Do you want to increase your productivity while working on Windows OS? You can do wonders, as Microsoft keenly focuses on enhancing its user’s productivity and work efficiency. One of the features offered in Windows OS is the split screen that greatly eases how you work. For instance, you want to open multiple tabs at once, and navigating through them could eat up your time, but with the split screen, you can arrange many tabs side-by-side or with any specified arrangement.
Let’s explore the methods to Split Screen in Windows and increase your productivity while saving time.
How to Split Screen in Windows
In Windows OS, you can split the open windows using the Keyboard Shortcuts for Snap Windows, and FancyZones tool of Microsoft PowerToys. Let’s explore each in detail.
Keyboard Shortcuts to Snap Windows to Split Screen in Windows
The keyboard shortcut keys to split screen in Windows, include Windows Logo + Arrow Keys. When you press these keys, the Snap Windows feature is triggered in the background. These keys are the shortcuts of using the Snap Windows feature. The way you can arrange the windows is as follows:
- Press the Windows Logo + Right Arrow keys to drag the currently open window to the right.
- Press the Windows Logo + (Right + Down) Arrow keys to drag the currently open window to the lower right corner of the screen.
- Press the Windows Logo + (Right + Up) Arrow keys to drag the currently open window to the upper right corner of the screen.
- Press the Windows Logo + Up Arrow keys to drag the currently open window to the upper half of the screen.
- Press the Windows Logo + (Up + Left) Arrow keys to drag the currently open window to the upper half of the screen.
- Press the Windows Logo + Down Arrow keys to drag the currently open window to the lower half of the screen.
- Press the Windows Logo + (Down + Left) Arrow keys to drag the currently open window to the lower-left half of the screen.
Note: If the keyboard shortcut keys to split windows are not working, enable Snap Windows from Settings App ? System ? Multitasking.
How to Use the Snap Windows to Split Screen in Windows
The Snap Windows feature lets you split the screen into predetermined layouts. It has a pre-defined set of layouts that you can choose from, and you can split the screen into up to four windows. First, enable the “Snap Windows” feature from the Windows Settings app.
After enabling the Snap Windows feature, you’ll see a few options that you can use to customize your Snapped Windows:
Now to use the Snap Windows feature, simply drag any window using its Title Bar and place it in the specified location to snap:
The below GIF may help you understand how the Snap Windows feature works:
How to Use the FancyZones of PowerToys to Split Screen in Windows
The PowerToys is a collection of fascinating tools for customizing Windows OS. One of them is called the FancyZones. The FancyZones is a Windows manager that lets you create your layouts and position the specified windows into those layouts.
To use the FancyZones, first install the PowerToys from the Microsoft Store, open PowerToys from the Start Menu, select FancyZones, and enable it:
To open the FancyZones, use the default shortcut keys Windows Logo + Shift + `. The ` is the Tilde key that is found just underneath the ESC key. Once you press the shortcut keys for FancyZones, the following overlay appears on your screen. From here, you can select from the pre-defined layouts, change the selected layout according to your requirements, or create new layouts:
After selecting the specified layout in FancyZones, press and hold the Shift key and use the mouse to drag the windows into the desired layout, as seen in the following GIF:
The FancyZones is highly customizable and you can:
- Add the non-primary mouse button to activate the zones (layouts) and place the window in it.
- Set if you want to view the layouts on all the displays if you are using the multi-display setup.
- Specify if you want to span the zones across the displays. This lets you use the zones on all monitors and you can place a window easily on any display.
- Customize the zone appearance and window behavior.
- Override the Snap Windows feature to switch between the windows. However, you must specify a combination of keys to do so.
- Specify the apps to exclude that you don’t want to put in a layout.
Final Words
To split screen in Windows, use the Snap Windows feature via the GUI and its keyboard shortcuts. The keyboard shortcuts to split screen in Windows include the Windows Logo + Arrow Keys. Additionally, you can use the FancyZones tool exclusively available in Microsoft PowerToys to create highly customizable zones or layouts.
From all of the above methods for splitting the screen on Windows, we’d recommend using the FancyZones tool of Microsoft PowerToys because of its customization. The customizations, such as using the mouse button to split the screen, changing the zone’s appearance, and excluding the apps from a layout, are tailored to meet the requirements of all users.
That’s all for today’s guide on “How to Split Screen on Windows”.