[FancyZones] Full screen mode in zone

[timhaettich]

Summary of the new feature/enhancement

It would be nice if it would be possible to split a screen to allow for multiple "full screen" windows.
This would enable for example to have You Tube in full screen mode without the rest of the UI together with for example the email program below for people using a PIVOTed Display.

This would allow to have a video playing like this:

Instead of having a lot of dead space from the UI>

[Jure-BB]

Full screen feature is IMO the biggest difference between virtual zones and a true multi-monitor setup.

Until some sort of "zone-local full screen" ability is added, zones can't be a real alternative to an actual multi-monitor setup. Which is really unfortunate as zones can be much more flexible than multiple physical displays.

This feature is also proposed in #307.

[zakius]

fullscreen may be a big thing requiring digging into OS itself, but maybe borderless will work somehow

[SchmalzTech]

I previously opened #403 for basically the same thing, but it was closed because this one had gained more traction. I will put my comments below for easy reference:

I have a specific use case where Fancy Zones will help to an extent, but with more features could be optimal. I would like to be able to constrict an application's full screen mode into a defined zone. I have tried this with other window managers/virtual display software without success. To be more specific, here is what I am trying to accomplish in the simplest configuration:

In my office I have a large 3840x2160 display where I would like to divide it into four zones where I can do full screen mode for four separate 1920x1080 windows for displaying status dashboards and the like without having to waste screen space with title bars and the like. With the other display manager, I can divide the screen into four virtual displays, but as soon as I hit full screen on any one application, it takes over the entire physical display.

[steve-mattsen]

@SchmalzTech This is pretty much exactly what I want to do. I can't find anything that does it and it would be really nice to have.

[mrtowle]

As everyone is mentioning this would be awesome! This is what´s keeping many from replacing their multi monitor setup with a ultra wide monitor.

A great feature would be to be able to create virtual monitors. So if you look under display manager it actually displays the virtual monitors as separate monitors.

[W6HBR]

This feature is sorely needed! It is VERY helpful with F11/full screen for videos as previously mentioned, but it should also function for any app within a zone when maximizing the app. Currently, if I click maximize on any app, it fills my 50" display (which has 6 zones) instead of filling just the current zone.
I've previously used iShadow VDM program and it does have this functionality.

[sarg3nt]

Agree with above. Eyeing an ultra wide but it isn’t practical for me without this feature. I have bad eyesight so I use the Windows magnifier docked in my left most monitor and rely on full screening apps to the central display.
This would be awesome to have. Thanks!

[asecor]

Does anyone happen to know if this feature request is on some sort of roadmap?

[enricogior]

@asecor
at present is not planned for v1 because it would requires a complete redesign of FZ to be implemented.

[enricogior]

Closing this in favor of #279 since they require the same architecture to work.

[50l3r]

I came from MaxTo who maximize windows to specific area:

https://i.gyazo.com/29cfee0e68b501962fe8debd6f7be7a5.gif

[enricogior]

@50l3r
this issue is about full screen mode inside an area, it is a different thing from expanding a window to an area.
FancyZones already provides that functionality.

[50l3r]

@50l3r
this issue is about full screen mode inside an area, it is a different thing from expanding a window to an area.
FancyZones already provides that functionality.

Oh great.

But if i try to double click on window it maximize on entire screen instead zone

[timhaettich]

@50l3r
this issue is about full screen mode inside an area, it is a different thing from expanding a window to an area.
FancyZones already provides that functionality.

Oh great.

But if i try to double click on window it maximize on entire screen instead zone

Yes, because it is not implemented yet. hence this ticket. (It's closed, as it got merged with another one)

[50l3r]

@50l3r
this issue is about full screen mode inside an area, it is a different thing from expanding a window to an area.
FancyZones already provides that functionality.

Oh great.
But if i try to double click on window it maximize on entire screen instead zone

Yes, because it is not implemented yet. hence this ticket. (It's closed, as it got merged with another one)

Great. Much thanks 4 all 😁

[ManuelStaedel]

I want that, too. Asked in a germany board for it.

