Google/Safari window won't open full screen

I'm sure this has been asked, but since I'm new to Mac's, I thought this needed to be in the beginners question category.

Just bought a used MacBook Pro for my daughter who now isn't using it. I've decided it will be my goto laptop. But among other problems, I can't get anything (Google Chrome or Safari) to open up full screen. They will only open partially. Toggling with the green button doesn't work. Only goes from the small window to a smaller window.

Welcome to the forum. What MacBookPro? What version OS X? What version Safari? How are you trying to get to full screen? The green buttons won't do that, for the most part. We need more information to be able to help.

OX 10.6.8 v1.1
Safari 5.1.10

Neither seems to need updating.

OK, they are pretty old. You may have some problems surfing with Safari 5 because of security upgrades that you cannot get. Some sites may refuse to allow you to connect (banking, financial, for example). I don't remember how to get Safari into full screen from that long ago. You can drag the Safari window to the upper left corner, as far as you can go, then move the the lower right corner of the Safari window and drag it open as far as you can. That's about all I remember. The Green button will then move from that enlarged view to an "optimum" view, which is just large enough to fit the data from the website, as I recall.

You might look into upgrading the version of OS X. If you open the Apple and About This Mac, you can read what machine you have and we can then help you upgrade, if you like.

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro2,2
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.33 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 3 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz

When I try to update the OS it says I'm up to date. If there is another version I can get to, how? It runs internet pretty slow compared to our Dell.

Yes, 10.6.8 is the last UPDATE for that version (10.6). What I was suggesting was to consider UPGRADING to something more current. The current version is 10.11.2, five versions on from your system. I found this thread at Apple.The link takes you to where you can buy Lion (10.7) and once you have that you can update to the most recent version of 10.7, which I think is 10.7.5. I think that is the last version your machine can run. It's a 2006 machine, so it's getting pretty old now. But 10.7 will get you the next version of Safari, and you can also try third party browsers (Opera, Firefox, etc), to see if they will be a bit speedier. But the bottom line is that's an old system and it's starting to show.

I am not in the least bit surprised to hear that a 10-year-old Mac is running slow compared to a (presumably quite a bit newer) PC. I'm also not surprised your daughter is not using the machine.

My suggestion would be to sell that unit to someone who requires PowerPC compatibility and get yourself something MUCH newer. Doesn't have to be brand new, but this decade would be good.