Skip to content

Merge Windows Extension – Help Info

1. Introduction

The Merge Windows extension is designed to streamline your browsing experience by allowing you to quickly consolidate all your open Chrome windows into a single window. This helps reduce clutter, improve focus, and manage your tabs more efficiently. With customizable options for icon behavior, context menu integration, and exclusion lists, Merge Windows adapts to your workflow.

↑ Back to Top

2. Installation & Access

Once installed from the Chrome Web Store, the Merge Windows icon will appear in your browser’s toolbar. If you don’t see it, you might need to pin it.

2.1. Pin to Toolbar

  1. Click the puzzle piece icon (Extensions menu) in your Chrome toolbar.
  2. Find “Merge Windows” in the list.
  3. Click the pin icon next to “Merge Windows” to make it visible in your toolbar for quick access.

2.2. Grant Tab Groups Permission

To ensure that your tab groups (created by Chrome’s native tab grouping feature) are preserved when merging windows, the extension requires an optional permission to access tab groups. This permission is crucial for maintaining your organized tab structure.

  • When Requested: The permission will be requested the first time you attempt to merge windows.
  • Granting Manually: You can also grant this permission proactively from the extension’s onboarding page or the Options page.
  • Impact of Denial: If you deny this permission, Merge Windows will still merge your windows, but it will not be able to preserve your tab groups, potentially ungrouping them. You can always grant this permission later via the Options page.

↑ Back to Top

3. Core Functionality: Merging Windows

The primary function of the extension is to merge all open Chrome windows into one. There are two main ways to trigger this action:

3.1. Merge via Icon Click (Default Behavior)

By default, a single click on the Merge Windows icon in your toolbar will immediately merge all your open Chrome windows into the current active window.

3.2. Merge via Keyboard Shortcut

For even faster merging, you can use the default keyboard shortcut:

  • Windows/Linux: Ctrl + Shift + L
  • Mac: ⌘ + ⇧ + L

You can customize this shortcut if it conflicts with other shortcuts or if you prefer a different key combination (see 4.4. Change Keyboard Shortcut).

↑ Back to Top

4. Options Page

The Options page provides extensive customization for Merge Windows. To access it, right-click the extension icon in your toolbar and select “Options”.

4.1. Icon Click Behavior Toggle

This setting controls what happens when you click the Merge Windows icon in your toolbar.

  • Checkbox Unchecked (Default): A single click immediately merges all windows (current functionality).
  • Checkbox Checked: A single click opens a popup menu with various options. This is useful to prevent accidental merges and provides quick access to other features.

If you enable the “Icon Click Behavior Toggle” to show a popup menu, you can further customize which options appear in that menu.

  • Merge Windows: Always visible and enabled. Triggers the window merging process.
  • Do not merge / Add to exclusions: Adds the current website’s hostname to your exclusion list, preventing its tabs from being merged in the future.
  • Change Options: Opens the extension’s Options page.
  • Help Info: Opens this help guide in a new tab.

Constraint: At least one sub-checkbox (excluding “Merge Windows”) must be selected. If all are deselected, the parent “Icon Click Behavior Toggle” will automatically be unchecked.

4.3. Context Menu Integration

This option allows you to access the same customizable popup menu directly from your browser’s right-click context menu.

  • Checkbox “Add to context menu”: If checked, the Merge Windows menu will appear when you right-click anywhere in your browser window.
  • Optional Permission: Enabling this feature will prompt you to grant optional permission for “contextMenus”. This permission is requested only when you first enable the feature, not during installation.
  • Customization: Similar to the popup menu, you can select which items (Merge Windows, Add to Exclusions, Change Options, Help Info) appear in the context menu.

4.4. Change Keyboard Shortcut

Clicking the “Change shortcut” button will take you directly to Chrome’s internal extensions shortcuts page (chrome://extensions/shortcuts), where you can customize the keyboard shortcut for Merge Windows to your preference.

4.5. Restore Defaults Button

This button allows you to reset all extension options to their original default values. Use this if you’ve made many changes and want to start fresh.

4.6. Help Button

Clicking this button will open this help guide in a new browser tab.

4.7. Custom Icon Upload

Personalize your extension by uploading your own icon. The extension will automatically resize any uploaded image to fit within 21×21 pixels while maintaining its aspect ratio, ensuring it looks good in your toolbar.

