AquaSnap Options

This will show you how to get Windows 10 Snap features in Windows 7 and XP using AquaSnap

Overview

In Windows 7, Microsoft added Aero Snap which made rearranging windows easier even though the underlying abilities were present in Windows since Windows 95. In Windows 10, Microsoft introduced more features for snapping windows. But Windows 10 as we know from experience has far too many issues and is nowhere near the quality of Windows 7. So for those who wish to continue using Windows 7, here's a good news. With a free app, you can get some Windows 10 Snap features on Windows 7.

In Windows 7, Microsoft made it easier to tile (snap) windows side-by-side by automatically arranging them when you drag them with the mouse pointer to the top, left or right edges of the screen. Microsoft calls this Aero Snap. In Windows 10, snapping features have been expanded. Windows 10 has Snap Assist, Corner Snap and Snap Fill. Snap Assist prompts you to choose another window to snap immediately after you snap any one of them. Corner Snap is the ability to drag windows to the screen's corners to resize and snap them to the 4 screen quadrants. Snap Fill is the feature where resizing one window also resizes the other window snapped to it to automatically remove any blank space.

What if you want these features on earlier releases of Windows? With this great app we found called AquaSnap, you can get Corner Snap and Snap Fill on earlier versions of Windows for free! AquaSnap is essentially window management on steroids. But it's much more than that. AquaSnap is actually far superior to the snapping features on any Windows OS.

AquaSnap is a free app for personal use. The free version gives you enhanced window snapping, stretching, shaking, docking and customizable keyboard shortcuts. Its professional edition which is for $14.99 gets you some extra features like moving windows together, tiling and multi-monitor support. AquaSnap not only greatly enhances the Windows Snap feature but makes it highly configurable. You can selectively disable snapping to whatever screen edges or corners you want. It also includes smarter ways to resize app windows.

Installing and configuring AquaSnap is a snap! Download the MSI installer and install it. It will add shortcuts to the Start Menu to launch the program and configure it. Open the Configuration and you will be presented with this window:






















Let's go through the options it provides.

General

On the General tab, there are options to automatically start with Windows and show a notification area (tray) icon.

AquaSnap

Moving to the AquaSnap tab, you will see that it lets you snap individual windows as well as child windows in a multi-window (Multiple Document Interface) app. We won't go into the MDI features because such apps are less common. So in the 'Window type' dropdown, select 'Independent window' to control the snapping of single windows.






















The options are explained by images on their right.

• AeroSnap is the same as what Windows 7 has.
  
• AquaSnap (Simple) mode enables snapping, resizing and rerranging to the screen edges.
  
• AquaSnap (Advanced) mode enables corners as well like Windows 10.
  
• Finally, the Custom option is the real killer feature which lets you selectively disable and enable snapping to specific corners and edges.

AquaStretch

The next tab is AquaStretch where you can control how a window is resized by double clicking its border or stretching it to the screen edge.

• AeroStretch is the default Windows 7 behavior where double clicking a window's top border maximizes it vertically and dragging by the app's top or bottom border to the screen's top or bottom edge does the same.
  
• AquaStretch improves upon it by letting you maximize windows horizontally as well. It also adds a Shift key so you never accidentally maximize a window while resizing it from the borders, which is how Windows should have designed it in the first place.

Double clicking the window borders also behaves differently with AquaStretch. A double click on any border only resizes or stretches the window to the corresponding edge of the screen. Shift+double click maximizes the window vertically or horizontally.

AquaMagnet

The AquaMagnet feature is just a fancy name for snapping windows to each other or to the screen edges while resizing them. You can specify with pixel perfect accuracy how much farther apart or closer a window will snap while you resize it by dragging its border.

AquaGlue

AquaGlue lets you resize or move snapped windows as a group! It is Windows 10's Snap Fill feature for resizing plus the ability to move windows together as a group. AquaGlue however is available without restrictions only in the paid version.

AquaShake

AquaShake makes a window always-on-top if you grab it from the title bar and shake it. This is different from Windows AeroShake which minimizes all other windows except the one you shake.

AquaGlass

AquaGlass let you control if the window turns semi-transparent while you move it.

