Show Windows Side by Side is BROKEN win Windows 10
INTRODUCITON
We need a fix. This is flat out broken in Windows 10. If you say it was designed this way then you are being ignorant. If you say I should rebuild my user profile or reinstall Windows or do a system file scan, then you re being dismissive. Don’t be those things. It makes people angry. It is not designed this way. It is BROKEN.
IN WINDOWS 10 (only).
1) Open any 2 windows
2) Right click on taskbar
3) Choose «Show Windows Side by Side«
4) Windows are not shown side by side . They are either stacked or shown side by side with so much extra space on the right that the remaining windows are too compressed to view.
Please fix this. This is a bug.
I have posted in the Feedback app. But that app is flawed because things are ranked based on upvotes. This is a BUG. Plain and simple. ALL Bugs need to be fixed ASAP. We can’t even get MS to acknowledge that this is a bug yet. So you see the source of the frustration by the community.
The only acceptable resolution to this case is an acknowledgement of the bug by MS and a promise that it will be fixed in the next possible update (or Gabe Aul’s cell phone #). I (and many others) have already tried the standard MS Troubleshooting checklist (reboot, new profile, clean system, whatever other time wasting flaming hoops you want us to jump through). There is no way to fix this bug except from Microsoft’s acknowledgement of it and its subsequent repair in the next release.
You broke it. Now it’s time to own it.
Show windows side by side does not work
Show windows side by side does not work. Looks the same as show windows stacked.
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Apologize for the difficulties that you’re experiencing regarding this issue and also for the delay in getting back to you. Do not worry. Let me help you in fixing this issue.
What exactly happens when you try to show Windows side by side?
Does the same thing happen with all types of windows of different programs?
Provide us a screenshot of the issue by referring to the following article on how to do so:
Get back to us with the requested details for further assistance.
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The problem is that the windows do not use the full screen.
In Windows 8.1 if I had two windows side by side the whole screen was used. Windows 10 seems to want to use only two thirds of the screen. This cuts off a lot of things in each window that I want to see. Windows 8.1 did it right. It’s broken in Windows 10.
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Show windows side by side does not work. Looks the same as show windows stacked.
This is the screenshot of what I get when I click «Show windows side by side» — it’s exactly the same as when I click «Show windows stacked». I use this command every day, so I’m dying now that it no longer works in Windows 10
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Show windows side by side does not work. Looks the same as show windows stacked.
This is the screenshot of what I get when I click «Show windows side by side» — it’s exactly the same as when I click «Show windows stacked». I use this command every day, so I’m dying now that it no longer works in Windows 10
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I can only laugh at the moron who designed snap and side by side. I guess can’t they count how many windows it take to fill a screen. They like quads and even if you end task ‘ApplicationFrameHost’ it likes 3 windows please.
I seen tens of thousand jquery web pages that could blow this code to pieces. How many employees does MS have?
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I’m going to take a wild guess and say this «side x side» was coded this way so that you can quickly bring up one of many windows to full screen. That might be fine for some, but it doesn’t cut the mustard for me.
I WANT to be able to actually READ info on one window so that I can cut and paste into the other window. The size of these reduced size windows make that hard or impossible.
While I wasn’t a big fan of Win 8, my wife still has it on her computer and right clicking on the bottom allows you to go «side x side» with 2 windows taking up the entire screen instead of 2/3’s of the screen.
There SHOULD be an option to make this command the same as in Win 7, Win 8, and Win 8.1. I think it worked in XP as well.
How to Show Windows Side by Side in Windows 10
In addition to the popular Aero Snap feature, Windows 10 supports a number of classic methods of arranging opened windows. These include the ability to cascade windows, show windows stacked and show windows side by side.
To show windows side by side in Windows 10, do the following.
- Minimize any open windows that you don’t want to re-arrange side by side. Minimized windows are ignored by this function.
- Right-click an empty area of the taskbar to open its context menu. Here is how it looks.
- In the third group of commands from top, you will see the option «Show windows side by side». Click it.
This is an example of the side-by-side window layout in Windows 10.
If you clicked this context menu item accidentally, there is a quick method to undo the layout. Right click the taskbar once again and select Undo Show all windows side by side from the context menu.
Besides the classic options, you can use a number of modern window management options in Windows 10. See the following articles.
A number of users in Microsoft’s forums report that the Show windows side by side feature is broken for them in Windows 10 and does not work reliably. What is your experience? Does it work for you?
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About Sergey Tkachenko
Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.
14 thoughts on “ How to Show Windows Side by Side in Windows 10 ”
Works fine in Win10 1703.