[MortenCB]

I hope this will be included, as working on an ultrawide monitor it would be so nice to be able to have fullscreen-apps in zones (youtube, games in windows fullscreen mode, zoom in fullscreen and so on).

[jmamundin]

Hi; a partial solution for full screen embedded videos, I've used a chrome extension, Windowed - floating Youtube/every website, to "window" the player and set as full screen in a zone. Hope this helps for anyone with this use case.

[JeremyBackus]

Virtual Display Manager by iShadow is the ONLY program I've found that will actually do this. You can F11 your browser or play youtube videos in "full screen" and it will actually be restrain to that virtual display.
https://www.ishadow.com/product/vdm/

[nakonnj]

PIP extension on google chrome works pretty well with most things as well

[DrewBloodPPS]

Virtual Display Manager by iShadow is the ONLY program I've found that will actually do this. You can F11 your browser or play youtube videos in "full screen" and it will actually be restrain to that virtual display.
https://www.ishadow.com/product/vdm/

This is what I use. My use case is displaying 5 dashboards for a Help Desk "NOC" to a single monitor in a secondary location. Works pretty well but a pain to configure certain things. It will solve the OPs issue I think, though I've never used it for Youtube. I would love this to be done in FancyZones so I don't have to buy more licenses on a 3rd party app.

[JonnoN]

VDM does not work constraining full screen video, I just tried it.

[ionut-botizan]

VDM does not work constraining full screen video, I just tried it.

Yes, it works, but it's buggy. You have to first maximize the window on a virtual display and then fullscreen will be restricted to that virtual display. If the window is not maximized, when going fullscreen, it will use the entire monitor.

[AdamCsizmar]

I found a way to do it!
In Mozilla, when you play videos, you have a Picture in Picture mode. If you turn it on, and then move the video with Fancy Zones, then it will set it to fullscreen in the zone(s) you select.
Here is a video about it: https://streamable.com/hqyjzg

(Probably this solution can help the creators to implement it to other platforms)

[rafaelcapucho]

I found a way to do it! In Mozilla, when you play videos, you have a Picture in Picture mode. If you turn it on, and then move the video with Fancy Zones, then it will set it to fullscreen in the zone(s) you select. Here is a video about it: https://streamable.com/hqyjzg

@Csima8 Thank you soooo much for this!

[TyWork25]

I found a way to do it! In Mozilla, when you play videos, you have a Picture in Picture mode. If you turn it on, and then move the video with Fancy Zones, then it will set it to fullscreen in the zone(s) you select. Here is a video about it: https://streamable.com/hqyjzg

(Probably this solution can help the creators to implement it to other platforms)

I tried this on multiple Chromium based browsers and it works perfectly well with YouTube. I assume other Chromium based browsers with PIP options will also be able to utilize this method. The only slight drawback from this method is (on the browsers I tested at least) there is no way to seek through the video using the arrow keys while in full screen PIP mode.

[NicCrimson]

fullscreen may be a big thing requiring digging into OS itself, but maybe borderless will work somehow

I don't see this as a problem as Microsoft makes both.

[fuegoencendido]

Enter on edit the space (pencil) and reduce the border to 0 to get full screen

[yox1]

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-windowed-fullscre/gkkmiofalnjagdcjheckamobghglpdpm/related?hl=en

Here's a Chrome extension that makes YouTube full screen except the address bar. This should be what the majority of people want, I use this with FancyZones.

Here's how you can hide the address bar if you use the extension. This is the best solution

https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/l1lqcy/chrome_extension_for_hiding_address_bar_in/

[Lungshot]

I would love this feature for more than Youtube / Videos etc. I have several dashboards that I keep up on a TV that refresh every 15 sec or so, would love to be able to fullscreen them inside of a zone and get rid of that wasted UI space.

[TrakDah]

I can see I'm not the only one...

But it goes further than full screen in browsers (youtube). There's also stand alone players such as VLC that must work. I'm now trying VDM as per the suggestions above and it seems to be working.

Key takeaway: if VDM can make it work, so should Powertoys. No?

[zakius]

I'm pretty sure VDM uses approach they just don't want to use

but also Copilot manages to shrink the main zone so maximized windows are capped by the sidebar so that could be used