Optimization of working with windows in Windows (updated). Comparison with paid analogues

IntroductionIn this article we will talk about applications that help optimize work with program windows - hide, minimize to tray or place on top of other windows. Not all programs have the ability to minimize to the tray, always remain on top of other elements of the dialog interface, or hide their window. The following are intended to fill these gaps: free tools.

When writing programs, authors often forget about the interface and user convenience. So, not all programs have the ability to minimize to the tray, always remain on top of other programs, or hide their window, and the ability to maximize a program when it starts and remove a specified window or program button is not included in the standard capabilities at all and is provided only with the help of special applications. This article talks about how, and with the help of what programs, to achieve all of the above. In addition, I would like to note that all the programs discussed in the article are distributed free of charge (KSTray is distributed according to the DonationWare principle).

AutoSizer 1.4.

AutoSizer, as its name suggests, automatically resizes the windows of specified applications. For example, some browsers do not open documents in the maximum window. Using AutoSizer, you can "command" such windows to open in a maximized window. AutoSizer works with almost any single-window application.

The program shows running applications and their classes. Just select the one you need and click the "AutoSize!..." button. Now all that remains is to choose how the program will determine the applications whose windows need to be resized. There are two possibilities for this: specify the application through its class,

then the remaining running copies of the application will also change in size or specify the application through the exact name of the window or a line in its title.

As you can see from the presented screenshot, the window can be maximized, minimized, restored and centered (set to the center of the screen without changing its size).

While the program is running, its icon is shown in the tray; when you right-click on it, a menu is available with which you can configure the program or pause its operation.

The settings include automatic launch when Windows starts, playing a sound file when changing window parameters, automatically placing a resized window behind other windows, as well as showing an icon in the tray and calling the program by pressing a hotkey combination (you can choose it yourself).
When you exit the program, it automatically remembers the settings for resizing windows until next time.
AutoSizer runs on Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP.

Download AutoSizer 1.4 (size 125Kb): link

Tray It! 2.9.1.1.

Tray It! allows you to save space on the taskbar by minimizing the windows of specified applications to the tray. For each application that is minimized to the tray, a separate icon is created. Using the program is quite simple. When you first launch it, it displays a picture from which it becomes clear how to minimize the application to the tray.

TrayIt! searches for a given substring in each window title and minimizes to tray those windows that match the given pattern. The program searches for strings from left to right, in the order they are written, and stops searching when all strings are found. Search strings are not case sensitive. You can use the "|" symbol to separate lines and the characters "*" and "?" to set the template. The "^" character written at the beginning of a substring inverts its meaning.

The program runs under Windows NT4/95/98 and does not require installation; you just need to create a folder and place two files there: TrayIt!.exe and TrayIt!.dll.

Download Tray It! 2.9.1.1 (size 36Kb): link

KSTray

The KSTray program version 1.02 (old name D2Gtray) was considered.

A program for minimizing the selected application to the tray. When launched, the following window appears:

It says here that the program for minimizing the tray has not yet been set, and now you will have the opportunity to select it. However, if this is not the first time you run the program, it will remember the previous settings and give you a selection window:

The program is selected using its title, which is visible on the taskbar. You can specify either the entire title or part of it, then KSTray will automatically select the first application whose title contains the corresponding words.
The program provides the ability to display the titles of all running applications:

Along with the program, its icon can also be specified:

Otherwise KSTray will substitute its own:

When minimizing a program, it is automatically removed to the tray:

If you hover your mouse over the icon, you can see the name of the minimized program.

When you double-click on the tray icon or exit KSTray, the minimized program in the tray is automatically expanded. It is possible to exit KSTray along with the minimized program. KSTray does not require installation and works on all versions of Windows.

Download KSTray 1.02 (size 222Kb): link

Hidden

The Hidden program version 1.1 was considered.

