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I've got 2 questions regarding OS X. Firstly how do we maximize a window? (I mean I know the green button, but is there a way to tell the window to take all the remaining space available?)

Also, is there any way we could remove (or auto-hide) the menu bar?

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possible duplicate of Mac OS X Shortcut Maximize window – Daniel Beck♦ May 3 '11 at 11:15
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ok just to be sure. i can't achieve it without downloading installing anything extra? – Pacerier May 3 '11 at 11:32
No you can't. The green button usually switches between user state and optimum state, as determined by the application developer. If they say "optimum is full screen" (.e.g Apple Mail), then you're good. Otherwise, you're not. With 24+ inch screens, full screen is a ridiculous waste of space anyway. You could e.g. Cinch for the Windows 7 experience of dragging windows to the very top to maximize them. That's what I do. – Daniel Beck♦ May 3 '11 at 11:35
24 inch.. think about laptoppers.. – Pacerier May 3 '11 at 11:37
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I can only give you the options you have, and a possible explanation why it is like it is. – Daniel Beck♦ May 3 '11 at 11:39

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

For the first question, see here.

For the second question: No. This is the menu bar and is always there, except for some full-screen applications, where it's hidden or on auto-hide. There are some hacks to get around that, but what's the point? You need it all the time anyway.

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ok is there a way to get it to the left or right side? because having a bar at the top makes clicking the tabs in chromes very hard (i couldn't just fling my pointer upwards) – Pacerier May 3 '11 at 11:19
@Pacerier No, there isn't. Is it just Chrome you're concerned about? – Daniel Beck♦ May 3 '11 at 11:20
@Daniel Beck yea partly.. . – Pacerier May 3 '11 at 11:31
@Pacerier Check out Megazoomer. It's a bit intrusive, using SIMBL and stuff, but might work for you. Haven't tried it with Chrome though. I can't look up the configuration for full screen programs right now, unfortunately. Will look it up in 5 hours when I'm home. – Daniel Beck♦ May 3 '11 at 11:32
heys cool, btw its ok. if it requires installing/downloading something else then I'm not doing it. i just don't believe in it, its not portable at all – Pacerier May 3 '11 at 11:36
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I have assigned this script to ⌘M with FastScripts:

try
    tell application "Finder" to bounds of window of desktop
    tell application (path to frontmost application as text)
        set bounds of window 1 to result
    end tell
on error
    try
        tell application "System Events" to tell (process 1 where it is frontmost)
            click (button 1 of window 1 where subrole is "AXZoomButton")
        end tell
    end try
end try

It doesn't work with multiple displays though.

Applications that support maximizing windows to fill the screen:

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The LSUIPresentationMode doesn't help in this case, since the tabs are still not at the very top and the menubar reappears. Feels like the Windows start menu button pre XP shudder. – Daniel Beck♦ May 3 '11 at 17:00
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Just hold down Shift while pressing the Green Icon to go to full screen.

This works with OS X 10.8.2+

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