We’ve been through several versions of Windows. Yet, Microsoft still refuses to give its OS a much-anticipated feature: the ability to remember the desktop placement and dimensions of each window.

Thankfully, the free WinSize2 utility can help with this. So, let’s take a look at how you can use it to keep your desktop organized by “gluing” your desktop to their place.

How to download and install WinSize2

Since this is a third-party tool, it is not included with Windows. Thus, in order to use it, you need to download the app from the official WinSize2 site.

After downloading and installing it, you will not see anything on your screen. The application will run in the background, hidden from view, waiting for your input. As we’ll see next, its interface can be accessed from an icon in the window tray.

Before you get used to WinSize2’s interface, we must warn you that it looks antiquated. That’s because, it’s ancient.

WinSize2 was released over a decade ago, but that’s not a negative. In contrast, it remains relevant for many later Windows versions, not affecting its usefulness since its release.

We should also mention two options: Snap Layout and PowerToys’ FancyZone. If you don’t really care about saving the placement and dimensions of each window, but just want to keep your desktop clean, both of these can work.

Both allow you to arrange your windows on predefined “zones” on the desktop, but Snap Layouts are only available on Windows 11, while PowerToys FancyZones work on previous versions of Microsoft’s OS as well. For more on those, check out our guides on how to use Snap Layout in Windows 11, and our guides on how to customize and use PowerToys FancyZone on Windows 10.

How to position the Insta-Lock window

Point your mouse cursor at the icon for WinSize2, which remains in the Windows tray. You will see a hovering bubble with its version and active hotkey.

You can use this hotkey combination to save the position and dimensions of any window at any desktop location by mapping it to Ctrl+Alt+Z by default.

WinSize2 also works on multi-monitor setups. However, this may not be sufficient for true visual organization of your workspace. If you’re using a 4K or ultrawide monitor, also check out our article on the Best Virtual Monitor Apps for Maximizing Your Ultrawide Monitor.

Let’s see WinSize2 in action, using one of the “Lister” windows of the mighty Directory Opus file manager as our guinea pig.

With the window whose placement and dimensions you want to save visible, move and resize it anywhere on your desktop exactly as you want it to appear in the future.

With the window active and selected, press WinSize2’s hotkey button combination (Ctrl+Alt+Z by default) to make an entry for it and save its location and size.

Almost immediately, a message will appear hovering next to your mouse cursor, informing you of the success of the action.

that was it! If you try to close and reopen the window, you’ll see that it reappears in the same location with the exact same dimensions. Try moving it around and closing it. When it reappears, instead of popping up in a random spot on your desktop, WinSize2 will detect its presence, and move and resize it to wherever you “pin” it.

How to overwrite hidden rules

WinSize2 works by creating a rule for the active window every time you use its shortcut.

If you ever change your mind about where and how the window should appear, you can use the same shortcut to create a new rule, overwriting the previous one.

If you want to unlock a window or manually reposition and resize it, you can do so through WinSize2’s interface, as we’ll see next.

How to remove rules and unlock windows

After you create a WinSize2 rule for a window, in order to unlock it, you must delete that rule. For that, you have to go to the main window of WinSize2.

Locate WinSize2’s icon in the Windows tray and double-click on it.

With a window of WinSize2 on your screen, and on the WinTitle tab, notice the pull-down menu under the full title of the window. In it, you will find entries for all the rules WinSize2 created for different windows.

Each entry is named after the title of the window it targets. To help you make sure you’ve made the right selection, WinSize2 also displays a window of process in the right corner of the pull-down menu.