Restart guide
macOS does not reliably put every window back on the same display, at the same size, after a restart. The shutdown checkbox to reopen windows, and Login Items, can bring apps back, but they often leave windows in the wrong place or skip them. SnapState saves the layout you already use. After you log in, one menu bar click or shortcut restores window positions and sizes, relaunches those apps, and reopens the active tab in supported browsers.
A restart quits your apps. macOS can offer to reopen windows when you log back in, and some apps remember a window of their own, but that memory is best-effort. With two or more monitors, displays can come back in a different order, so windows land on the main display instead of the screen they were on. Sizes and positions are often lost even when the app itself reopens.
That is a different moment from windows jumping to one screen after sleep or from unplugging a monitor. Those can happen while apps stay open. A restart starts from logged-out apps, so you need a snapshot that can relaunch them, not only a note of where a still-open window used to sit.
Try these before you pay for anything. None of them is a full multi-monitor layout restore.
The capture steps are the same as saving a window layout on Mac. SnapState is a native menu bar app. A workspace records visible windows on the current desktop, their position and size, the apps to relaunch, the monitor layout, and the active tab URL in Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, and Chromium once Automation permission is granted. If a monitor is missing when you restore, saved frames are remapped onto the displays that are connected.
It includes window positions and sizes, relaunched apps, the saved monitor layout, and one active tab URL per supported browser window. It does not tile or snap windows into halves and thirds. It does not save or restore macOS Spaces. Firefox is not supported. Only the active tab is restored, not the rest of the tab bar.
Tiling apps solve a different job. Moom, Rectangle, Magnet, and Raycast place the window in front of you. Rectangle Pro is $9.99 and can arrange apps into layouts. Use one of those if you want to snap as you work. Use SnapState when the job is to call yesterday's whole desktop back after a restart. They can sit side by side: tile once, save the result, restore it next time.
SnapState costs $9.99 once, with a lifetime license for up to three Macs and a 14-day refund. It requires macOS 15.7 or later on Apple Silicon and Intel, and it ships as a signed, notarized DMG from getsnapstate.com rather than through the Mac App Store. It needs Accessibility permission to move windows. Workspace data stays on your Mac as JSON in ~/Library/Application Support/SnapState/.
Only partly. The shutdown dialog can offer "Reopen windows when logging back in," and Login Items can open apps at login. Those options often reopen apps, but they do not reliably put every window back on the same monitor at the same size, especially with more than one display.
No. SnapState does not have an on-login or after-restart trigger. After you log in, restore the workspace from the menu bar or with Control-Command-1 through 6. Optional triggers cover display connect, display disconnect, a matching display layout, and wake from sleep. Wake from sleep is not the same as a restart.
Yes. A workspace records the apps that were part of the snapshot and relaunches the ones that are not running when you restore. It then places the visible windows it saved.
No. SnapState restores the active tab URL in each window of Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, and Chromium when Automation permission is granted. It does not restore every tab, and Firefox is not supported. It also saves only the visible windows on the current desktop, not other macOS Spaces.
They feel similar, but the trigger is different. Sleep often drops a monitor connection and piles windows on one screen while apps stay open. A restart quits apps. Sleep can use a wake trigger. A restart needs you to restore the saved workspace after login. See the sleep guide if wake is the actual problem.