window maximized problem (Home Premium sp1)

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Hi all –
Previously, my windows opened to normal full screen size; if I toggled the maximize button in upper right, the window was reduced to half-size, which I liked. This a.m., I right-clicked on the task bar and clicked ‘show windows side by side’. Without clicking ‘undo side by side’ I then clicked ‘show windows stacked.’ When I subsequently clicked ‘undo windows stacked’ they returned to side by side, but with no ‘undo’ option. I closed the other windows and resized my browser window to full-size. I may have closed it after that or not, but my windows were then normal size.

I later found that when I toggled the maximize button, the window became half-size the wrong way – full-size vertically,but occupying half the screen horizontally. Again I resized manually with the corner arrow and closed by clicking on the icon in the upper left corner, then clicking ‘close’. The change stuck for all my windows but it’s the wrong change. Now, windows open to normal full-screen size, but when I toggle the maximize button, I don’t get a half-size window. The window gets a little bigger than normal, such that I can’t move the cursor to any edge to resize it manually, and the title bar is black. I guess I am now actually toggling between ‘maximize’ and ‘restore’, with restore being full size. But I don’t see the use of the maximized window, and I liked it as it was, where I could toggle between a full-size window, and a half-size window that had the same proportions as the full size, rather than half-size vertically or horizontally.

I tried resizing the full-size window to the half-size I liked, closing, reopening in that half-size, then toggling the restore button, hoping I’d get a full-size window, but I get maximized no matter what I try. This may be the usual way, but I don’t see the point of making the window ever-so-slightly larger and undraggable by maximizing it, and I liked being able to toggle between full-size and the reduced size. That’s how my windows have been as long as I can remember, also on my previous PC with XP, but I can’t figure out how to get it back. I searched window resizing problems here and at the MS Vista site, but found nothing which addressed this. Thanks for any advice.

Maud

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Double-click a window’s title bar to make it go full screen. Then click the maximize button once and use the corner arrow to resize the window to half size. Then click the maximize button and use the corner arrow to resize the window to full size.

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Thanks, John, this is progress! It all works through double-click, maximize, resize with arrow, click maximize button. At that point the window is maximized (and if I click the toggle again at this point, it returns to half-size.) However, if I follow the instructions as written through the final step, something is lost. I have a full-size window, but if I toggle the maximize/restore button again, I no longer get the half-size window – I get maximized again. I tried it a couple of times, and also tried closing the browser before the last step, while the window would still toggle betwee half-size and maximize, then re-opening and completing the final step, but I still don’t get that button to toggle between half-size and full-size.

Maud

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The final step was ” use the corner arrow to resize the window to full size”. I wrote this on the assumption that the window was not returning to full size. However if the window returned to full size then this step is not possible. I also have windows Vista Home Premium SP1. I tried to reproduce your situation by following the steps in the first paragraph of your OP but did not end up as you have. I still have normal toggle between full size and half size. Maybe someone else can help you.

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Thanks for your efforts, anyway, John. I’ve realized that the reason the final step is only putting me back where I started is that when I use the corner arrow to adjust the window to full-size from maximized the toggle button changes to one box (I don’t know what that’s called) so full-size simply replaces the half-size window as the “one-box” size, and maximize remains the size represented by the “two-box” icon of the toggle button. Somehow that is what I need to change. I’ll keep looking. Thanks again.

Maud

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