The principle of operation of the program is quite simple. Before starting, standard Windows applications check specified variables related to the operating parameters of the program window, including a variable that determines in what form: normal, maximized, minimized or hidden, the program will be launched. Hidden simply changes the value of this variable to "Hide". However, in this case, this affects the operation of some programs. If you need to hide not the entire program, but a separate window, use the WinHide program by the same author, which bypasses the program by hiding the program window after it has been launched.
The program does not require installation and is launched from the command line. To start you need to type:

Hidden Program,

Where Program- the program to be launched and Parameters- its launch parameters (you can pass the command line launch parameters to the called program by writing them after the program name and enclosing them all together in quotes).
For example:
Hidden "Notepad C:\Windows\win.ini"
When you launch Hidden without the required parameter with the name of the program, a message appears about this.

The running program will not be visible either on the taskbar or in the task manager, but it can be seen in the task list by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Download Hidden 1.1 (size 17Kb): link

WinHide 3.0

The program WinHide version 3.0 was considered.

If you need to hide a separate program window or if the Hidden program did not work, then the WinHide program was created for you. Like Hidden, the program does not require installation and is launched from the command line.
Command line format:
WinHide Program
where Program is the name of the window that needs to be hidden. If you put an exclamation point in front of the window name, the window will appear again.

Note: Please note that the format of the command line parameters has changed compared to the previous version.

The program is distributed free of charge.
In order to hide the entire application, you can use the Hidden program by the same author. For single-window applications, WinHide works similarly to Hidden, except that a hidden window can be shown again. To clarify the names of program windows, you can use the KSTray or TurboTop programs.

Download WinHide 3.0 (size 9Kb): link

TurboTop 2.5

The TurboTop version 2.4 program was considered.

Not all application windows have the ability to stay on top of other windows all the time. In order to assign the Stay on Top ability to a window of any program, the TurboTop 2.4 utility is used. The program icon is located in the tray, and when you hover over it and right-click, a menu appears with a list of all windows belonging to currently running programs:

Just select the desired application window and a check mark will be placed in front of it. This means that the “on top of other windows” mode has begun to operate for this window:

The screenshot below shows that although the window for changing the date and time is in focus, the Explorer window still remains on top of it:

Starting with version 2.0, TurboTop allows you to work with several windows at once. The program is distributed free of charge.
The program supports working from the command line. To do this, she needs to specify as a parameter the application that should be on top of others. The application must already be running before this. To cancel this feature, run the program again, specifying an exclamation mark as a parameter at the beginning, before the application name. For example, for a Windows calculator:
TurboTop.exe Calculator
And
TurboTop.exe !Calculator.

Download TurboTop 2.5 (size 446Kb): link

Free program for resizing windows. In addition, it allows you to place windows in the right places on the screen, which makes it possible to optimize your workspace as much as possible!

Screenshot gallery

Sometimes when working with a computer, seemingly trivial tasks arise that are almost impossible to implement in practice! One such task is resizing a window.

You can say that there is nothing complicated here: take it, grab it with the mouse, drag it and order! However, there are cases when the window must have strictly defined dimensions, and that’s when real “hemorrhoids” begin :).

I encountered this problem while taking screenshots from my phone using Crystal Screen. The fact is that each time the phone was connected to the PC, the window with the contents of the screen had a different size (usually enlarged). Therefore, I had to aim using the on-screen ruler to get to the size of 320 by 240 pixels, which took quite a lot of time...

That's when I decided there had to be some way to quickly set the parameters I needed. But that was not the case :) Google gave me everything I wanted, but not programs for resizing windows. Then I decided to leave Runet and look for the necessary software “over the hill.” After a couple of minutes of searching, I finally found three applications, but I chose only one of them - Sizer. There were several reasons for this:

Possibility of Russification;
Small size;
Low consumption of system resources;
Integration into Explorer;
Support for 64-bit systems.

Comparison with a paid analogue

As I already said, there are practically no such programs on the Runet. However, the window resizing function is found in some complex system utilities. An example of such a utility would be Actual Window Guard:

Of course, the paid program has much more functions, but Sizer’s capabilities are quite enough to solve the problem of managing specific windows.

