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When I have a giant Thunderbolt monitor plugged into my MacBook, I want windows arranged a certain way. No full-screen apps, some apps are shown on my small laptop screen, other apps are shown on my Thunderbolt display. When I unplug the Thunderbolt display, I would like programs arranged differently, e.g., the browser is a full-screen app. Is there any program that will let me "save" my window state when I have an external monitor plugged in, and save another layout when I don't have any external display, and automatically switch between the two when it detects that external display has been plugged in or unplugged? I'm on Mountain Lion on a MacBook Pro.

Sarah Vessels
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3 Answers3

14

Slate allows giving windows different default positions depending on the connected displays. See the developer's configuration file for some examples.

Lri
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  • +1 for a free and open source alternative. I installed it and hope to be pleased. It was also mentioned at the similar question http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/3133/ – MarkHu Oct 10 '14 at 22:49
9

Stay

by Cordless Dog. It saves window state for each display configuration you might have.

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Community
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robmathers
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    love it, will save me a lot of time faffing about – null Aug 14 '13 at 09:54
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    Stay is a great app, the functionality it offers solves exactly this problem,and it will fire automatically, causing your spaces to jump around when you unlock - it's a bit crazy, but fun and better than having to trigger it yourself every time. The problem is that it doesn't always work (I'm running Mavericks) - some apps aren't supported, and I often find that some windows just don't resize. If it was free I'd recommend it, but as a paid-for app I'd expect reliable performance. – Conan Mar 04 '14 at 14:07
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    It seemed like a good fit. But with 3 external displays it often had problems with the positions and just solved the problem to 50%. So I still had to do a lot of manual work. I just deinstalled it. Oh, and its only 30 day trial! – Ernst Robert Apr 28 '17 at 05:25
4

Moom

Move, zoom, and snap windows. Auto-adjust to display setups. And more.

nohillside
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Carl
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