Aero snap sucks, how can I change it?

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On Windows XP there was this awesome feature where you could hold down ctrl, then select two open windows on the taskbar, and right click to bring up this short menu with some tiling options. When I use my desktop at home, I often use the "tile vertically" option so that I can easily use two browser windows at once, usually with a YouTube video opened in one, and an article or some forums in the other.

Right now, I'm stuck on my laptop which only supports Windows 7 (I've tried installing XP x64 on here before, but I could not get working video or sound drivers), and the lack of this option drives me crazy. Instead there's this dumb "Aero Snap" feature, where somehow if you have two windows open and you move them to the edges of the screen, it will automagically tile them. The thing is, it doesn't work properly 99% of the time, and it usually assumes that I want to make whatever window I'm dragging fullscreen.

I've know that there's a way to do it through the task manager, but it's a pain in the ass to have to open it just to tile a couple of windows.

Is there a way to get the old menu back, like a program I could install or something?

Change the size of the two windows so they both fit on one screen by using the cursor thing at the bottom edge of the window. I used to do it all the time on my Windows 7 laptop when I needed to read something in one and type something on Word at the same time.

Tried it, doesn't work. I think I'll keep using the task manager method.

Format your PC and put Xubuntu 14.04 on it.
If it doesn't behave the way you want out-of-the-box you can customise it to your liking quite easily, and as a bonus you'll then have a computer that won't destroy a little bit of your immortal soul every time you switch it on.

[/evangelism]

Thanks, but no thanks. I've tried going the all-Linux route on this machine before (though with Linux Mint), and I remember being more pissed off than a rabid badger when I tried getting a few games to run using WINE. It was a decent OS for anything not gaming related, but for gaming it sucked. Native Linux titles didn't perform nearly as well as their Windows counterparts, and Windows games, run through Wine, were an absolute nightmare to get working.

That being said, I triple-boot Zorin OS 8 Gaming along with Puppy Linux and Windows XP Professional x64 SP2 on my desktop, and though I haven't tried playing any serious games under Puppy, I find Zorin works quite well for gaming, though only for native titles. I haven't bothered trying WINE with it, because that program is just a mess.

I know full well that you can customize the living hell out of the UI on virtually any Linux distro if you know what you're doing, but I don't think anyone has come up with a window manager as good as the classic theme interface for XP. Zorin's is pretty decent once you find where you can change the settings, and oddly enough I actually LOVE Crunchbang's uber-minimalistic interface, but for getting real work done, XP has my interface of choice.

You can right-click on some empty space on the task bar and click "Show windows side by side" to tile all the non-minimized windows. Obviously you'll have to minimize all the programs you don't want first with this method.

You can also start Task Manager. In the Applications tab, select the programs you wanted to tile by using Ctrl-Click. Then right-click > Tile Horizontally.
Unfortunately this method doesn't work on Windows 8 anymore.

Why do people love Linux so much? It's pretty horrible.

Can't speak for all Linux users, but I don't love Linux. It's simply software.

That said, I have an almost phobic disposition to using Windows, after years of using it and nothing else I thought I genuinely hated computers. The experience is horrible, and a risk to one's finances. Microsoft have expertly created an entire service industry where none should exist, not for the benefit of customers but to keep themselves in Bentleys and Ferraris (and ponies made out of diamond. Actual diamond ponies!) and... grrr. Then they have the cheek to charge for it.

Maddening Windows is the sole reason I never, ever bought any PC videogames... as an avid gamer I consider it an insult that I have to use Windows or Wine. (I find myself asking, If the PS3 console [linux-based] can run otherwise multi-platform games like Battlefield 4, then why doesn't my Ubuntu?)

Linux does everything I ask it to without argument. Well, as a console gamer anyway