How To Snap & Arrange Multiple Windows in Windows 11/10

Windows 11 and Windows 10 allow you to arrange multiple windows, i.e., Apps, Programs, Files, and Folders, in many ways. You can have them stacked or arranged in a way that you can view them all together. So you can play a movie on one side while working on the other, while the third part is just displaying live stats from the stock market. Let’s learn to Snap & Arrange Multiple Windows in Windows 11/10

How To Snap & Arrange Multiple Windows in Windows

There are three ways to snap and arrange multiple windows in Windows 11/10. When you have a big screen, it makes sense to snap those windows and keep them open so you can work simultaneously with them. It gets even better when you have multiple monitors.

• Snap Layouts
• Using Win + Arrow keys
• Cascade, Stack, or Side by Side
• Powertoys Flexizone

You can use any of them, but Powertoys offers extra flexibility and Snap Layout for Windows 11.

1] Snap Layouts

Snap Layouts have been significantly upgraded in Windows 11 over Windows 10’s drag-and-drop feature. Snap Layouts allow you to arrange your apps neatly and quickly on your desktop, making it easy to access and use all your applications simultaneously.

Using Snap Layouts, you can arrange your desktop using six different grids that are placed like this:

How to use Snap Layouts

• When an app is open, hover your cursor to the maximize icon, and you can see the available snap layouts options available.
• Alternatively, you can press Windows Key + Z to see the snap grid.
• Click on the layout you want and hover over the zone you wish your active app to be in. That zone will turn blue when clicked. You will then see your app snap into place in that location.

Snap Layout Customization

• Press Windows Key + I and open settings.
• Go to the System tab and then on Multitasking in it.

Click on the Snap windows option, and all the available alternatives will be shown. Check or uncheck them as your preference.

2] Using Win + Arrow keys

In Windows 11 and 10, the screen is divided into four quadrants using the keyboard shortcut. In each, you can have one window arranged, or windows can expand up to two quadrants.

1. To use this feature, Open a couple of apps and programs. Next, resize them instead of the full screen.
2. Now you have two choices here. Use Keyboard or Mouse.
3. Using Mouse or Touch, drag an open window to the extreme left, and you will see it getting snapped there, and on the left, thumbnails of all the windows will appear.  Select any of them, and it will occupy the right half. Now you can resize and add one more.
4. Using the keyboard is probably the best:
   • First, make one Windows go full screen.
   • Now press WIN + LEFT Arrow, and it will snap to the left and show you snap assist.
   • Select the one you want.
   • To resize, press WIN + Down, and it will occupy less space and give you the option to add more windows.

2] Cascade, Stack, or Side by Side

These are from the old school, and you mostly know it. For newcomers, this is less complicated than snap.

• Have Lot of open Windows.
• Right-click on the taskbar and look for options that say
  • “Cascade Windows”
  • “Show windows stacked.”
  • and “show windows side by side.”

3] PowerToys FancyZones

It is an open-source tool that can create a virtual grid for your windows. For example, if you regularly work with three open windows every day, you can split the screen into three panes. Next, you need to drag a window in that area, and it will settle on it. Some of the monitors offer software that can help you do that, but you should install it if yours doesn’t support it.

• Download PowerToys from GitHub, and install it.
• Once installed, it will be available in the System tray. During installation, make sure to set it to start with Windows.
• Launch the application, and switch to Fancy Zones > Edit Zones
• Next, you can choose between the offered layout to create your own. For example, I usually have one area occupied by my editor and two smaller areas where I research or read articles or watch a video, and so on.
• Switch to Custom Zone, and create your layout. Click on Add Zone, and you can resize, arrange it exactly where you want them to be.
• To place the windows into these zones, use shift while dragging, and the zones will turn blue as you move the window on top of them.

The software also works with multiple displays and offers a setting for that; You can choose to keep windows pinned to multiple desktops in the same zone when the active desktop changes.

If you like to use Windows Snap hotkeys in Powertoys, you can override it by turning on a setting. The default shortcut is Win + ~

PowerToys also offers PowerRename, a Shortcut guide, which I would highly recommend you to take a look at. Also check out some of the best software to split Windows.

Honestly, Snap is what you should be using. Period.

If I Want, Can I Turn Off the Snap Windows Feature?

Yes, you have access to disable the feature if you don’t want it. Here is how you can do it:

• Press Windows Key + I and open settings.
• Go to the System tab and then on Multitasking in it.
• Click on the Snap windows option and click on the on/off slider on the right.

How Do I Show All Open Windows on My Computer?

• You can use Task View (Windows Key + Tab) to show all the running apps on the current desktop and switch between them easily.
• Further, you can use Alt+Tab or Ctrl+Alt+Tab to show all the open windows on your computer.

If you want to switch between multiple desktops:

• Press the Windows key + Tab to open the Task View.
• At the bottom, you can see several active virtual desktops; click on the one you want to switch to.
• Press the enter key to jump to your selected desktop.

Why Won’t My windows Snap?

First of all, follow the method mentioned in the above FAQ to check if your Snap windows feature is on or not. If turning it on doesn’t solve your problem, you can try restarting it to see if Snap Assist starts working again since the explorer.exe process manages it.

• Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the task manager.
• Scroll down until you find Windows Explorer.
• Once found, right-click on it and select restart.