Getting started with the program

Another advantage of Sizer is that the program is portable, that is, it does not require installation! You can carry it with you on a flash drive, and to get started you will just need to unpack the downloaded archive into a separate folder.

In the archive you will find two versions of the program: sizer.exe And sizer(RUS).exe. The application does not have official Russification yet, so I Russified it myself using . In principle, the Russified version should work without errors, but in case any occur, the original one was attached sizer.exe.

To get started, let’s launch the Russified version of Sizer and look in the tray (the area near the clock):

Our program icon should appear there in the form of four-way arrows. If we right-click on it, we get access to the context menu. It is divided into two sections: the top contains presets for the last active window, and the bottom contains settings, short information about the program and a shutdown button.

To change the size of the active window to one of three default sizes, we just need to click on the desired value in the context menu. For example, in the previous screenshot we changed the size of the Explorer window with the contents of Disk E to 640 by 480 pixels by clicking “-640x480”.

Program settings

However, it’s not just the omissions that make us happy about Sizer. We can add new sizes and some other useful functions in the program settings. You can get to them by clicking the “Configure Sizer” item in the main context menu:

All program settings are collected in one window and divided into two large sections: “Menu Items” and “Sizer Options”. The first section contains basic operating settings for creating new resizing options, while the second contains additional options for configuring some global parameters of the Sizer. These parameters include:

grid step for changing window size;
display of hints (I don’t know about others, but it doesn’t work for me :));
display tray icon;
adding Sizer to the system menu;
resize depending on the current cursor position (also a useless item).

Everything is global, so let’s pay closer attention to creating new menu items.

Creating your own settings for resizing windows

In order to change existing ones or add our own items to the Sizer menu, we need to use the first section of settings. Let's say we need to create a setting that resizes the window to 240 x 320 pixels.

To do this, click the “Add” button - by default, a new item with dimensions 640 x 480 pixels and an appropriate name will be created at the end of the list. Using the “Raise” and “Lower” buttons, we adjust the position of the item in the drop-down menu (I raised it as high as possible), and then edit the parameters of the new item as we want:

The main parameters are “Description” (essentially the name of the item), “Width” and “Height”. However, it is also possible to change the position of the window (the “Move to” list) and set a key combination that will launch the action we need without having to go into the context menu.

Let's save the changes by clicking the "Ok" button and see what we got:

If you have activated the “Add Sizer to the system menu” option in the settings, then you can now call the resizing menu directly from the context menu of the title bar of almost any window! To do this, hover over the “Resize/reposition” item and select the desired size.

By the way, at the very bottom under the list of presets there is a “New entry” item. It allows you to create a new resize menu item using the dimensions of the current window as parameters.

Possible applications

In addition to the fact that Sizer can resize windows, it can also simultaneously move them to the desired position on the screen. This feature allows you to simultaneously work with several windows, which will occupy the part of the workspace allocated to them. This is especially convenient if you have a widescreen monitor.

For example, on a monitor with a resolution of 1360 x 768 pixels (like mine), you can simultaneously open four windows with dimensions of 680 x 369 pixels:

To do this, we will create four new presets with the above-mentioned sizes, and in the “Move to” drop-down list we will sequentially indicate all four corners of the monitor. For greater convenience, you can also set “hot keys” for each of the settings. Voila! By pressing just four combinations we will arrange all the windows on the screen as efficiently as possible!

Of course, you can divide the workspace between windows and disproportionately. For example, you can allocate the upper part of the workspace to one window (for example, a browser), and divide the lower part into several small areas (for example, Explorer windows). In short, we do it as it is convenient :).

The only thing that the program does not have is an autorun function. But it can be implemented by creating a program shortcut on the Desktop and moving it to the “Startup” folder (for Windows XP, the folder address is: C:\Documents and Settings\Admin\Main Menu\Programs\Startup).

Advantages and disadvantages of the program

small size;
portable mode of operation;
unlimited number of presets;
hotkey support;
support for moving windows.

no program autoload;
incomplete Russification.

