How to take full advantage of ‘snapping’ in the Windows 10 Technical Preview

Snapping windows is pretty old news at this point. If you’re a Windows 7 or 8 user you probably think you’ve seen all there is to ‘snapping.’ But if you did think so, you’d be wrong. There is more, much more. Well, maybe not much more, but there is more.

First is the guided ‘snap assist.’ To trigger it, you start with no snapped windows, and then drag a window to either side of the screen. It will snap this window, and on the other side of the screen give you an option of windows to snap alongside it. To select, use the arrow keys + enter, or click on one. If you don’t want to snap anything else, simply click anywhere but the choices.

They have also made it smarter when you are resizing snapped windows. Let me give you an example. You snap a window on the left or right. Then you resize it, as it doesn’t need half the screen. Now you go to a different window, that was full screen, and snap it next to the window you just resized. In Windows 7 and 8 it would snap and take up half the screen. It now takes up the rest of the screen.

Lastly, you can now snap into corners. Once a window is snapped to either side, pressing windows + up/down arrow will snap it up or down. So now you can have two, three, or four windows snapped in seconds.

Here is my best advice. Hold down the windows key, and go nuts with the arrow keys. Only though this can you see the new way windows react to ‘snapping.’ Try resizing the windows and snapping windows next to them, and snapping them in different directions. This is the best way you’ll understand. And once you can adjust multiple windows on your screen in seconds, you’ll at the least feel very productive. 

One annoyance I do have with the system is the way my windows turn out ‘post-snap.’ If I go from a window that takes up most of my screen, snap it to a corner, and then un-snap it, it remains the same size as it was when snapped. Intuitively, once I am done multi-tasking and want that window back, I want it back to the size I had it. How do you feel about it? 

Note: when i say window(s) … I mean windows of programs. Not the Operating System (unless Windows is followed by a number).