Quick Tip: How To Change Window Size
Changing the size of a window
Adjusting the size and shape of a window (or windows) allows for greater flexibility when working on a computer, as well as making it easier to “drag and drop” something from one location to another. I frequently adjust my windows so that they are side-by-side.
To get started, look to the upper right corner of any open window. There you’ll see three familiar buttons – minimize (to the Taskbar), Maximize (sometimes confused with “open”), and Close and Exit (red X).
• To make a window fill the entire screen, click its Maximize button 
or double-click the window’s title bar.
• To return a maximized window to its former size, click its Restore button 
(this appears in place of the Maximize button). Or, double-click the window’s title bar.
• To resize a window (make it smaller or bigger), move your cursor to point to any of the window’s borders or corners. When the mouse pointer changes to a two-headed arrow (see picture below), drag the border or corner to shrink or enlarge the window.
Drag a window’s border or corner to resize it
A window that is maximized cannot be resized. You must restore it to its previous size first.
Note: Although most windows can be maximized and resized, there are some windows that are fixed in size, such as dialog boxes.
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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TechPaul,
Great tips… Tips such as this is very much needed for many users out there… The one tip you have reflected where you “double click” the “title bar” to “restore” a Window to “full size” is one of those tips that I have found people do not know about.
Good job!
Rick
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Rick,
I sometimes am guilty of neglecting the “basics” as I assume that “everybody knows that”, when in fact it is not a default behavior and must be learned.
Geek snobbery, I think it’s called.
But then I remember.
Thank you for your support.
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Do you know how to alter WHERE a window appears on a screen? I open notepad, and the window appears on the upper right of my monitor … I want it to appear upper left.
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Kirk,
Hmmm… you know, I have never thought about that. But I think that if you get the window just to your liking, and then hold down the Ctrl key and click on the red X (Close & Exit), the next time you Open that app it will go where and how you had it.
Give it a try. I works for me on my Vista Home Premium.
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That’s the trick Paul, thanks! Tried it at home on XP SP1, XP SP2, and Vista boxes … worked on them all!
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Kirk,
Thank you.
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I *think* I already know how to do that
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To learn all this window sizing is great. I’ve only used max. and min. To drop and drag, to open more than one window is so handy, thanks Paul.
Gaia
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Gaia,
I thank you for your support.
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just wondering if anybody knows how to disable the “double-click your title bar bit”??? i restored my computer to box settings a couple months back and now it does it when im scrolling and all sorts of other random times.
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Corrinne,
The only time I have run into an issue similar to what you describe, was on an Windows XP machine and the owner had been experimenting with downloaded 3rd-party Themes..
Restoring the Theme to the default “Windows XP” cured the issue. So you might take a look there. (right click on desktop > properties > under Appearance tab)
Or you might download a “tweak tool”, which will allow you to set behaviors.
XP users should download the TweakUI powertoy from Microsoft, and Vista users might use VistaTweak.
I am afraid I would have to look at your machine to be any more helpful than that. Good luck.
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how do you resize the window box??? I know how to do all of min and max buttons and the stretching to change but even if I stretch page out the content on the pg does not get bigger just the background does
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DEBBIE,
I could be misunderstanding you, but I suspect that you are describing using a web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome) to view a website, and that when you change the window size, it is not changing the webpage’s layout/font size, etc.
Which is normal, because the webmaster, and your browsers Preferences (aka “settings”) determine those things. Changing the window size only changes your “working area”.
If what you are trying to do is make things bigger, you might have more luck by “zoom”-ing. Hold down the Ctrl key and tap the “+” key to zoom in, and the Ctrl and the “-” key to shrink things.
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