How to make Windows open to full or chosen size every time

gregrocker · 07 Apr 2015

This has vexed me and others here for years. We should be able to drag a window such as IE or Firefox to the size we want it, then click the Restore Up or Down button (between the - Minimize and X Close buttons at top right) a few times to program the window to open that size every time.

How to make Windows open to full or chosen size every time-capture.png

However this often does not work when we drag the window to the full size of the screen, click the Restore button a few times, close the window and then try to open it again. It will annoyingly open smaller or with the bottom of the window not filling the screen.

I finally figured this out. It has to do with the Snap function when you drag a window to the edge and it shows a visual reaction, even if it doesn't snap anywhere. So when you are dragging it if you touch the window to the edge of the screen at all it will not program correctly.

Drag it all the way up to the edge but don't touch the edge so that it reacts. You can get as close as you want but you can't touch the edge. Do this on all four sides, or wherever you want it there. If it reacts with the Snap visual then you need to drag it again until it is filling the screen but has not touched the edges. Now go up to the Restore Up or Down box and click it a few times to see if it will program to open full size or to where you want it. Close it and open it again to confirm. If not drag it again until it does, without touching the sides.

MilesAhead · 09 Apr 2015

I remember on previous versions of Windows it was supposed to remember the size if you held down Shift while sizing with the mouse. Have you tried holding down Shift while performing your operation to see if it has any effect on snap indication or other? (I have Snap disabled on my Laptop as I use one of my hotkey utilities for similar actions, instead.)

Edit: I suspect if they went ahead with the database backed file system(I forget the name of it in Longhorn but I think it was a port of the old DEC CMS) then we could likely have general settings per application plus individual setting per shortcut. But the Registry isn't a relational DB. So we keep getting these forgotten interactions.