Scott Hanselman

Windows PowerToys FancyZones is the essential window manager for Windows 10

May 13, 2020 Comment on this post [7] Posted in Open Source | Win10
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Last year Microsoft rebooted PowerToys and it's open source and on GitHub. It's a few months later and PowerToys is getting even better. You can download and install it from https://github.com/microsoft/powertoys releases.

FancyZones is one of the highlights of PowerToys. I'll do other blog posts on the other awesome apps and applets, but FancyZones is special.

Fancy Zones Editor

FancyZone is a Windowing Manager for Windows, ahem. That means it helps you MOVE AND SNAP your windows to known regions, which is way easier than MOVE AND ENDLESSLY FIDDLE WITH your windows.

You likely have a limited number of things you do with your machine - believe it or not - and you likely find yourself in a finite number of "layouts." You likely do this naturally but you're wasting time getting your windows into those configurations.

Default Fancy Zones layouts

FancyZones solves all that. You may a layout or layouts and then shift drag your windows to a zone and they pop/snap into place.

It's absolutely essential for large monitors and once you get used it to you'll be hooked. Go get all the open source PowerToys here https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases


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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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May 20, 2020 20:57
Great looking utility! I was wondering if multi-monitor setup is supported? I guess, I just need to try this out...
May 21, 2020 7:21
Multi-monitor setup is supported.
jvs
May 21, 2020 12:58
Really cool feature. I have to 4K monitors and it causes me headache managing all the windows on the screen. I will definitely try it out. Thanks
May 22, 2020 1:12
Argh! I'd love to try PowerToys but it requires 1803 at a minimum, and my Surface Pro 3 absolutely refuses to update to a recent version of Windows 10. I seem to be stuck on 1709. I've tried the Windows 10 Update Assistant repeatedly, but it always ends up silently rolling back at the end of the upgrade process.
May 22, 2020 8:49
@NickS - I had the very same problem on my Lenovo T570. I had about 12GB or so free on C: so the Windows setup reckoned it had enough space to proceed. Tried many times over the space of 6+ months to get it to update, and eventually Windows Update started trying almost every night.

Well one weekend I was cleaning up my drive as my space dropped *very* low again, so I removed a 90GB Delphi v7 virtual machine from my laptop since I hadn't opened it (happily) for about 12 months. (It's now on the server at work)

The next time Windows Update felt it necessary to try again, it all just worked.

So try to free up a LOT more space than the installer thinks you need and see if that helps.
May 26, 2020 10:37
What is the best program to upgrade Windows?
May 26, 2020 10:38
What is the best program to upgrade Windows?

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.