How to Show Windows Side by Side in Windows 10

If you are working with different programs at the same time and want to switch back and forth from one open window to another, then the Alt+Tab switcher comes to mind. But Windows 10 introduces a new way to select any of the open windows. In Windows 10, you can make it show all the open and active windows side by side, so that you can see their contents visually at the same time. Of course, you would be able to select any of the windows shown in the side by side mode. This is really a great feature if you want to multi-task and work with several windows at the same time.

Here is how you can show all the open and active windows side by side in Windows 10:

  1. Make sure that you have at least two windows open. Then right-click anywhere on the taskbar and select Show windows side by side.Show windows side by side in Windows 10
  2. This will show you all the open windows in a tiled interface. The windows are resized according the number of windows to be displayed. You should note that windows that are minimized are not shown through this side by side interface.Show windows side by side in Windows 10
  3. When you are done and have selected a window that you want to work with, you can close the side by side interface. You can do this by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting Undo Show all windows side by side.Show windows side by side in Windows 10

Conclusion: You can show windows side by side in Windows 10 to pick the one you want to work with easily though a tiled interface. It can be used to compare the contents of different windows or find a window that you are looking for.

9 comments

  1. I wanted to know how to have two windows open AT THE SAME TIME side by side so I can work with both? Windows 8 did it beautifully. Now Windows 10 is a bust. It is the reason I wish I could go back to Windows 8!

    1. I agree! I want an easy way to work side-by-side with two windows. Now I have to manually resize them. Older Windows worked much better.

      1. even that does not work any more if I have two windows open windows 10 won’t let me open either! I have to close one to open either one of them. More annoying is that the windows are all full screen including the calculator so you have to open the calculator, do the math close the calculator then open the app that you need it for, Need to find a new operating system. DOS anyone?

  2. use the windows-key + left/right arrow after you got “stuck” by being stacked side by side…

  3. That’s nice. But when you click on “show windows side-by-side”, they become stacked vertically. What genius decided to make “side by side” stack windows vertically? And who can actually answer the question of “How to show windows side by side”? This one did not help me.

  4. “Windows 10 introduces a new way…”

    This is not new with Windows 10. It existed in Windows 7. The difference is that it worked in Windows 7 and is now busted in Windows 10.

    In Windows 7, choosing “Show windows side by side” arranged both (or all) of your open windows in a row from left to right, filling the whole screen, and resizing the windows as required, as the menu option’s name suggested. In Windows 10, it instead tiles your windows in a two by two grid. If you have two windows open, it stacks them, one above the other, using only the left half of the screen. In other words, it does exactly the same thing as the “Show windows stacked” menu option. It does not, by any definition of the terms, show the windows side by side.

    Microsoft, please restore the correct functionality to the “Show windows side by side” function.

  5. You think this is bad’ try and stack “Edge” browser windows. I don’t know if it is possible. And I don’t know what they were thinking by not allowing open windows to cover the whole desktop when “stacked” or placed ” side by side”, a real pain. I HATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sizing them manual something you never had to do in windows 7.

  6. In Windows 7, if I chose “Show windows side by side” and had, say, four open windows, it would tile the four windows, 2 x 2, in such size to cover the WHOLE desktop. In Windows 10, it doesn’t want to do this; it is only covering HALF the desktop. In your above example, three windows are not covering the whole desktop, either. Is this some sort of feature in Win10, that it doesn’t cover the entire desktop?

    It does the same thing when “Stacking” the windows, too.

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