FreeSnap
Another freeware tool that rocks is the little FreeSnap. This simple yet smart little software allows you to move or resize the windows on your desktop to specific positions and sizes only by pressing some keys.
Imagine how tedious it might be to have to move a window exactly to the left side of the desktop so that it touches the left edge of the screen. Having to drag it there using the mouse might be somehow uncomfortable, tedious, especially if you have to do this a lot of times while you work on your computer. Also, if you need to resize a window to a specific size, lets says 640 x 480, you will notice it might be a little difficult, unless you use this tool.
FreeSnap is extremely simple. There’s actually no interface, not even a tray icon. What could be more unobtrusive than this? You just install it and start it from the Start menu. Except for a simple banner displayed for about one second after you’ve started FreeSnap, there’s nothing else to remind you this tool is running. You may also disable the banner if for any reason you don’t want it. Just add a “-nobanner” command line option to the shortcut to cancel it’s display.
Once FreeSnap is installed and launched, you will be able to resize and move the windows as easy as never before. You may resize the windows in two ways: either to a specific size, either to a specific position so that it will touch one the four edges of the screen.
Pressing the “Windows” key (the one between the Ctrl and Alt keys) and the “Plus” and “Minus” keys on the number-pad will resize the active window to the following specific sizes: 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, 1152 x 864, 1280 x 1024.
Pressing the “Windows” key and the “5″ key on the number-pad will center the active window on the screen without resizing it while pressing the number-pad “Enter” key maximizes the window when it is in normal size and vice-versa. The num-pad “0″ key (”ins” key) will minimize the window (this is a good way to quickly hide a window in the taskbar too).
You may also quickly resize the active window to a specific position so that it will touch one the four edges of the screen. Just press the “Windows” key and the four “direction” keys - up, down, right, left.
Moving the window to the corners of the screen without resizing it might be easily done by pressing the “Windows” and the Home, End, PgUP, and PgDn keys.
As you may see, the keys are chosen in a logical way, so you will find them very easy to remember.
As the latest FreeSnap version comes with support for multiple monitors, when multiple monitors are detected, the “5″ key will be remapped to move the window from one monitor to the next.
The undo function is also supported (just repeat the last command) .
FreeSnap also has an alternate set of keys that are more suitable for laptop users. You may see which are these keys on the producer’s website.
Except for the “-nobanner” command line there are two more command line options you might use: the “-noalternatekeys” command suppresses the set of keys added for laptop users and the “-stop” option stops FreeSnap.
Good parts: a lot. It’s a simple tool, light, works great and it may be incredibly useful. The keys are well chosen and therefore easy to remember and use.
Not-so-good parts: you can not change the default keys. Hoping the next version adds the feature to let the user customize the window moving and sizing keys, as some users may want for any reason to use other keys than, for example, the “Windows” key.
