Increase Productivity Using the Microsoft FancyZones Tool

Earlier this year, I wrote a TechTips article highlighting the Microsoft PowerToys utilities. I did a quick overview of each of the different tools available. You can read about it here.

Today I am highlighting one particular tool – FancyZones – included in that pack that could help improve your productivity.

Monitors and windows aplenty

I first started talking about the benefits of using multiple monitors many years ago. People thought I was crazy! Today, you probably can’t imagine working with only a single monitor. Many of you have two, some have three, and a few may even have four or more.

A challenge has always been managing open windows. Thankfully, that has changed. Today, more tools are available to help you automatically size and place open windows on your desktop to be most productive.

One of those tools is the Microsoft PowerToy FancyZones.

FancyZones is a window manager utility for arranging and snapping windows into efficient layouts to quickly improve your workflow speed and restore configurations. FancyZones allows you to define a set of window locations for a desktop that are drag targets for your windows. When you drag a window into a zone, the window is resized and repositioned to fill that zone.

The instructions for installing the PowerToys utility can be found here, and the instructions for how to use FancyZones are here.

I recommend you experiment with this utility and if you feel it is helpful, show others in your office the benefits. If you are in a larger organization, check with your technology group first to ensure they are okay with you testing this utility.

What other utilities do you use to improve your productivity?