One of the coolest features of Windows 7 is Windows Snap, which allows users to display two windows on the screen. Although the popular Aero feature is no longer available in Windows 8, users can still make use of the Windows Snap feature. Here, instead of two open windows on the screen, you can view two apps simultaneously. However, the two apps are not displayed in equal parts, one app takes a smaller portion of the screen compared to the other. In today’s world of multi-tasking, having two open screens has immense benefits and in this tutorial, I’ll show you how to display two apps in Windows 8 using the Snap feature.
How to Display Two Apps in Windows 8
Let us assume that you already have a couple of apps open; the News app, which you are currently browsing, and the Music app that’s running in the background. If you want to continue reading the news app, but also want to view the Music app to keep track of the song that’s playing, here’s what you need to do.
1. Hover the mouse over the top left edge of the screen to display thumbnails of running apps. You will see a thumbnail of the Music app along with other apps that are running. Now if you click the Music app, it will display in Full screen mode, replacing the News app. So don’t go ahead and click the app.
2. Instead, left-click the thumbnail, hold it down, and drag it to the left of the screen and then, let it go.
The app will snap to the left edge of the screen. Voila! You can now view your music tracks while simultaneously read the news.
If you no longer want to view the Music app, you can snap it out the screen by dragging the app’s bar to the left side of the screen.
To can also snap open windows to the left or right of the screen, you can use the Windows 7 snap trick of pressing the Windows key with the left or right arrow keys.
Windows 8 Snap works great with touchscreen, but those with a traditional PC will have to contend with snapping apps the not so intuitive way!
What do you think of the Windows 8 interface?
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