How to Stop Windows Losing Their Position and Size

Published 16 April 2026

This isn't a niche complaint. It's one of the most common frustrations with Windows 10 and 11. And despite years of updates, Microsoft still hasn't fixed it properly.

Why Windows forgets your layout

Several things cause window positions to reset:

• Display sleep and wake. When your monitor sleeps, Windows sometimes treats it as "disconnected". When it does, the windows on that screen are moved onto another one, often piling up on your primary display, and they don't always go back when it wakes.
• GPU driver updates. NVIDIA, AMD and Intel driver updates briefly reset the display adapter, which Windows interprets as a monitor change. Your open windows can get shuffled.
• Docking and undocking. Laptop users who switch between a docking station (with external monitors) and the built-in screen see this constantly. Windows doesn't keep separate layouts that you can save for each configuration.
• Remote Desktop (RDP). Connecting via RDP changes the display resolution. When you return to the physical screen, window positions can be scrambled.
• Windows Updates. Major feature updates and even some cumulative patches can reset window position memory.

Microsoft's own fixes that don't quite work

Windows 11 and Microsoft's PowerToys have a few features that address this on paper but fall short in practice:

• "Remember window locations based on monitor connection" (Settings → System → Display → Multiple displays). Sounds perfect — but it only remembers each window's most recent position. If you had Outlook in different spots for different workflows, it forgets.
• Snap Layouts. Great for quickly arranging windows into halves or quarters, but they don't save per-app positions across reboots. You still have to re-snap everything manually each morning.
• PowerToys FancyZones and Workspaces. Microsoft's free power-user tools. FancyZones can move a newly opened app back into the zone it was last in, and Workspaces can open a saved set of apps in their saved positions when you launch it. Both help, but zones aren't exact positions, and a workspace only arranges your windows when you launch it.

What's still missing is one tool that saves the exact position, size and monitor of each application window and puts them back by itself — after a reboot as well as a display change — with a different layout for each monitor setup.

What actually solves it

A window position manager that:

1. Saves every window's position, size and monitor — with one hotkey, or automatically if you choose
2. Restores them on demand or automatically when a display change is detected
3. Supports multiple profiles — one for your docked setup (3 monitors), another for laptop-only, another for your home office
4. Detects monitor configuration changes and switches to the right profile automatically

Common scenarios

The daily commuter: You dock your laptop at the office every morning and spend the first five minutes dragging windows back where they were yesterday. With a position manager, your "office" profile restores everything the moment the external monitors connect.

The dual-monitor developer: IDE on the left screen, terminal + browser on the right. A GPU driver update can scramble the lot. A position manager saves your exact layout and restores it in one click.

The remote worker: You RDP into your work machine from home. When you disconnect and sit back at the physical desk, your windows have often shuffled onto one screen. A restore hotkey puts everything back in seconds.

The bottom line

Window position management isn't glamorous, but the cumulative time wasted rearranging windows can add up to hours a month. It's a solved problem — just not one Microsoft has chosen to solve natively. A lightweight third-party tool fills the gap, and once you've used one, you wonder how you ever tolerated the daily shuffle.