Windows 10: Three column snap layout disappeared

Hi,all day yesterday, I was working with three apps arranged in a three column snap layout on my laptop monitor, with other windows on my external monitor.Today, after a restart, I'm not finding the three column snap layout an option on the laptop monitor.the screen resolution and scaling is the same scaling 200% as it was yesterdaythe external monitor settings are the samethe apps I want to arrange are the sameI can see the three column layout on the external monitor, but not on the laptop. When I change the scaling on the laptop to 100% which is waaaaay too small for my old eyes, the thr

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How to: Use Snap Layouts and Snap groups in Windows 11

Windows 11 comes with a lot of multi-tasking improvements, one of the best ones is Snap layouts and Snap groups. This article discusses how to use Snap Layouts and Snap groups in Windows 11.

How to use Snap Layouts in Windows 11





Snap layouts in action - Picture credits https://blogs.windows.com/



The new Snap layouts feature focus is to increase user's productivity, which helps to arrange or snap the apps logically on the screen according to the user choice. This is particularly helpful when the user has a bigger, or widescreen, and has multiple applications open as per the requirement. To invoke snap layouts, on the active Window, either press Windows key+Z or hover over the maximize button. In the earlier releases of Windows, the user had to drag the app to the edge of the screen to activate the snapping feature.

On traditional displays, you would see four layout choices and for ultrawide screens, you would see six layout choices.





To choose the location of the app, simply click the mouse button in the desired layout to snap the first active app on that part of the screen. When the first app is snapped, snap assist would show up, asking you to select the app you want to snap on the second layout. After the second, select the app for 3rd layout(if you selected that layout) and so on.





(In the Picture - snap assist on the right when Hyper-V is snapped on the left)

Snap groups:


So after using Snap groups to snap your work apps, let us say you want to take a break, and want to use Focus sessions on the Clock app. This is where the snap group feature comes in handy. You can pick up where you left them off and can open the layout with a single click. In the taskbar, it shows the title as Group.





Snap Group having 2 apps grouped

To summarize, Snap groups remember the layouts used when multiple apps have been snapped mutually into a group using the Snap Layouts feature so that you can quickly resume where you left off.

Coming Soon

In the Windows Insider Builds 22557+, Microsoft has introduced a new way to invoke Snap layouts. Just drag a window to the top of the screen to reveal the snap layouts, drop the window on top of a zone to snap it, and use snap assist to finish building your layout.





How to turn off Snap Flyouts

In case this feature is not relevant to you, Microsoft has also provided an option in Windows 11 to turn off specific settings related to Snapping in the Settings app. To turn off Snap layouts:

1. Open Settings>System.
   
2. Navigate to Multi-tasking.
   
3. Turn off the settings you like, under snapping.
   
   
   
   
   

Also read:

• Windows 11 multitasking features to help you be more productive than ever before
  
• Windows 11 review - Your Windows Guide
  

 

Invoke snap layouts with a touch screen??

Is there a way to use a touch screen to invoke the new snap layouts? When I don't have a keyboard attached, I'm a loss how to use the new layouts. I tried long pressing on the maximize/restore button, but it didn't bring up the snap layout menu. Any other ideas? (Note: keyboard shortcuts aren't a real option because I don't always have a physical keyboard attached, and trying to do snapping through the onscreen keyboard is highly inefficient.

Thanks in advance for the suggestions and ideas!

 

Snap layout

Hi - Is it possible to customize the snap layout? E.g., there is a four squares layout, I'd like to have 9 squares. Thanks!