Frequently asked questions

VirtualZones is a tiny native Windows app that splits one physical monitor into vertical zones that behave like separate monitors. Fullscreen or maximize any app and it snaps into its zone instead of taking over the whole display — so a video call, presentation, or fullscreen video stays boxed in one part of the screen while the rest stays yours.

No. It is a tiny ~700 KB native app with zero dependencies — no virtual-display driver, no .NET runtime, and no admin rights (the installer installs for your user account only). The OS never knows your monitor was split.

Very. VirtualZones idles at about 1 MB of RAM — around a megabyte — while it sits in your tray, and it is a single ~700 KB native exe with zero dependencies: no .NET runtime, no Visual C++ redistributable, no driver, no admin, no background service farm. It does one job and stays out of the way — a far smaller footprint than the big all-in-one utility suites that bundle zones alongside a dozen other tools.

It is an all-in-one replacement for PowerToys FancyZones (zone layouts + drag-to-snap), RegionToShare (share a single region), and a virtual-display splitter (fullscreen confinement) — in one small tool instead of three.

Windows 10 and Windows 11. It is a native Win32 app rendered with Direct2D, so there is no runtime to install. A Mac version is coming soon.

Yes. Maximized windows, PowerPoint slideshows, fullscreen video players and browser fullscreen — F11 or a video’s fullscreen button in Chrome, Edge or Firefox — all snap into their zone.

VirtualZones exposes one zone as its own window in Zoom, Teams, or OBS’s native share picker, so you share exactly that region — with whatever is underneath it — instead of your whole screen. Toggle it with Ctrl+Alt+1 (or 2, 3…).

Yes. The FancyZones-style grid editor lets you click a shared border to merge two zones, or an internal line to split one apart. Save as many named layouts as you want; each shows up in the main layout dropdown.

By default zones fill the work area and leave the taskbar visible. Tick Cover taskbar to make zones span the full monitor instead.

35 in total. English is built in, and 34 more download on demand: German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, and Hindi. They are cached after first use. Translation packs update independently of the app, so a new language never means a reinstall.

Yes. VirtualZones is per-monitor DPI aware, so the UI stays sharp and correctly sized at 100/125/150/225% and follows along live if you change scaling or move the window to a differently-scaled monitor. It also offers light, dark, and auto themes that follow Windows.

There is a 7-day free trial with everything unlocked. After that you can subscribe for $2.99/month or buy a one-time $29.99 lifetime license. Both are sold through Lemon Squeezy and give you a license key to enter in the app.

Settings and window position keep working; only the confinement and snap features pause until you enter a license key. Nothing is deleted.

Yes. A license (monthly or lifetime) activates your device once, then quietly re-checks about every two weeks. If you are offline it keeps working for up to 30 days after the last successful check, and re-validates automatically once you are back online.

The $29.99 lifetime license pays for itself versus the monthly plan in about 10 months and includes all future updates. The $2.99/month plan is the lowest-commitment option: cancel any time and it simply stops at the end of the paid month. Both get the same features and updates.

No. Window confinement never captures or mirrors anything — every app renders natively at full speed. Only the opt-in Share Zone feature captures, and only the specific zone(s) you explicitly toggle on, streamed locally to your meeting app.

Only license activation/validation calls to the storefront, and update checks. See the privacy page for exactly what is sent.

Yes, since version 1.3.16. F11 and in-page fullscreen (like YouTube’s fullscreen button) stay in their zone in Chrome and Edge, even when you click another browser window, and follow along when you move the window with Ctrl+Alt+W/A/S/D. If a browser still fills the whole screen, update VirtualZones to the latest version.

That is Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, shown for any unsigned or low-reputation app — not a finding about VirtualZones specifically. Click More info → Run anyway.

The app resizes a window just after it goes fullscreen, so a single ~16 ms frame can flash before it snaps in. The maximize animation is suppressed to hide this for maximize; F11 may still flash one frame.