How to Restore Chrome Inspector Window

Miva Merchant Modules and Development
Getting your Chrome browser inspector window back is not difficult, just follow these three steps and you'll have it back on screen in no time.

How to Restore Chrome Inspector Window

It's a pain if your Chrome browser developer/inspector window winds up off screen, but it's easy to get it back.


Getting your Chrome browser inspector window back is not difficult, just follow these three steps and you'll have it back on screen in no time.

by Scot Ranney • August 12, 2018

Computer Stuff


The Chrome inspector window is just about the most useful thing in existence next to air for web developers. 

Today my inspector window completely disappeared in the middle of a big web page debug project, so not only was it annoying, it was getting in the way of productivity. 

If this happens to you the fix is fast and easy.

Step 1: ALT-TAB

Alt-Tab will display all of your open windows. Keep clicking the TAB key while hold the ALT key down until you have highlighted your lost Chrome inspector window.

Step 2: ALT-SPACE

Alt-Space will then open up an options dialog that you may or may not see depending on just how far off screen your inspector window is. It doesn't matter if you can see it because the next step doesn't need it to be visible.

Step 3: M

Immediately after step 2, push the M key on your keyboard which is a shortcut for "move". At this point use your arrow keys to position the window back into view. It might take some experimenting because you don't know where the window is, but if you go about it methodically you'll find it

Methodically: If you hit the right arrow ten times and the window doesn't appear, hit the left arrow ten times to put it back in it's original position. Then try another direction, each time going back to the original position. If ten clicks on the arrows in each direction doesn't work, then try 20.

In my case my mouse went crazy and moved the inspector window somewhere near Pluto and it took a while to figure out how to get it back, but in the end this worked.

Good luck!


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