Windows are opened in full screen by default, how to return to small windows?

Discussion in 'PC' started by grrarrrgh, Jun 11, 2026 at 8:26 PM.

  1. grrarrrgh

    grrarrrgh Kapellmeister

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    Recently since last week certain windows are opening in full screen instead of their normal size on my ROG Ally, I did recently set up using another laptop as a bigger display and I installed spacedesk but haven’t used that yet. It’s not everything, but most notably installers, 7zip “extract files” windows and additional applications from plugins from the museum in AZ. Is this a bug or something that needs an update or is it related to external display settings or did something I get from the museum mess up window sizes because it really only started after I had installed Ableton Live
     
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  3. saccamano

    saccamano Audiosexual

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    Generally;
    Win 7, 8, 10, 11 - pretty much everything since winXP, does not remember desktop window sizes/positions. If you want XP type window positioning on later systems you'll need to use something like "window manger".
     
  4. DiRG3

    DiRG3 Producer

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    Holy shit, I thought i was the only one experiencing this since there is literally zero posts about it on the wider internet. Doesn't help that music production and the software it relies on is already a tiny niche in the wider world. I have the same problem here on the Legion Go, Ableton Live fails to launch on the integrated display but launches just fine on an external display. Win32 app windows also launch at fullscreen but it's really just a giant white block around the actual usable/interactable portion of the window. I don't have any solutions as I haven't found any yet. I'm gonna keep trying though and if I find anything i'll drop the fix in this thread.
     
  5. grrarrrgh

    grrarrrgh Kapellmeister

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    I’ll keep note if anything like this happens on the other laptop but right now it’s only limited to the Ally
     
  6. oFcAsHeEp

    oFcAsHeEp Producer

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    Just resize the window manually to the size/position you want it to open in, then close it by clicking the X while holding down CTRL.

    It's an ancient trick that I learned decades ago that still works to this day.

    Also, if you're using multiple displays:
    Go to Settings > System > Display.
    Scroll down and expand the Multiple displays section.
    Toggle on Remember window locations based on monitor connection. (if available)
     
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