Auto-raise is a AutoHotKey script that will activate programs in the windows taskbar area by simply hovering your mouse over them. It will also press the minimize windows for you when you hover on the minimize button. To use it, copy the code at the linked page, paste it in a notepad and save it as Auto-raise.ahk in any folder. Now download and install the latest AHK. To start the Auto-raise script, simply double click on the .ahk file. You should see a ‘H’ shaped icon in your system tray. By default the script doesn’t activate minimized windows. Also Start menu is activated upon mouse over.

Since we like to activate minimized windows by hovering the mouse plus since we don’t use Start menu at all, we edited the script (right click on the system tray icon and Edit This Script) and changed

hover_task_min_info = 1 ;
hover_start_button = 1 ;

to

hover_task_min_info = 0 ;
hover_start_button = 0 ;

(1 is true, 0 is false)

Make sure you reload the script after editing, saving and closing it.

Here’s a small video of the script in action: