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I'm trying Windows 8 and I want to test the new snap feature where you can have two metro apps side-by-side.

However, it doesn't seem to work. I place my cursor on top of the screen, and drag left or right, but all it does is move the current app around, and when I release my mouse it always goes back to the original, single-app view.

So how do I properly use this feature on a desktop?

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2 Answers 2

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You have to drag the app to the left or right until you see a vertical dividing line appear in the background. Once you see that, you can release the mouse button and it should be snapped to that side of the display.

However, this feature requires at least a 1366x768 screen resolution. If your screen's resolution is smaller than this, Windows disables the ability to snap metro apps. The recommended way to get it is to increase your screen resolution in order to take advantage of this feature.

However, allegedly you can do a quick modification in the Windows Registry to force it to be enabled, regardless of your resolution. As always, proceed with caution, and keep backups, since you can break your Windows installation if you change the wrong thing. Also, this is not intended behavior, so your apps may not display properly with this change. If you want to try this, though, I put the steps, below.

Note: I haven't tried this, myself. These steps come from this guide.

  1. Press Win+R key combination to launch Run dialog box then type regedit and press Enter. It'll open the Registry Editor. Go to following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\
  2. Under ImmersiveShell key, create a new key AppPositioner.
  3. Now select newly created key AppPositioner and in right-side pane, create a new DWORD AlwaysEnableLSSnapping and set its value to 1.
  4. Restart your system or restart Explorer and you should be able to snap your Metro apps to the sides of your screen.

That's it! There's also a registry trick at that link which explains how to trick Windows 8 into thinking you have that screen resolution, even if it's lower. It apparently causes Windows to downsample the App, effectively scaling it to your screen size. You may (or may not) need to take advantage of that trick as well. Caution applies here, just as above, as you're editing the Registry.

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  • I never see any such line, even if I drag to the far-left/right of the display...
    – houbysoft
    Commented Oct 27, 2012 at 23:10
  • It may be a screen resolution issue, then... I'll update the answer.
    – Ben Richards
    Commented Oct 27, 2012 at 23:11
  • I'm running it in a VM on a Mac if that changes anything
    – houbysoft
    Commented Oct 27, 2012 at 23:12
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    IIRC Modern UI itself requires 1024x768, but Snap requires 1366x768.
    – Bob
    Commented Oct 27, 2012 at 23:24
  • 3
    too bad, they removed the hack in the RTM...
    – Magnetic_dud
    Commented Oct 31, 2012 at 16:04
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Multitasking with snap is only available on displays with a resolution of 1366x768 and above.

Standard resolution for a non-widescreen 19" monitor is 1280x1024 which is not wide enough to enable this feature.

It is the number of pixels available for the width that is most important here, (1280px vs 1366px required).
The snap view is a fixed 320px wide and the minimum resolution for a 'non-snapped' Windows 8 application is 1024x768.

320px + 1024px + 22px for the divider = 1366px

Snapped app resolution

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  • Very nice analysis!
    – Ben Richards
    Commented Oct 29, 2012 at 15:56

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