It worked fine on my old computer. On my new computer, it does not work AT ALL. Both the “stack windows” option and the “side-by-side” option STACK them on half of the screen. I have tried every setting, every suggestion, but it makes no difference. I am really regretting getting this new computer because that is a tool I use(d) A LOT. Now it makes many of my tasks take way longer than they should.
I am a translator, and this problems drives me crazy! Nothing has worked, the documents end up in the corner of my screen, I can’t drag them, and all I can do is open 2 lap tops, one with the original on the screenand the other with the translation. DISGRACEFUL!
choice is not there when I right click task bar.
Show windows side by side does not work in Windows 10. None of the troubleshooting ANYWHERE allows me to show two windows side by side and it fills my screen with ONE CLICK, without having to MANUALLY resize all windows to fill the screen. I DO NOT WANT STACKED when I select SIDE BY SIDE! When is this going to be fixed. For this reason I have not upgrade to Windows 10 on my DT PC. STILL WAITING…. Maybe Google has side by side…? What a colossal waste of time at work.
27 July 2019 and still no solution for the broken side-by-side feature. What is wrong with Microsoft? This problem is all over the Internet and still nothing has been done. Absolute disgrace!
Windows 10 V.1903 B18362.295 installed on 6/7/19
Side-by-side does not work – does the same as stacked
tried all combinations of SNAP options, all fail to fix problem
Windows Side by Side doesnt work… its pathetic programming from microsoft..
its very much essential while working on multiple files.. stacking never helps during work..
25. December 2019 – Latest Build 18363.535
Still not working
Can I use windows side by side normaly like old ?
Yeah, this didn’t help.
Using 2 windows, I pick side by side, it should fill the screen, split down the middle.
instead, it picks a third of the screen and stacks them.
It’s stupid.
This is an easy-to-follow to tutorial for a feature which, as of August 2020, still doesn’t work correctly in Windows 10 (as many have previously commented). Maybe Microsoft will get their aft together in the next OS?
I cant use the side by side option. Horrible and pathetic programming.
Show windows side by side in windows 10
I’ve always right clicked on the taskbar and selected «Show windows side by side.» Now on my Windows 10 laptop, the two windows display very narrow and only on one half of the screen. Is there something I can do to make two documents display across the entire width of the screen?
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Aero Snap is one of the interesting features of Windows 10 that automatically arrange windows by tiles or side by side. Here are the different methods on how you can customize your windows view on your desktop using Aero Snap:
Method 1: Side by side windows.
This method will make each window take half of the computer screen allowing you to arrange it side by side.
1. Press and hold Windows logo key.
2. Press the left or right arrow key.
Method 2: Vertical Snap
You can also use Aero Snap to maximize or minimize the open windows on your desktop.
1. Press and hold Windows logo key + Up arrow key to snap the window to the top halves of the screen.
2. Press and hold Windows logo key + Down arrow key to snap the window to the bottom halves of the screen.
3. Press Windows logo key + Up arrow key twice to maximize the window.
4. Press Windows logo key + Down arrow key twice to minimize the window.
Method 3: 2×2 Snap
2×2 Snap will let you put up to 4 windows on your desktop using a combination of the Windows logo key + left/right/up/down arrow key.
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have other questions.
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Based on this thread and another in a different forum, the problem with side by side and stacked windows not working is due to a bug whereby various apps come up and appear to be on the desktop. When you do a side by side, you might have only 2 windows you see — everything else is minimised — but after the operation you wind up with screen real estate as if you were sharing with 2 3 4 or more shadow apps that do not show up.
If you use task manager, you will see phantom apps — e.g. calculator, calendar, skype, all of these come from C:\Program Files\WindowsApps. You might also see SystemSettings. If you kill these, you will generally find that Side-By-Side and Stacked windows behave as expected. Rarely, you may also have to stop/start (re-cycle explorer).
A guaranteed fix is to logoff (not reboot — just logoff) and login. Things work ok until you use a few modern apps and then they start to leak and screw things up.
Randomish8 (from other forum) may have reduced the problem to ApplicationFrameHost.exe as opposed to the mix of Apps I have stumbled across. I have not run into it yet but his solution may be more comprehensive.
I use Cygwin and I have a script that looks for processes in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps or named Systemsettings and kills those. If that is not sufficient I have another script that also recycles Explorer. So far that has always fixed things. I will try to look for ApplicationFrameHost.exe instead to see if that works.
In any event, you are not going nuts. The windows arrangement features works expected and as they always did when you log in and eventually degenerate as apps start to leak. Microsoft is definitely on the hook to fix this but in the meantime, there are ways of coping.
