How do I find running programs that are not visible?

Solution 1:

Do you have your "Notification Area Applet" in your panel? that's the place where all the applications goes when minimized to tray or closed while running (as in the case of banshee, rhythmbox and many more).

I would also suggest you to have the "Indicator Applet" http://launchpad.net/indicator-applet in order to have a different tray for having useful applications at the reach of a clic.

This applets can be added to your panel, by right clicking on it and choose "Add to Panel", then simply identify those applets that you need, and drag them to the panel.

Give this a chance and please let us know if this helps.

Solution 2:

First install the package wmctrl

Then open a Terminal and run.

 wmctrl -a skype

That should make the window visible. If it doesn't work run

wmctrl -l 

look for a matchinhg window title and replace skype in the first command with the window title