This utility adds a new button to your windows' title bar that lets you "roll up" a window to display only the title bar, then display the full window with a single click. If only I'd been satisfied with this while reviewing the software, maybe my test Windows XP laptop would have emerged unscathed.
With its default settings only, Actual Window Rollup worked fine. However, when I enabled the options labeled "Roll Windows Manually via Title Bar Double-Click" and "Window Will Be Automatically Rolled Up if Inactive" I had some issues.
Running Actual Window Rollup disabled the drop-down menus in my image editor of choice (FastStone Image Viewer), so I exited the utility. I was able to use FastStone with no apparent issues--but then I attempted to view my Word documents and Firefox session, and there began the grief. Even with Actual Window Rollup no longer running, I could view my active windows in full-screen mode only; trying to resize them just rolled them back up into the title bar.
I started Actual Window Rollup again, but the problem persisted. I tried closing and reopening the affected programs, but nothing helped. I finally resorted to uninstalling the program altogether and rebooting the computer, but anything I opened in Word and in Firefox opened to a title bar only. (Programs that I did not open while Actual Window Rollup was installed were not affected.) Again, I could view docs and Web pages in full-screen mode only. I had to restore my laptop to an earlier system restore point to get everything running properly again.
For obvious reasons, I can't recommend Actual Window Rollup. If it sounds interesting, please try its sibling, Actual Title Buttons. This program costs the same as Actual Window Rollup and the same roll-up functionality, plus extras--and it caused no distress during testing.
--Kim Saccio-Kent
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