Conclusions

I concluded for myself that Sizer is the best program in its class(at least from the ones I was able to find). Judge for yourself: it weighs little, has no restrictions on the number of rules, does its job properly, and even allows you to organize your workspace more efficiently. Let's add support for hot keys here and we'll get an almost ideal tool for managing window sizes.

And the disadvantages such as the lack of autostart and the Russian language (in the original version) are not such disadvantages. At the very least, they can be bypassed quite successfully. Therefore, if you are tired of manually adjusting the exact sizes of the windows you need, try Sizer and it will save you a lot of time and nerves;).

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

If you need to pin a window on top of others in Windows, in the foreground of the desktop, a couple of tiny and free computer programs described below will just help you with this matter.

Some users will say that pinning Windows windows to the foreground (always on top of other windows) is a useless and unnecessary “feature” in the system, but I will argue with them - just imagine how convenient it is to “pin” a window of a calculator, browser or video player somewhere in a corner and calmly work in several at once, and not jump from one to another.

I am sure that fixed windows will especially appeal to owners of today's fashionable large widescreen monitors.

So, here's your first free program to keep a window in the foreground...

DeskPins

A tiny “cool” program that, after a simple installation and launch, will live in your tray...

The principle of its operation is very simple and visualized - we click on the DeskPins icon in the tray with the left mouse button and your cursor turns into a pin, which we move to the title of the desired window and pin it (we left-click the “rodent” again)...

When you hover the cursor over a pin, a cross will appear - after clicking on it, the window will unpin and become normal.

You can get to the program settings (Options...) through the menu called up by right-clicking on the tray icon...

Here you can change the color of the pin, set some kind of delay (I don’t understand what it’s for) and choose the method of activating the program in the tray (double click or single click)…

I haven’t figured out the second section of parameters - it’s only clear that it’s for setting up auto-snapping of certain windows, but for some reason this thing didn’t work for me...

Perhaps the most useful settings section is the third...

...here you can assign "hot keys" programs.

You can download DeskPins by going to via this official link and selecting the desired version on the program author’s page...

By the way, after installation the program does not desktop shortcut and does not start automatically - it can be found in the Start menu...

TurboTop

This is the second free and microscopic program for pinning windows to the foreground. Also very simple and also lives in...

When you click any button computer mouse A list of currently active Windows windows will appear - select the one you need and “pin” it by clicking (put a checkmark) to the foreground (above all others)…

Don’t pay attention to the first two lines in my screenshot - these wonderful programs by their principle they always work in the virtual foreground. Clicking on the line in the list of windows again will uncheck the box and unpin it.

For example, a video on YouTube with a description of some program to watch and try? Or a nice large watch on top of the window so you don’t have to look for it every time? There are more than one or two options for such an application, but... Windows does not have this in the settings, so you have to use third-party programs. There are simpler programs, there are more complex ones, everyone chooses their own. But everyone is able to imagine a solution for making a window on top of all the windows.

Chameleon Window Manager

One of these extensions will be "Chameleon". The installation is carried out in the standard way, after which several more will appear next to the close buttons for each window. In addition to the ability to dock on top of all windows, there is a way to minimize to tray, adjust transparency, set sizes, move between different monitors and others, the number of which is constantly expanding. In new versions, it is possible to choose which window to add to (the option to add to all is left), in what order to arrange the buttons, and even the color of the buttons. However, it should be noted that the color of the buttons quite accurately matches the color of the title, so the benefit of this feature is questionable.

The figure shows the main setting options as well as the position of the buttons. Since the buttons are named in English, we will rewrite them here in Russian. So, from left to right - 6 buttons. The first two anchor the window to the left or right border; the third involves transparency; the fourth will secure the window on top; the fifth will minimize the window to the title bar (only the title bar will remain on the screen); the sixth will minimize the window to the system area (instead of the taskbar).

DeskPins - pushpin

If the previous program seems too sophisticated to someone, then the question of how to make a window on top of all windows can be solved in another way. For example, using DeskPins. The program is free, lightweight, and can even work in portable mode.