Appearance

The Appearance tab lets you choose if visual aids are enabled such as a preview rectangle when resizing and moving, as well as, a small snap indicator thumbnail.

Hotkeys

The Hotkeys tab is extremely awesome and lets you assign up to two distinct keyboard shortcuts for the software's window management features. You can override the keyboard shortcuts used by Windows and assign your own.





















All the features of AquaSnap are accessible through easy-to-remember and customizable keyboard shortcuts.

Window Management	Shortcut 1	Shortcut 2
Maximize	Win+Return	Win+NumPad5
Maximize across all monitors	Shift+Win+Return	Shift+Win+NumPad5
Minimize	Win+Del	Win+.
Minimize all	Win+M
Minimize all (all monitors)	Shift+Win+M
Minimize others	Win+Alt+M
Minimize others (all monitors)	Shift+Win+Alt+M
Close	Win+Esc
Kill process	Ctrl+Win+Esc
Send to back	Ctrl+Win+B
Always on Top	Ctrl+Win+Return
Center	Ctrl+Win+C

Docking The Window	Shortcut 1	Shortcut 2
Top left	Win+Home	Win+NumPad7
Top	Win+Up	Win+NumPad8
Top Right	Win+Up	Win+NumPad9
Left	Win+Left	Win+NumPad4
Right	Win+Right	Win+NumPad6
Bottom Left	Win+End	Win+NumPad1
Bottom	Win+Down	Win+NumPad2
Bottom Right	Win+PgDown	Win+NumPad3

Stretch the window	Shortcut 1	Shortcut 2
Up left	Win+Alt+Home	Win+Alt+NumPad7
Up	Win+Alt+Up	Win+Alt+NumPad8
Up Right	Win+Alt+Up	Win+Alt+NumPad9
Left	Win+Alt+Left	Win+Alt+NumPad4
Right	Win+Alt+Right	Win+Alt+NumPad6
Down Left	Win+Alt+End	Win+Alt+NumPad1
Down	Win+Alt+Down	Win+Alt+NumPad2
Down Right	Win+Alt+PgDown	Win+Alt+NumPad3

Move the window to the monitor	Shortcut 1	Shortcut 2
Top left	Shift+Win+Home	Shift+Win+NumPad7
Top	Shift+Win+Up	Shift+Win+NumPad8
Top Right	Shift+Win+PgUp	Shift+Win+NumPad9
Left	Shift+Win+Left	Shift+Win+NumPad4
Right	Shift+Win+Right	Shift+Win+NumPad6
Bottom Left	Shift+Win+End	Shift+Win+NumPad1
Bottom	Shift+Win+Down	Shift+Win+NumPad2
Bottom Right	Shift+Win+PgDown	Shift+Win+NumPad3

Move the window	Shortcut 1	Shortcut 2
Up left	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Home	Shift+Ctrl+Win+NumPad7
Up	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Up	Shift+Ctrl+Win+NumPad8
Up Right	Shift+Ctrl+Win+PgUp	Shift+Ctrl+Win+NumPad9
Left	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Left	Shift+Ctrl+Win+NumPad4
Right	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Right	Shift+Ctrl+Win+NumPad6
Down Left	Shift+Ctrl+Win+End	Shift+Ctrl+Win+NumPad1
Down	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Down	Shift+Ctrl+Win+NumPad2
Down Right	Shift+Ctrl+Win+PgDown	Shift+Ctrl+Win+NumPad3

Resize the window	Shortcut 1	Shortcut 2
Increase size	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt++	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+PgUp
Decrease size	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+-	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+PgDown
Increase width	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+Right
Decrease width	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+Left
Increase height	Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+Up

Closing Statement

You can see how powerful and flexible AquaSnap is. All of its features are available on Windows 2000 and upwards. It is amazing that most of its features are given away for free. Many Linux distros and desktop environments like KDE have had corner snapping for many years. The window manager of the Windows operating system also has supported these capabilities but they were never exposed to the end user. It has always been possible to manipulate windows programmatically but Microsoft did not include configurable snapping.

You can get AquaSnap here
http://store.steampowered.com/app/391050/