Split Screen Into Three (View 3 Applications Side-by-Side) on Windows 10

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Hello. If you’re trying to do this > https://imgur.com/nDjA0LF

All you have to do is bring the Screen to the side as you would to split it in half left and right. Pull the window off the side and then you can edit it to be whatever you want by grabbing the corner and editing the size from there.

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You have to manually do that, Windows Snap currently does not support that layout.

You can press Windows key + up, down, right or left arrows to manipulate how the windows appear on screen.

If you would like to see this improved, please send in your comments and suggestions using the Feedback Hub:

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

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All you have to do is bring the Screen to the side as you would to split it in half left and right. Pull the window off the side and then you can edit it to be whatever you want by grabbing the corner and editing the size from there.

I’m trying to put the three screens side-by-side (left to right), not up and down. Thank you for your help, though. 🙂

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In an ideal world, that would be great. However, I don’t have room for that. Thank you for your help, though. 🙂

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You have to manually do that, Windows Snap currently does not support that layout.

You can press Windows key + up, down, right or left arrows to manipulate how the windows appear on screen.

If you would like to see this improved, please send in your comments and suggestions using the Feedback Hub:

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

Thank you for your help. 🙂

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Easiest way to show windows side by side in Windows

When I’m working on a computer that is connected to a single monitor, I often like to display two windows side by side, especially when writing a new blog post.

I display the WordPress admin interface in one browser window, and the developer web page or another source or research option in the second window. This allows me to access information directly without having to juggle around with open windows or tabs in a single browser window.

I recently had a chat with a friend of mine about this and he told me that he was using Windows 7’s snap feature to snap two windows next to each other on the operating system. He did that either by moving the windows to the left or right side of the screen, or activating the windows individually, and using the Windows-left arrow or Windows-right arrow shortcut to place them in those locations.

Display windows side by side in Windows

The feature is part of newer versions of Windows, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, as well.

When I told him that there was another way to do that, one that would even work with more than two windows, he was puzzled at first. Take a look at the following screenshot and see for yourself.

A right-click on a blank spot on the taskbar displays the context menu that you see above. When you select show windows side by side all windows that are currently not in minimized state will be aligned next to each other, so that each window gets the same amount of space on the desktop.

If you have two windows open at the time, each gets 50% and is displayed next to each other vertically. Three windows get 33.3% each, and are displayed vertically on the system, and four windows vertically again with each getting 25% of the available screen space.

All you need to do, therefore, is to open the program windows that you want displayed side by side, right-click the taskbar, and select the show windows side by side option. It may not be much faster for two windows if you run Windows 7 or newer, but it is definitely faster if you want to align three or more windows side by side instead.

This option is available — maybe under a different name — in previous versions of Windows as well. Microsoft changed the look of the right-click taskbar menu in Windows 10 but the functionality is still available.

You may also select «show windows stacked» or «cascade windows» from the menu to use different display options.

Show windows stacked aligns them vertically so that they are stacked on top of each other.

The cascade windows option displays all windows on top of each other so that only the title and window controls are visible for all but the window in front.

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.

1. Minimize any open windows that you don’t want to re-arrange side by side. Minimized windows are ignored by this function.
2. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar to open its context menu. Here is how it looks.
3. 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 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?

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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.