Move a window to the other monitor without touching the mouse

Dragging windows between monitors with the mouse is slow and imprecise. Grab a window by its title bar, drag it across the screen boundary, and hope it lands exactly where you want — that's a lot of motion for such a simple action.

A typical scenario

You work with two monitors: a spreadsheet on one, email on the other. Open a new app, and it always shows up on the "wrong" monitor — say a reference PDF pops up on the monitor where you're currently writing. You have to grab it with the mouse, drag it across the boundary between screens, and often its size gets scrambled along the way, or it briefly gets stuck straddling both displays.

With Win + Shift + → (or ←), all you need is for the window to be active, then press two keys — it jumps instantly to the neighboring monitor with the same size and position it had before. No dragging, no hunting for the exact boundary with the mouse.

How to do it

1. Click the window you want to move so it's active (its title bar is highlighted).
2. Press Win + Shift + → to move the window to the monitor on the right, or Win + Shift + ← for the monitor on the left.
3. The window moves instantly and keeps the size and relative position it had on the original monitor.
4. If you have more than two monitors, pressing the same shortcut repeatedly keeps "walking" the window further in that direction.

The best tools

• The built-in Win + Shift + arrow shortcut — works on any Windows computer with multiple monitors, nothing to install.
• PowerToys FancyZones — a free add-on from Microsoft for arranging windows into custom zones across multiple monitors.
• Snap Layouts (Win + Z) — a built-in Windows 11 feature for quickly arranging windows on one monitor or several.
• DisplayFusion — a tool for demanding multi-monitor users, adding custom shortcuts, layout profiles, and wallpaper management across displays.

What you get out of it

• Time: roughly 2–3 minutes a day saved on precisely dragging windows between monitors with the mouse — a small action, but it repeats dozens of times a day.
• Precision: the window always lands exactly where it should, with no risk of it staying stuck halfway between displays.
• Smoother work: your hands stay on the keyboard — no need to reach for the mouse just to move a window.
• Less frustration: no more annoying resizing after a mouse drag.

Pro tip

The shortcut also combines with other window moves — after moving a window to the second monitor, you can immediately press Win + ← or Win + → to snap it to half the screen on the new monitor as well, all without touching the mouse once.