  • Select the “Select your own icon” radio button.
  • Click “Choose File” and select an image from your computer.
  • The image will be processed, resized, and displayed as your new extension icon.

4.8. Excluded Hostnames

The exclusion list prevents tabs from specific websites (hostnames) from being merged. This is useful for keeping important web applications or sensitive information separate.

  • Adding Exclusions:
    • From Options Page: Enter a hostname (e.g., mail.google.com) and an optional title, then click “[+] add exclusion”.
    • From Popup/Context Menu: If enabled, select “Do not merge / Add to exclusions” to add the current tab’s hostname to the list.
    • From Currently Open Hosts: The Options page also provides a list of currently open hosts, allowing you to easily add them to the exclusion list. You can search and paginate through this list.
  • Managing Exclusions: The Options page displays a table of all excluded hostnames. You can remove any exclusion by clicking the “[x] remove” button next to it.
  • Behavior: Excluded tabs will remain in their original window when other windows are merged. They will not be moved into the target window.

↑ Back to Top

5. Advanced Usage

5.1. Keyboard Navigation in Popup

If you’ve enabled the popup menu on icon click, you can navigate it entirely with your keyboard:

  • Open the popup using your configured keyboard shortcut (default: Ctrl + Shift + L / ⌘ + ⇧ + L).
  • Use the Arrow Up and Arrow Down keys to move between menu items.
  • Press Enter to select the highlighted item.
  • Press Esc to close the popup menu.

5.2. Tab Groups Preservation

With the optional “Tab Groups” permission granted, Merge Windows will intelligently preserve your existing tab groups during the merging process. Tabs belonging to a group will remain grouped in the destination window, maintaining your organization.

↑ Back to Top

6. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: What does “Merge Windows” do?

A: It consolidates all your open Chrome browser windows into a single window, moving all tabs from other windows into the active one.

Q: How do I merge windows?

A: By default, click the extension icon in your toolbar or use the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+L / ⌘+⇧+L). You can also configure it to show a popup menu first.

Q: Why isn’t the context menu showing up?

A: Ensure you have enabled “Add to context menu” on the Options page and granted the optional “contextMenus” permission when prompted.

Q: My tab groups are breaking after merging. How can I fix this?

A: You need to grant the optional “Tab Groups” permission. This can be done from the onboarding page or the extension’s Options page. Once granted, your tab groups will be preserved.

Q: How do I prevent certain websites from being merged?

A: Use the exclusion list. You can add hostnames to this list from the Options page or directly from the popup/context menu. Tabs from excluded hostnames will remain in their original window.

Q: Can I change the keyboard shortcut?

A: Yes, go to the Options page and click “Change shortcut” to customize it via Chrome’s internal shortcuts page.

Q: The custom icon I uploaded is too big/small. What should I do?

A: The extension automatically resizes uploaded icons to fit 21×21 pixels while maintaining aspect ratio. If it still doesn’t look right, try uploading an image that is closer to a square aspect ratio or already small.

↑ Back to Top

7. Troubleshooting

  • Extension Icon Not Visible: Ensure the extension is pinned to your toolbar (see 2.1. Pin to Toolbar).
  • Merge Not Working:
    • Check if the extension is enabled.
    • If using the popup menu, ensure “Merge Windows” is selected in the popup.
    • Restart your browser.
  • Context Menu Items Missing: Verify that “Add to context menu” is enabled in Options and that you’ve granted the necessary permissions.
  • Performance Issues: If you have an extremely large number of tabs or windows, merging might take a moment. Ensure your browser is up-to-date.

↑ Back to Top

8. Removing the Extension

If you no longer wish to use the Merge Windows extension, you can remove it from Chrome:

  1. Right-click the Merge Windows icon in your toolbar.
  2. Select “Remove from Chrome…” from the context menu.
  3. Alternatively, navigate to chrome://extensions, find “Merge Windows”, and click the “Remove” button.

↑ Back to Top

9. Contact & Support

If you encounter any bugs, have feature requests, or need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out:

  • Email: [email protected]
  • Options Page: The Options page also contains direct links to contact support and rate the extension.

Your feedback is valuable and helps improve the extension!

↑ Back to Top