A split Screen layout can stay on the display after the comparison, log watch, or editor view that needed it is finished. Removing a region closes only that visible display area; it does not kill the shell or command running in the Screen window shown there.
Screen separates regions from windows. The remove command closes the focused region, while only collapses the display back to the focused region and leaves the session's other windows available for selection.
Choose the region that should stay or go before pressing the binding. Region commands use the focused display area, so a quick C-a Tab check avoids closing the wrong side of a split layout.
Related: How to focus a region in Screen
Related: How to split a region horizontally in Screen
Related: How to split a region vertically in Screen
Related: How to resize regions in Screen
C-a Tab
Repeat the focus key until the cursor is in the target region. For remove, focus the region to close. For only, focus the region to keep.
C-a X
The default remove binding closes the focused region and keeps its Screen window available in the session.
C-a Q
The default only binding removes every other visible region.
$ screen -S work -Q windows 0 shell 1 logs 2 monitor
Use the session name shown by screen -ls when your session is not named work. Inside the attached session, C-a " opens the interactive window list.
C-a Tab
After remove, focus should skip the closed region. After only, focus should stay in the single remaining region because the other regions are gone.