One of the really great new functions of Windows 7 is the Aero Snap feature which allows you to easily align multiple windows on your screen by dragging them to the side. While this works great if you only have a single monitor, if you have multiple monitors the Aero Snap does not work in the area between the two screens. However, this is easily overcome by a few keyboard shortcuts:
On multiple monitors, continually pressing a keyboard shortcut combination below will cause the window to snap to the side and scroll in that direction through the multiple monitor screens.
- Windows Key + Left Arrow Key = This will snap the current active window to the left side of the screen, or unsnap a window that is snapped to the right side of the screen.
- Windows Key + Right Arrow Key = This will snap the current active window to the right side of the screen, or unsnap a window that is snapped to the left side of the screen.
- Windows Key + Up Arrow Key = Maximize the current active window to full screen.
- Windows Key + Down Arrow Key = Minimize the current active window to the taskbar.
Easy enough. If you are a Windows 7 user with multiple monitors, these shortcuts are incredibly useful.
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Awesome tip Jason, I needed to use Aero Snap a while ago on my dual-monitor setup, and was disappointed it wouldn’t work – it’s a great feature.
Great tip! While playing around with this tip I discovered that holding down the Windows key and hitting the right or left arrow will simply scroll through snapping points across both monitors. My set up is dual monitor, with one of them passing through a KVM.
I find snap to be a useful but overhyped feature. I’ve used it a couple of times, but it’s not a reason to upgrade to Windows 7 like they’d have you believe in the commercials.
I find it surprising that MS would be so shortsighted at to not fully support it with multiple monitors after choosing to showcase the feature.
This is kinda useful, though personally I find snapping useless with multiple monitors because I rarely have anything more than 3 pages I need to view consecutively. I would consider snapping something more useful for people with only one monitor.
Thanks a bunch. I’m using Ultramon with 4 monitors and this has been a big help. 2 of my monitors have 2 files/programs up and running and it’s a lot easier to use these shortcuts to get them evenly placed (just my OCD kicking in).
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