Manage Windows Windows with Fancyzones (PowerToys)

FancyZones is part of Microsoft Powertoys to arrange and quickly restore windows for a better overview.

FancyZones allows the user to pin a set of window locations for the desktop. When you drag a window into a zone, the window resizes and moves to fill that zone with the active Windows window. This is how Fancyzones works!

Manage Windows Windows with Fancyzones

To start with, you should PowerToys to download. Click on the latest version available for Windows and install PowerToys.

The installation process is self-explanatory.

Once PowerToys is installed, start the PowerToys application. In the Windows search bar type: PowerToys and click on PowerToys (Preview).

Now that you have started PowerToys, PowerToys will be in the Windows system tray. For me, PowerToys starts up minimized, which is why I indicate that it is in the system tray.

You don't need to open anything else. PowerToys is active in the system tray and has been added to the Windows context menu.

To open Fancyzones, double-click the PowerToys icon in the Windows system tray. Click on Fancy Zones in the left menu and make sure Fancy Zones is enabled.

In the Zone Behavior menu, enable the following option: Hold the Shift key to activate zones while dragging.

Then in the Window Behavior menu, enable the following option: Override Windows Snap shortcut (Win + arrow) to move windows between zones.

These two options are necessary to activate Fancy Zones and the Windows windows can be moved to the defined zones. The zones in which windows should be arranged can be set as follows:

To open the layout editor, click the Start Layout Editor button or press the standard key combination: Windows key + '.

The following window will appear where you can specify how Windows windows should be arranged.

To start, indicate how many columns you want to use to place windows. You can change these with the – / + buttons, by default there are two. By default you can choose from the following layouts, focus, columns, rows, grid and priority grid. Each layout is self-explanatory based on the image above. To apply your own layout, click on the Custom tab.

Once you have selected the layout you want, click the Apply button to confirm.

To activate this layout, first open a few Windows windows. Then press the Windows key + left or right arrow on your keyboard.

The left arrow will move another window and right another.

If you want to drag a window to a specific zone, hold down the SHIFT key while you drag the window to the zone.

In the image below you will see two zones become visible to which the Windows window can be moved.

I hope this article has helped you manage Windows windows a little more easily with Fancyzones (PowerToys).

Read more about PowerToys:

Identifying color with Color Picker (PowerToys) en rename multiple files in Windows with PowerToys.

Thank you for reading!