

Member Avatar for nanosani

skypilotpete, you can use Opened Files View from Nirsoft.

And if you want a tabbed Microsoft Office so that the clutter can be removed from the taskbar, you can use which is a great little add-on to Microsoft Office.

Member Avatar for cguan_77

check out this site
it might help

Edited by cguan_77 because: n/a
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