Misplaced windows in GNOME

Anagogistis · Apr 22, 2026
linux gnome multi-monitor window-management

I have a laptop with an external monitor connected, and the external display is set as the primary one. Still, some apps insist on opening new windows on the laptop screen instead. Worse, a new window may open partly off-screen or oversized, so the title bar buttons are not visible and you cannot grab it properly with the mouse. It’s very annoying.

That is part of the usual GNOME multi-monitor weirdness. Fortunately, GNOME has a few built-in keyboard shortcuts to recover from this:

  • Alt+F7 lets you move the current window
  • Alt+F8 lets you resize it
  • Shift+Super+Arrow moves the window to another monitor.

There is also a GNOME Tweaks setting worth enabling: Center New Windows. It does not completely fix GNOME’s window placement logic, but it often helps by making new windows appear in a more sensible position instead of wherever the window manager decides to place them.