Window management

1. The promise

You'll be able to split your screen in half — editor on the left, browser on the right — switch between virtual desktops, and arrange windows for actual work without touching the mouse.

2. The mental model

Modern OSes give you many "desks".

Each desk is a separate workspace. Each one holds windows. You can split any desk in half so two windows sit side by side. You can switch desks with one keystroke.

A developer's normal day is two windows at once: editor plus browser, editor plus terminal, or editor plus documentation. The half-screen split is the shape you'll work in every day.

(DIAGRAM: virtual desktops as multiple desks — annotated SVG — three desks side by side, each labelled (Desk 1 with editor + browser; Desk 2 with email; Desk 3 with music), and arrows showing keyboard shortcuts between them)

The vocabulary, said properly:

• A virtual desktop (macOS calls it a Space) is a separate "screen" you can put windows on. Switch between them without unplugging anything.
• Snap (Windows) or tile (macOS) is the OS feature for arranging windows in halves or quarters.
• Mission Control (macOS) and Task View (Windows) are the system overview showing all your windows and all your desktops at once.

3. You do it, with me

On macOS

Step 1. Open Mission Control. Press F3, or swipe up with three fingers on the trackpad.

(SCREENSHOT: macOS Mission Control view — F3 pressed — full screen — multiple spaces visible at the top)

The top strip shows your Spaces. The big area shows every window on the current Space.

Step 2. Snap a window to half-screen. Open VSCode. Hover over the green dot in the top-left of the window. A menu appears. Click "Tile Window to Left of Screen".

(SCREENSHOT: macOS green-dot tile menu — VSCode visible — "Tile Window to Left of Screen" highlighted)

The window snaps to the left half. macOS then asks you to pick a window for the right half.

Step 3. Pick Chrome (or your browser) for the right half. Done. Editor on the left, browser on the right.

(SCREENSHOT: macOS split-screen with VSCode left and Chrome right — full screen)

Step 4. Switch Spaces. Ctrl+Right and Ctrl+Left move between Spaces. The animation slides one off and the next on.

Step 5. Move a window between Spaces. Drag the window's title bar to the top of the screen until Mission Control opens, then drop onto another Space.

On Windows

Step 1. Open Snap Layouts. Press Win+Z, or hover over the maximise button on any window.

(SCREENSHOT: Windows 11 Snap Layouts popup — Win+Z — full window — the 2x2 grid visible)

Pick the layout you want. Click a position. The current window snaps there. Windows then asks which other window to put in the remaining positions.

Step 2. Half-screen from the keyboard. Win+Left snaps the current window to the left half. Win+Right snaps to the right half.

Step 3. Quarter-screen. Win+Left then Win+Up snaps to the top-left quarter. Same logic for the other corners.

Step 4. Virtual desktops. Win+Ctrl+D adds a new desktop. Win+Ctrl+Left and Win+Ctrl+Right switch between desktops. Win+Tab shows Task View — every window on every desktop at once.

(SCREENSHOT: Windows Task View — Win+Tab — full screen — multiple desktops visible at the top)

The drill

1. Open VSCode and Chrome.
2. Snap VSCode to the left half (Win+Left on Windows; green-dot tile menu on macOS).
3. Snap Chrome to the right half.
4. Create a second desktop (Windows) or switch to a different Space (macOS).
5. Switch back.

You've now done what you'll do every working day.

4. What you should be seeing

Two windows tiled side by side on your screen. You can switch to a second desktop or Space and come back. You can do all of this from the keyboard.

5. Common stumbles

• You created ten virtual desktops by accident and can't find your apps. Open Mission Control (macOS) or Task View (Windows) and close the extras. Two or three desktops is the most a working developer needs.
• Snap on Windows fights the browser tab drag. When you drag a Chrome tab off, Windows wants to snap it. The fix is to use the keyboard shortcuts (Win+Left, Win+Right) instead of dragging.
• macOS full-screen mode isn't the same as snap. Pressing the green dot (without hovering for the menu) puts a window into its own dedicated full-screen Space. That's different from the tile menu. Use the tile menu (the dropdown that appears on hover) for side-by-side work.
• External monitor confusion. Windows on different monitors are separate. Win+Shift+Left moves a window to the monitor on the left. macOS handles this through System Settings -> Displays. Both work; both take a session to learn.

6. You should know