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I love the left and right half screen snaps, but the top of the screen maximize snap is just annoying. Is there anyway to selectively disable that one?

Related question: Is there any way to customize the Windows 7 snap feature?

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2 Answers 2

up vote 7 down vote accepted

You cannot, Dan.

I do agree however that the "maximize" snap has got in the way a few times with my usual window dragging and such operations.

I can't seem to be able to locate it right now (which is a shame, since I would like to provide you with the link). But the "maximize" Aero-Snap feature has already been criticized by more than a handful of users across TechNet and MSDN forums. It's very likely Microsoft will introduce changes to this. At best allow for selective Aero-Snap features, which is something that has also been asked for other reasons.

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False. See Dereleased's answer for the Control Panel setting to change. –  Ben S Nov 11 '09 at 16:16
sigh That setting will disable all of Aero-Snap features. That's not what the poster intended. He asked specifically for the Maximize option. Maybe if you read the questions and answers better... –  A Dwarf Nov 11 '09 at 16:35
Thanks. The answer is unfortunate, but at least I know I'm not the only one annoyed. Hopefully it will be fixed soon. –  Dan Hook Nov 11 '09 at 18:06
Disabling mouse snap disables keyboard snap too - a very YOU DON'T LIKE IT FINE response from MSFT. –  bobobobo Jul 25 '11 at 18:11
how about in 8.1? maximize snap drives me nuts, I'm too much of a clutz triggering it all the time - however, strangely I never accidentally trigger the side horizontal ones. –  Mikey Nov 18 at 8:12

EDIT: For Clarity; As already mentioned, it is not possible to do exactly as you asked; to disable all features, you can take the following steps. Sometimes I find myself more annoyed by the "helper" that I don't want than enchanted by those I do. As such, here are instructions to disable the whole she-bang.

  1. Click Start, Control Panel
  2. Click Ease of Access and click Ease of Access Center
  3. Click one of the following options:
    • Make the mouse easier to use
    • Make the keyboard easier to use
    • Make it easier to focus on tasks
  4. Place a checkmark near the following option:
  5. Click OK, and close the Ease of Access Center

Hope this helps.

Note, there seems to be some debate as to whether the hotkeys such as [WIN]+[UP], [WIN]+[DN] still work, and I am not running Windows 7 at the moment, so if you could post in reply as to whether or not they remain functional after disabling this feature, I/we would be very much obliged.

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This will disable all of Aero-Snap. Not what the user wanted. –  A Dwarf Nov 11 '09 at 16:36
What's really annoying about this control panel option is that it also prevents the shortcut keys (Windows key and up/down, left, right arrows) from working. (on the RTM version I am running, at least. There were some changes to Aero snap along the way I think, so maybe non-RTM does not suffer from this) So if someone has difficulty controlling the mouse, but is perfectly OK with the keyboard, tough. You can have both or neither, but not choose to keep part of the functionality, it seems. –  AdamV Nov 11 '09 at 17:22

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