Specifying where new windows are to appear
October 3, 2011 3:01 PM   Subscribe

Is there a way to specify exactly where, on my screen, each successive new window should appear?

The default Windows 7 behavior is this: every time a new window loads, it's slightly displaced from the last -- maybe an eighth of an inch to the left -- and so I have to re-direct it to the location where I want it. I'd like to automate this.

I'm looking to come as close as possible to the following functionality:

1. I open, say, Word; it appears on the left half of my laptop screen.
2. I open another Word window; it appears on the right half of my laptop screen.
3. I open Firefox; it appears on the left half of my external monitor.
4. I open Excel; it appears on the right half of my external monitor.
5. I open another Firefox window. All four "slots" are now filled, so it places the new window in whichever slot was least recently the active window.

If you have advice using Autohotkey, I'd probably be able to implement it, and would be interested. But if a feature along these lines has already been created somewhere, I'd rather not spend time recreating the wheel.

I am aware of (and I use) kluges like WindowPad, WinSplit, and Ultramon -- all very useful, but none of them quite a solution (unless I'm missing some buried feature somewhere in one of them).

Thanks!
posted by foursentences to Computers & Internet (2 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I don't have a direct answer, but i spend a lot less time futzing with window placement on Win7 than I spent with XP because of a few features, such as Snap (where I can quickly place a window left-half or right-half), alt-tab (windows-tab is also cool, but I don't find myself using it much), and taskbar previews. To use snap, drag an open window to the edge of the screen, and it'll "snap" (automatically resize itself) to take half the screen.
posted by at at 6:05 AM on October 4, 2011


Placement is a script made using autohotkey. Originally intended for the online professional poker player who mass multitables.

Sounds like it's what you want and could probably be adapted pretty easily.

link 1

same thing on different site
posted by Patrick Leo at 6:43 AM on October 4, 2011


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