Request: (re)storing windows positions

[nicolasdejong]

This was mentioned this in another issue (#104) but adding it in a seperate request for clarity (and hope that that will increase the chance of it being added).

I am a power user of virtual desktops with help of zVirtualDesktop and love the crap out of it. However there is one thing that annoys me whenever I have to give a presentation: the resolution of the projector/tv is lower than the 4k I work on normally. The particular screen we are using has the habit of going to 800x600 first. So all my windows that are layed out in 4096x2160 are cramped in 800x600.

This is my current list of windows:

most of which I then have to move and resize to bring back to their original location.

So the request is this: can you add the possibility to (re)store the boundaries of all windows. (Re)storing then can be triggered manually or on a resolution change. Perhaps even keep a history so I can go back in time for locations.

[nicolasdejong]

I also don't like to restart the machine, because of all the setup that is required again. For example I have something like 11 browser windows open. So after a restart if I open Chrome, 11 windows open on desktop 1, which I then have to distribute over the various desktops. A 'restore windows to X' would be quite helpful then.

[mzomparelli]

I'll see what I can do about this. It's going to be tricky because even though those apps are starting up after a restart they are given a new window handle. I'll have to come up with another way to uniquely identify windows.

[nicolasdejong]

Thanks! Perhaps split this up in two then: (1) keep boundaries of current windows; (2) persistent boundaries of windows. I try to restart less than every few weeks so (2) is less of an issue.

[JoelAzaria]

This kind of persistence would be great. Not yet a user but this type of function is probably the main thing I want out of Win10 virtual desktops.

So maybe some ideas / food for thought-
Window handles change, ok. But the likeliest "suspects" for this type of activity is probably browser windows, no? In which case, some other mech is (re)opening the browser windows and tabs, you just have to distribute them. Would tracking the tab names work? A window being defined by they (assumedly unique combo of tabs within it.) Or perhaps you can track URLs? This is a still more unique "fingerprint" of a window you might use to track them.

For other apps like Excel, Word, et al it's probably sufficient to track window names (not often you'll have same document name from diff folders and if/when you do, ask user?)

Not skilled in this but I do see challenges. Still, maybe some of these ideas can feed this and help make it happen. In all honesty the shortcut keys and stuff might be (to me) niceties but persistent desktops across crashes/reboots is the only thing I really truly care about atm.

Thanks and kudos for your efforts on the app (lots of ppl seem happy with it.)
Good to see it exists :)

[mzomparelli]

Thanks for the feedback. Your ideas on how to identify windows will help. As soon as I get back to updating zVirtualDesktop I will make this feature a priority.

[JoelAzaria]

Wow. Glad they could possibly be useful. Kinda shocked tbh (not a developer, what I know about programming could fit in a tea cup) but I'm glad they might help and I'd be thrilled to see this succeed.

Best and gl and thank you.

[nicolasdejong]

Occasionally I Google for software that does this (doesn't exist yet I think, for virtual desktops), but I ran into a bit of software, MaxTo, that seems to have added something like this recently:

digitalcreations/MaxTo#91

Another piece of software that says it does something like this (but I haven't tested it yet) is:

http://fullversoftware.com/desksoft-windowmanager-5-3-3-review-is-here/

Adding this kind of functionality would give zVirtualDesktop a 'must have' status, I think.

Still, fingerprinting the individual windows so they can be traced, even if the machine restarts or the application is closed and reopened, is what makes is problem so hard to tackle. But then again, being a distinguishing piece of software works when there is functionality that is rare but wanted.