Apple - How to expand windows fully?

In OS X Yosemite, just click the green plus (+) icon while holding Shift (⇧) + Option (⌥) keys.

Or double click on the window's title bar while holding Shift(⇧) key (this won't work if System Preferences > Dock > Double-click a window's title bar to minimize is checked).

UPDATE

Here are proofs for those who voted down my answer before even trying if it works:

  • http://www.raymondcamden.com/2015/03/22/osx-yosemite-tip-maximizing-windows

If you Google for this, you’ll see lots of people recommending holding alt-shift before clicking the green button.

In order to maximize the window so that it fills the visible window content, use:

+ Click on green icon

In order to maximize the window both in width and height to the current desktop for applications like Google Chrome use:

+ + Click on green icon

...by doing:

+ + Click on green or outer right icon (plus icon)

I can maximize a window in both width and height to the current screen.

I tried it and it works on my MacBook Pro 13" Retina with Mac OS X Yosemite.

SUMMARY

There is no need to buy or hack something to do the following things:

  • Fullscreen mode: click on green icon
  • Resize window to it's content: + click on green icon
  • Maximize window to screen size: + + click on green icon

RightZoom is what you want (scroll down to the bottom of the page or use this MacUpdate link)

This free tool fixes an inconvenient behavior of green Zoom button in Mac OS X. It will always expand windows on a full screen instead of strange resizing.

Another one is BetterTouchTool. You might not think of BetterTouchTool as being a window manager, but it has window snapping (as seen in Windows 7). Take a look:

Cinch also does the same thing, but it costs $7.


I use Spectacle it's free and open-source. A compiled version is available from the AppStore, versions for OS X 10.6 and 10.7 can be downloaded from the Spectacle GitHub site. You can change the various keyboard shortcuts that allow you to snap the window to any side or corner of the screen as well as maximize the application window to fit your screen.

The default shortcuts are:

  • Center / + alt + C
  • Fullscreen / + alt + F

  • Left Half / + alt +

  • Right Half / + alt +
  • Top Half / + alt +
  • Bottom Half / + alt +

  • Upper Left Corner / + control +

  • Lower Left Corner / + shift + control +
  • Upper Right Corner / + control +
  • Lower Right Corner / + shift + control +

  • Left Display / + alt + control +

  • Right Display / + alt + control +
  • Top Display / + alt + control +
  • Bottom Display / + alt + control +