Windows 10 snap assist discovery

I’m sure every Windows 10 users is aware of the snap assist using keyboard short cuts with the Windows key or dragging a window’s titled bar to an edge of the screen to snap a window to one-half of the screen.

I’ve not heard or read about this one: snapping just the top and bottom to the edges of the screen. Move a non-maximized window to the center of the screen. Adjust the right and left edges of a non-maximized window so they are where you want them. Now, instead of dragging the title bar, grab the top edge as if resizing it, and move it to the top of the screen. Windows will snap the top and bottom of the window leaving the right and left edges where they were. I find this useful on wide monitors when I’m only working in one program, like a browser, and I don’t want it spread across the entire 27" or 34" of the monitor but maximize the vertical space.

Hope that makes sense and wasn’t something everyone else already knew about.

Here’s another trick I use for two windows in one monitor. It’s easy to snap two windows so that each occupies one-half of the screen. What if you each of them to be a wider than one-half (overlapping in the middle) because you only use one at a time. Here’s how I do it:

Open two programs; let’s say Outlook and Chrome. Minimize Chrome. Snap Outlook to right side. When given the option to snap Chrome to other side click on Outlook. Chrome will stay minimized. Now size the left of Outlook where you want it. Minimize Outlook. Open Chrome. Snap it to the left side. Again, don’t click on Outlook when given the option to snap it to the other one-half of the screen. Now size the right edge of Chrome to where you want it. Maximize Outlook. The center edges will be over lapped. Click on program to bring the entire window to the foreground.

I think the snap features started in Windows 7.

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I use the maximize height snap for my virtual machine windows. There is a new feature add-on for Windows called [unfortunately] “Fancy Zones” provided by the Windows 10 Power Toys. It allows you to use [user] defined sections of your screen for windows to snap to. You can download the setup MSI here:

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