How can I make full-screen desktop applications only cover the snapped desktop?

Posted by nhinkle on Super User See other posts from Super User or by nhinkle
Published on 2012-10-20T06:27:48Z Indexed on 2012/10/20 11:06 UTC
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windows-8

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fullscreen

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modern-ui

In Windows 8, you can "snap" two apps next to each other, and one of those apps can be the legacy Windows desktop environment. A convenient application for this (or so I thought) would be to snap a chat client, small browser, or other app while watching content in full-screen on the desktop.

The problem with this is that full screen desktop applications will take over the entire screen, even if the desktop is snapped to only occupy 3/4th of the display.

What I would like is some way to force "full screen" desktop apps to only cover the snapped desktop area, and to truly go full screen if the desktop is snapped to full-width. Is there some way to configure this?

If that didn't make sense, let me illustrate with pictures:

Desktop in snapped view with SU chat in mini-browser:

What happens when you click "full screen":

What I want to happen when I click "full screen" (note this is digitally altered, not a real screenshot)

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