How do you turn off the Auto-Maximize Snap Feature
Hi,I am sure that the auto-maximize is useful but there are occasions when I want to push a window out of the way to the top of the screen. I use thisso I can either keep it open and work on other windows or when I have a large spreadsheet and every pixel is needed. It would be useful to over-ride it by holding down a key(s) for those occasions.Narfle the Garthok!
February 15th, 2009 6:40pm

I don't know of a key to temp disable that but it can be turned on or off in the Ease of Access settings, however if turned off it will disable the window hot keys listed below.Win+Up Maximize Win+Down Restore / Minimize Win+Left Snap to left Win+Right Snap to right
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February 16th, 2009 1:15pm

Others may have a better experience, but I have found that using the options in Ease of access do not, for some reason, remain saved. Even without a reboot or logon/logoff the feature reverts back to the default.
February 16th, 2009 7:59pm

Hi, Thank you for posting. We can do this to enable the keyboard actions and disable the mouse actions: 1. Please go to Control Panel - Ease of Access Center. 2. Go to Make the mouse easier to use and check the item Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen.. 3. Then go to Make the keyboard easier to use and uncheck the item Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen.. After applying the settings, if you drag the window to the edge of the screen, it will not be auto-maximize; and you can use the function with the hotkeys (Win+Up, Win+Left Win+Right,etc.). Hope this helps. Nicholas Li - MSFT
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February 18th, 2009 2:40pm

Nicholas Li said: Hi, Thank you for posting. We can do this to enable the keyboard actions and disable the mouse actions: 1. Please go to Control Panel - Ease of Access Center. 2. Go to Make the mouse easier to use and check the item Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen.. 3. Then go to Make the keyboard easier to use and uncheck the item Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen.. After applying the settings, if you drag the window to the edge of the screen, it will not be auto-maximize; and you can use the function with the hotkeys (Win+Up, Win+Left Win+Right,etc.). Hope this helps. Nicholas Li - MSFT Seems like a strange way of doing it, however it still does not work as intended, the behavior i am seeing is this. 1. Please go to Control Panel - Ease of Access Center. no problem 2. Go to Make the mouse easier to use and check the item Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen.. no problem mouse will not snap windows problem hot keys disabled 3. Then go to Make the keyboard easier to use and uncheck the item Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen.. no problem hot keys enabled problem mouse snaps windows as setting is now unchecked that was checked in #2 In addition to this behavior if Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen. is checked it only applies to the current session as davehc1 noted. The only way i have found to keep the setting from reverting back to on is to alter the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowArrangementActive
February 19th, 2009 3:13am

I am so glad to read that someone else is having a problem with this fix!Unfortunately, I have found that manually altering the registry does not seem to hold the setting, either.
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February 22nd, 2009 8:45pm

Hi VeefIt appears that there are 2 separate issues with this behavior.1. The settings will not stick between sessions.2. Each of the 2 settings (Mouse or Keyboard) enable/disable the other.Both of these issues have been officially bugged.Hope this helps.Thank You for testing Windows 7 Beta Ronnie Vernon MVP
February 23rd, 2009 12:45am

I don't know of a key to temp disable that but it can be turned on or off in the Ease of Access settings, however if turned off it will disable the window hot keys listed below. Win+Up Maximize Win+Down Restore / Minimize Win+Left Snap to left Win+Right Snap to right Whew, thank you so much for these!!! Somehow I managed to "snap" my application right off the <snipped epithets> screen! Normally during the day I have a laptop + external monitor setup. Right now I am working from the laptop only. My display properties say that I'm working from a single screen.But somehow in maximizing, minimizing, or dragging my window around, I "snapped" my application off the screen entirely, as if that second monitor were still attached. I could see it animating the maximization off to the right, but I was simply not able to get the thing back. Tried closing the app, reopening, minimizing, maximizing, restore, move, size, tile windows, cascade windows, logging off and logging back on, rebooting ... none of these things worked. Finally the Win+Left worked! At first glance I basically like the snap tool, but that was 45 minutes of my life that I wll chalk up to Windows 7 being less than stellar.
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January 23rd, 2010 8:49am

Holding down the CTRL or ALT key while dragging the window with the mouse works fine for me. The window is not auto-maximized when I do this. Tried turning off auto-snap in ease of access but it did not work for me.
November 25th, 2010 7:17pm

For future versions, most users I know would appreciate NOT having this snap feature activated by default. Everyone I know is thrilled to learn how to turn it off. And it would be splendid if the controls were a bit more accessible. I've used nearly every version of Windows ever released, so I'm not a stranger to learning new tricks. However, each time I need to reset this (four or five times now in the past year), I've had to go to the web, try to remember what the blankety-blank process is called, and drill down to find the instructions before I click through the Control Panel to a part I'd never otherwise think to use. How about parking it with window controls for Appearance and Personalization where we logically think to look? Maybe put it both places. Windows is noted for redundancy in lots of other aspects. Thanks in advance for to anyone who can help this thought get where it needs to go. I have no idea.
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December 11th, 2010 6:27am

Hi Veef It appears that there are 2 separate issues with this behavior. 1. The settings will not stick between sessions. 2. Each of the 2 settings (Mouse or Keyboard) enable/disable the other. Both of these issues have been officially bugged. Hope this helps. Thank You for testing Windows 7 Beta Ronnie Vernon MVP I note that this issue was flagged as a bug over two years ago but the behavior has not changed. Will it ever be fixed?
July 7th, 2011 7:48pm

I note that this issue was flagged as a bug over two years ago but the behavior has not changed. Will it ever be fixed? Hi JC I do remember these issues, although it's ancient history now. :)  The bugs filed for the Mouse + Keyboard + the 3 options to 'Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen' being a global setting all came back as being a "by design" feature that would not be changed. This included the 'Shake' feature being disabled/enabled with those options. The issue with the settings not propagating between sessions was fixed by the time we got to the RTM version. Regards Ronnie Vernon MVP – Windows Desktop Experience
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July 7th, 2011 9:35pm

I note that this issue was flagged as a bug over two years ago but the behavior has not changed. Will it ever be fixed? Hi JC I do remember these issues, although it's ancient history now. :) The bugs filed for the Mouse + Keyboard + the 3 options to 'Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen' being a global setting all came back as being a "by design" feature that would not be changed. This included the 'Shake' feature being disabled/enabled with those options. The issue with the settings not propagating between sessions was fixed by the time we got to the RTM version. Regards Ronnie Vernon MVP – Windows Desktop Experience I’m not sure what happened then, but I still have to reset the 'Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen' option every time I reboot my system. It may or may not be relevant, but I am running a system that was upgraded from Vista rather than one that came preinstalled.
July 7th, 2011 10:00pm

The issue with the settings not propagating between sessions was fixed by the time we got to the RTM version. Regards Ronnie Vernon MVP – Windows Desktop Experience An additional note to my previous post: the state of the check-box is preserved, but the system acts like it is not checked. I.e.: No matter whether the option is checked or unchecked, the reboot ignores the state and the behavior is as if it were unchecked.
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July 7th, 2011 11:42pm

I have the same problem, but wonder if it relates to the video drivers somehow - I have three monitors, two on DVI (via a dual port PCIe card), and one older monitor serviced by a 15pin RGB port (connected to a PCI card). As I move a grabbed window between the monitors, the first DVI screen will maximise it (showing a red outline before releasinbg the mouse button. The second DVI port does the same, but with a blue outline, but the third (non DVI) screen has no outline and doesn't auto-maximise. Note that the older monitor is labelled by Windows as monitor #1.
August 28th, 2011 10:42pm

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