Windows 10: SHOW WINDOWS SIDE BY SIDE divides for apps that aren't there, not using whole screen

This feature which has worked for a quarter of a century... doesn't work correctly in WIn10. I never bothered with Win8, so I don't know if it was broken then. But it has been broken for my PC since I got it.


When you right click on a black section of the bottom windows bar
SHOW WINDOWS SIDE BY SIDE or

SHOW WINDOWS STACKED

what this feature always did was take how every many window applications are WINDOED i.e. NOT MINIMIZED or NOT PART OF THE SYSTEM TRAY and divide them evenly across the full screen. Great feature, been incredibly useful since the mid 1990s.


If you had two excels up and six minimized, it would resize just the two of them to fit the screen, half for one half for the other. Either split vertically side by side or split horizontally stacked.

If you had three windows, it split it three ways.

If you had four, it would split int quadrants and stacked and side by side would look the same.


BTW good luck getting the right-click menu if you have lots of windows open. The bar fills and it takes a very precise right-click to get the menu. Grandma with arthritis is screwed. She isn't a customer software designers ever cared about anyway

Windows 10 still obeys the windowed vs minimized exclusions.


But other, non-visible programs are being counted in the window count.

I have 10 windowed apps up. The screen is split into 12 parts.

I have 6 windowed apps up. The screen splits into 8 parts.


So right now I have 2 programs that SHOW WINDOWS counts as windows that do not actually exist.


This is what everyone has been complaining about for years. There are threads 30+ pages deep with no MS responses, with 1700+ I HAVE THIS PROBLEM TOOs.


False solutions in the threads tell you to change a setting, then reboot. Ooooh it works--No it doesn't. You just haven't started those invisible windows programs yet. They eventually return. Mine have been there for years now. I have 1-3 at all times.


INTERESTING NOTES:

TASK MANAGER is not resizable using SHOW WINDOWS. The command just ignores T.M. and leaves it there.

I killed from my system tray, Plex, Intel RST, Nvidia, Dropbox, Google sync, One Drive, duet, apple iCloud. The blank windows remained.


I can't get rid of these from the System Tray, windows volume, avast antivirus, PaloAlto GlobalProtect VPN, windows network.



CALCULATOR is not running, but in TASK MANAGER, under Processes, Background Processes. I see...
> CALCULATOR Suspended
I END TASK on it, and now I have one less mystery window... I don't know if it was really calculator or something else that was finally removed after I killed it earlier. Sometimes a killed process takes a long time to finally cleanup. I started calculator again, X'd out and it was suspended for a bit, then disappeared. Maybe suspended gets hung and never shuts the app down. Too bad it doesn't JUST shutdown instead of "suspending" like every other program would shutdown.

I END TASK on all other SUSPENDED processes--but didn't find one that got rid of the last mystery window.

I can't END TASK on the suspended CORTANA, it just comes right back and suspends.

Since Ms had not been of assistance, maybe others can patiently and slowly shut down things until their mystery window vanishes. We might be able to ID what apps Windows is so confused about--which it wasn't confused about for 25 years.

:)

 

Showing two apps side by side in Windows 10

Hi Tony,

Welcome to Microsoft Community. Your interest in Windows 10 is much appreciated.

Please follow the below mentioned steps and check:

• Open the App’s which you want.
• Right click on the taskbar.
• Select the option Show Windows side by side.

Let us know if the issue is resolved or if you require further assistance.

 

Windows 10 "side-by-side"

Hello,

Thanks for posting your query to Microsoft forum. I will certainly help you with this.

Method 1:

Step 1: Change the resolution

• Press Windows key on the keyboard
• Click on System
• Go to Display
• Click on Advance display settings
• Change the resolution (1280x1024 recommended)

Step 2: Enable Show windows side by side

Make sure that you have at least two windows open.

• Then right-click anywhere on the taskbar and select Show windows side by side.
• The windows are resized according the number of windows to be displayed. You should note that windows that are minimized are not shown through this side by side interface.
• When you are done you can close the side by side interface. You can do this by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting
  Undo Show all windows side by side

Additional information : Applies to Windows 10 too.

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Click here to view this video.

Method 2: Update display adapter driver.

Step 1: Check for the latest display driver update through Windows Updates.

• At the Start screen, type Windows Update.
• Click or tap Settings on the right side of the screen, and then select
  Install optional updates from the left results.
• When the Windows Update control panel opens, click on “Check for Updates” on the top left corner to receive a fresh list of updates.

Step 2: Follow the steps below to update the Bluetooth drivers.

• Press Windows + X key on the keyboard.
• Go to device manager.
• Right-click your display/graphic devices.
• Click Update Driver Software and then follow the steps in the wizard that appears.

Restart the computer and check.

Let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to help you further.

____________________

Thanks & Regards,

 

Show windows side by side from taskbar

Use Windows Key + right arrow key and Windows Key + left arrow key for side by side viewing.