How to horizontally split the screen on Windows 10

Windows Snap splits a monitor down the middle allowing an app to take up one half of the screen, and a second app to take up the other half. This is how Snap has worked for ages and no real change has been made to it. In a way, it’s probably a good thing that Microsoft hasn’t tried to fix what isn’t broken but some users prefer to snap apps horizontally i.e., stack them on top of each other. Out of the box, you can’t do this on Windows 10 but there’s no shortage of window management apps that are free and can horizontally split the screen for you.

We recommend using GridMove. It’s free, light-weight, and doesn’t interfere with the Snap feature on Windows 10. It works best if you use the mouse to snap windows on the horizontally split screen but it does support custom keyboard shortcuts for snapping as well.

Horizontally split the screen

Download, install, and run GridMove. It will add an icon to the system tray where you can access the app’s setting. Right-click it and select ‘Templates>2 Part-Horizontal’ to horizontally split the screen.

The app can be told that you’re using more than one screen and that allows it to split all your screens horizontally.

You will notice that there’s also a Hotkey option in the app’s settings. This allows you to program a keyboard shortcut for snapping the windows however, it cannot take over the Win+left arrow, or the Win+Up arrow keyboard shortcuts. Unfortunately, the app kept throwing an error each time we tried to set up a Fast Modifier hotkey. Even using the hotkey in the example didn’t work. This might just be a problem specific to the system we tested the app on so give it a try on your PC.

Go to Hotkeys and make sure the Use Fast Move option is selected. Next, go to Hotkeys and select Fast Move Modifiers. In the window that opens, read how to define various keys for the shortcut and then enter the keyboard shortcut you want to use.

There is no shortage of apps that can split the screen into various layouts. GridMove is somewhat basic so if you have a large monitor and want more options for snapping windows, you can try other, more sophisticated apps. If you’re willing to purchase an app to do the job, MaxTo is quite powerful. It costs $30 but has a trial version to test out before you pay the full price.

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Fatima Wahab

Fatima has been writing for AddictiveTips for six years. She began as a junior writer and has been working as the Editor in Chief since 2014. Fatima gets an adrenaline rush from figuring out how technology works, and how to manipulate it. A well-designed app, something that solves a common everyday problem and looks

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