To pin a window, drag the icon from the tray onto the title bar of the desired window and press the left mouse button. All! The selected window will always be located above all others. And an icon in the form of a pushpin will appear in the header (in the picture in the header of the calculator window). The same effect can be achieved by pressing Ctrl+F12 on the keyboard - a window opened on top of others will remain on top even when other windows are opened. After installation, it is recommended to change this combination so that there are no conflicts with other programs.

Turbotop - if you need two windows

This program also works from the tray, but, unlike the previous one, it has the ability to work with more than one window. The developers of this program approached the question of how to make a window on top of all windows in a slightly different way.

This program is not limited to docking one window - there can be several windows. By clicking on the tray icon, we get a list of windows open on the desktop. By clicking on any item again, we make the window pinned. Unpin the same way by pressing once. A docked window displays a check mark next to its line (the top two in the list). But an interesting feature of the program is memory. It is able to remember all the pinned windows from the moment you start using it, after which the question of how to make a window on top of all windows will no longer arise. The next time you start, this window will immediately be located on top of all windows.

Conclusion

After installing Windows, the installation phase of the necessary programs begins. Among the great variety of them, there is a class of utilities that allow you to expand the capabilities of the standard Explorer. It is impossible to review them all in a short article, but programs that offer the ability to work with windows are quite possible. Any of the programs described above allows you to place the desired window on top of all windows. In this case, Windows will not even be able to place it on top of the docked window. If you move it to the taskbar area, it will appear under it until you unpin it yourself.

Simplifies window management (move&resize) in Windows.

Namely, while holding down the ALT key:

You can drag the window with the left mouse button by grabbing any place in the window (not necessarily the title bar);
dragging with the right mouse button will change the size, namely, move the border to which the cursor was closer;
something else (see under the cat).

Yes, that's exactly how it works on Linux.

It's very convenient. There is no need to aim at the title bar or window border.

The program will be especially useful for owners of low-resolution screens (for example, netbooks). It will help to “tame” windows that are larger than the screen size, which usually cannot be dragged.

How does this work

A short video demonstrating how the program works:

How resize works:

The window is divided into 9 areas. Each of the 8 extreme areas is responsible for moving the nearest window border.
The central area works very cleverly: it stretches the window vertically or horizontally, leaving the center of the window in place (that is, two opposite borders move at once).

Altdrag can even resize windows that usually cannot be resized (dialogs, settings). I haven't figured out how this could be useful yet.

Bonus: Alt+DoubleClick anywhere maximizes the window, Alt+Click restores the maximized one.

Altdrag can also be useful for owners of multi-monitor systems: you can drag windows from monitor to monitor, while maximized windows remain maximized (can be disabled).

Settings

you can assign keys that, when pressed, perform actions (by default, both Alt);
you can assign actions to each mouse button (LMB, RMB, wheel, buttons 4 and 5): actually, Move, Resize, as well as Minimize, Center, Close and AlwaysOnTop (in my opinion, the most useful). Below is still in the beta version.
you can configure windows to “snap”: to the edges of the screen and to the taskbar, to other windows from the outside, from the inside, or manually by holding Alt+Shift

There is an icon in the tray (can be disabled), settings and some actions are available through it.

In the latest stable version (0.9), the settings are edited in the ini file using notepad, but everything is clear in it without any problems. In beta (1.0) a pop-up window with settings was added.

Details

C Aero works correctly.

Consumes little memory. I have 2.9/3.4 MB under Windows7/64.

There is a portable version.

The program has not been updated for a long time: the latest stable version was February 2011, beta was July 2011. Don’t let this bother you: no bugs were found; In my opinion, everything that is needed has been implemented (even in the February one).

Defects found

By default, during installation, the config is located in the program folder in Program Files. If you are not logged in as an administrator (or with User account control enabled), then saving the settings will be problematic. Workaround: install the program in your folder, or download the portable version.
The Alt+DoubleClick and Alt+Click hotkeys cannot be changed. The second one is still unusual for me. UPD: but you can replace Alt with another hotkey, for example Ctrl.

Download link: