Change The Maximum Window Size

A maximized window takes over all the space on the computer desktop with the exception of the space occupied by the taskbar, provided that it has not been set to hide automatically.

That's usually the intended usage and many users are happy with the way it works. Some users however, especially those who run monitors with large resolutions, and those who want to keep an area on the desktop visible all the time, may want to change the default behavior.

The free software MaxMax can do that. It was originally developed to exclude the part of the screen that is occupied by the Windows Vista sidebar when maximizing, but can actually be used to define window margins for the maximize button in the Windows operating system.

The application displays the resolution limits in its interface on startup. By default, every maximized window is reduced by 160 pixels on the right side of the screen, optimized to keep the maximized windows from overshadowing the sidebars. All four screen margins can be configured separately, to define the exact boundaries for maximized windows in the operating system.

The program supports multi-monitor systems, and offers separate configurations for each computer monitor. A suppress key is set to Shift by default, which turns off the new maximize window size. It is possible to change that key to another one though.

Users who have configured the new maximum screen size need to enable the program in the system tray, by right-clicking on the icon and selecting Disable from the menu. This should switch the context menu entry to Enable indicating that the program is currently running.

MaxMax offers an interesting feature that can be useful for some Windows users who want part of the screen visible at all times, or want to limit the size of maximized windows to save screen estate (for instance to place two maximized windows next to each other without having to manually resize them).

The developer should consider adding a program whitelist, that would disable the program's functionality for the whitelisted applications. Another interested feature would be to set a fix resolution for the maximized windows, instead of having to configure the margins.

MaxMax is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. Downloads are available at the developer homepage at KMTools.

Update: The developer homepage is no longer available. We have removed the link pointing to it, and uploaded the latest version of the MaxMax application to our own server. To download it, click on the following link: maxmax_131_setup.zip

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