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I work on a laptop with an external display, and I recently tried moving it from side-by-side to top-and-bottom. I like the ergonomics, but it breaks Fitt's Law by removing the "infinite edge" that menu bars rely on. Picking out individual browser tabs at the top of my bottom display is a particular difficulty, as is hitting the Windows toolbar at the bottom the top display.

I dimly remember using a Linux desktop window manager that introduced a "bump" between monitors to solve this, your cursor stopped at the edge between displays unless you approached it with sufficient speed to overcome "inertia". I found a bunch of articles about MouseMonitorEscapeSpeed on Windows but it looks like that might have been phased out around Windows 10 (I'm on 11 now), and anyway most of the content is people who don't want a "speed bump" and are trying to get rid of it.

My preference would be to reintroduce this inertia between displays, either as a registry edit or with 3rd party software. Making the browser tab-bar taller would also help, and honestly I'm open to any suggestions from people with similar problems.

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    You could always go to the display settings and do this: i.sstatic.net/oDKcG.png
    – Mokubai ♦
    Commented Jan 26 at 17:20
  • You mean that the tabs are squeezed-together and become smaller and harder to hit? You may set a minimal tab width as described in this link, but you might then need to scroll the tabs. There exist extensions that can make tabs-management easier in this case.
    – harrymc
    Commented Jan 26 at 17:32
  • I should be clear, it's less about the width and more about the height. My comment about Fitt's Law is because normally you can "throw" your mouse at the top of the display and it always stops, so you don't have to be careful about vertical travel. The tabs are harder to hit because you have to stop before the pointer spills over into the display above it.
    – Coderer
    Commented Jan 26 at 17:49
  • @Mokubai that's very clever, I'm going to try it for a while and see how I like it. To save a click, or in case the image goes away: they suggested positioning the monitors so that they only touch at the corner, which means you have to "throw" your mouse top-left or top-right to get from one monitor to the other.
    – Coderer
    Commented Jan 26 at 17:52
  • 1. Make tab groups, so fewer tabs show at one time: google.com/chrome/tips 2. Use the keyboard to select tabs: howtogeek.com/807523/… Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab to cycle through them; Ctrl+ n, where n is a digit, 1 through 8, to select one.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented Jan 26 at 18:27

1 Answer 1

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You could always go to the display settings and shift your monitors around to achieve something like this. You would probably want som small area of overlap but otherwise you could make it so that there is only a small zone where you can have a mouse cursor transition from one screen to another.

enter image description here

You can move monitors like this by simply clicking and dragging them into a position you like.

I personally would find it somewhat frustrating, but it does achieve a goal of limiting mouse movement between screens unless absolutely desired.

Moving actual application windows should be easier as you can use Win+Shift+Left Arrow or Win+Shift+Right Arrow to move them between screens.

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  • I've used this since your original comment went up, but with "2" to the left of "1" instead of the right, which lets me "fling" the mouse to top-right of the primary display to hit the "X" (close) button. My only complaint is that it's maybe too effective, I sometimes have to try to jump between monitors 2-3 times before I get it right. Re: "small area of overlap", I tried that but as soon as you have any at all, Windows "helpfully" jumps the mouse from anywhere on the edge. The "stopping" effect requires that they only touch at the corner.
    – Coderer
    Commented Jan 31 at 15:30

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