How to Quickly Reopen Recently Closed Programs in Windows 10 & 11

Got a nasty case of butterfingers? Bring back apps you just closed with these special programs for Windows 10 and 11.

Many web browsers include options that enable users to reopen closed tabs with hotkeys or via page histories. However, neither Windows 11 nor 10 incorporates similar options for reopening recently closed programs.

Therefore, users must manually reopen recently closed apps on Windows with shortcuts or from Explorer when they need to access them again. That is not ideal for multitasking since users frequently close apps they’ll later need to utilize again to free up system resources. However, you can reopen recently closed programs more quickly in Windows 11 and 10 with ReOpen and UndoClose.

How to Reopen Recently Closed Programs With ReOpen

ReOpen is a nifty freeware tool that keeps a record of recently closed programs and folders you’ve opened in Windows. It records a maximum of 64 closed programs and folders, which you can select to restore from the ReOpen window. This is how you can quickly restore closed software windows with ReOpen:

1. Bring up the ReOpen Softpedia webpage.
2. Select ReOpen’s Download option.
3. Click the Secure Download (US) option.
4. Once downloaded, right-click the ReOpen ZIP archive and select its Extract All option.
5. Select the Show extracted files and Extract options to view ReOpen’s folder.
6. Double-click ReOpen.exe to start the program.

Now let’s try out reopening programs that you’ve closed:

1. Open and close a few software windows that you’d like to reopen.
2. Then double-click the ReOpen system tray icon to view the program’s window.
3. Select one or more of the closed software windows listed in ReOpen. You can select multiple items by holding the Ctrl key.
4. Press the Open Selected button to reopen the closed software windows.

ReOpen also saves a list of closed folders. Try opening some folders and then closing the File Explorer windows for them. Then you can select to restore the closed folder windows in ReOpen’s top box.

ReOpen permanently stores the record of previously opened windows and folders. So, you’ll still be able to select them in ReOpen after restarting Windows. You can change the number of windows stored by clicking the arrows on the value box in the top-right corner of ReOpen.

You can also set a hotkey to open the ReOpen software. Right-click the ReOpen icon in the system tray and select Set Hotkey. Select a key combination for the hotkey on the drop-down menus, and click the OK button. Then press the hotkey to view ReOpen.

If you prefer to access ReOpen with the mouse, you can set the middle mouse button (scroll wheel) to open it. Bring up the context menu for ReOpen’s system tray icon. Select the Use Middle Mouse Click option from there.

How to Reopen Recently Closed Programs With UndoClose

The freeware UndoClose app works similarly to ReOpen. It keeps a record of recently closed programs you can select to reopen much the same. However, UndoClose users can also press a hotkey to bring up the most recently closed program again. You can reopen closed programs with UndoClose like this:

1. Open the UndoClose download page on the Softpedia site.
2. Click Download to bring up location options.
3. Select the Secure Download (US) location option to get the ZIP.
4. Open Explorer and extract UndoClose’s ZIP archive.
5. Then double-click the UndoClose.exe to run the program.
6. Open and close some third-party apps in Windows.
7. Click the UndoClose system tray icon to view your recently closed app list.
8. Double-click a recently closed program listed there to reopen it.

If you prefer to reopen the most recently closed program window with a keyboard shortcut, press UndoClose’s default Control + Shift + A hotkey. You can set a custom keyboard shortcut on Windows by clicking the Open Last Closed App hotkey box and pressing a different key combination. Select the Change option to apply it.

Restore Recently Closed Software Windows With ReOpen or UndoClose

It is surprising Windows doesn’t already incorporate a feature or hotkey for reopening recently closed apps. That’s something Microsoft should surely add to Windows 11 in the future. However, you can restore recently closed windows and folders with ReOpen or UndoClose for now. Both apps give you a more direct way to reopen recently closed software windows.