Move that Window! and Quick Screen-saver Launching

Last month I was fussing about how I when I use an application at work on my secondary monitor, I sometimes forget to close it out on my primary laptop screen.  Then when I am mobile and launch it, it reruns on the missing secondary screen.

If the program uses an .ini file I just edited it and set the X and Y display values back to 0,0 to get the program to open on my laptop display.  Sometimes that's not an option and I am stuck.

Ashley over at CyberNet News posted this very simple tip.

• How to Move Windows with the Keyboard - CyberNet News

Ashley's tips are simple.

1. Right-click on the application in the system-tray,
2. Select "Move"
3. Take a stab in the dark and try to use the move-cross cursor on the phantom space to drag the application back, or
4. ...just press the keyboard arrow-keys to move the application window back to your laptop monitor.

It really isn't any easier that this.

But if you really want to use a GUI solution, here is a great alternative.

Windows Seizer

Window Seizer - (freeware) - This is a standalone (portable) single exe file application that brings a wealth of helpful info-at-a-glance items for all the windows open and running on your system, including memory usage , window handle, class name, parent handle, window visibility, process ID, status, filename, path, X coordinate, Y coordinate, width, and height.  These are all great items to know if you are hunting down the source of a malware-generated window.  With that information, you can drill down directly to the source of your troubles.

However, besides just information, you get additional functions you can run on the windows such as selecting a window item and bring it to the foreground, "Close all IE windows" which will force-close all Internet Explorer windows.  Very useful when your system has been attacked by a malware bot that has just opened up hundreds of the things.  You can close one window, selected windows, or all windows. Show hidden and blank captions for windows that aren't visible on the desktop.

Finally, there is my favorite function: Move to 1,1.  This moves the target window back to the top,leftmost screen position.  Very handy when you can't drag a window back to your desktop with the mouse (due to user error, malware programs, or launching on a phantom dual-monitor desktop as is often my case).

I really like the options this utility provides and it is a great single-exe file solution to many malware and window launching issues.

Related program:

WinLister - (freeware) - NirSoft tool to display the list of opened windows on your system and perform some simple and handy functions on the open windows it discovers.  Also finds and displays (0,0) sized windows (if enabled) sometimes used by malware or other legitimate programs.  It's a very neat tool that might enlighten you on just all the windows your Windows system really is running, without your knowledge.

RE: Manual Screen Saver launching

Just the other day, I was looking for a way to manually kick-start my screen saver.  Normally I set it to engage just after 10 minutes of non-activity.

However, sometimes I want to manually start it, like when I am sitting down for lunch, meeting with someone, or have my laptop in a meeting.

Right now I am using the 9031: FLIQLO Flip-Clock Screensaver. It is really simple, but provides a nice and bold time-display on my monitor.

I could have just done the simple thing of making a shortcut to the desktop of one of the system's screensaver .scr files. Double click it and most should run immediately.

A search on Google turned up some various mini-apps that did the same thing.

I wanted a bit more bang for my punch, but also wanted to integrate it in my RocketDock toolbar.

Here is what I did.

1. Download NirCmd (freeware) from NirSoft and unpacked it into a folder.
2. Drug the program icon onto my RocketDock toolbar.
3. Opened the icon settings options for this toolbar item.
4. Change the default icon to a more suitable one of a monitor.
5. Typed "screensaver" in the Arguments line.
6. Saved the changed.

NirCmd is a freeware command-line tool that performs a great-number of handy actions.  Since one of the things it can do is to launch your screensaver this seemed like a great tool.  Also, since RocketDock supports arguments for its items, I could easily tweak the icon so it just ran the screensaver launch immediately.  Handy!

Now when I want to watch/launch my flip-clock screensaver, I just click one icon on my toolbar and it fires right up!

--Claus