Minimalist question

[Andras]

Hi Pete,

Forgive me please if it was a silly question or something horrible to even ask.

Would it be possible to have a function in FSUIPC's and WideFS's run options to start an application minimized?

regards

Andras

[Pete Dowson]

Forgive me please if it was a silly question or something horrible to even ask.

Would it be possible to have a function in FSUIPC's and WideFS's run options to start an application minimized?

Do you know how I could do that? I did do lots of experiments with that when I first designed the options.

Applications seem to start either they way they are programmed, or configured, to start, unless they are specifically programmed to start in the mode Windows 'remembers' them from before or has set in the shortcut (where applicable).

I think the only way for me to override that is to wait until they produce a Window then send a minimise message. The problems are then rather considerable, because (a) programs take an enormously variable time to produce their Window and be ready to minimise (should I keep checking every few minutes?), and (b) very often the first such Window they produce is not the one which needs minimising. All the PM modules are like that, for example.

Can't you configure them to start minimised instead?

Regards,

Pete

[Andras]

Do you know how I could do that? I did do lots of experiments with that when I first designed the options.

Hi Pete,

Oh I see, I didn't know that.

Of course I don't know how to do it, the only immediate idea I can think of if it was possible to fire up a shortcut, because those can be pre-defined to start minimized, but forget about it please, it was just a usual silly question of mine...

regards

Andras

[Pete Dowson]

I can think of if it was possible to fire up a shortcut, because those can be pre-defined to start minimized

Does that work with the programs you are needing to do this with? I think those short-cut initialisation options only work if the programs themselves tell their window to use the default setting -- Windows supplies the default to the program's WinMain() function as the 4th parameter.

I think it would work if all programs used that, but most I tried don't. If it does work with the one's you are needing, then maybe it would be worth putting it into FSUIPC/WideClient. When I was experimenting I found it so inconsistent (because of varying practices in the applications) that I didn't go further because of the support implications of this variability.

Oh, one other possible reason it wouldn't be useful -- the option to set this only applies to the first window created by the new process -- it won't be useful in cases like the PM modules where the first window is a trademark/banner graphic.

Have you tried using the "HIDE" option in the FSUIPC Run options? If that works, then so should MAX and MIN if I add them. With Wideclient it would need an extra keyword immediately after the = I think.

Regards,

Pete

[Andras]

Oh, one other possible reason it wouldn't be useful -- the option to set this only applies to the first window created by the new process -- it won't be useful in cases like the PM modules where the first window is a trademark/banner graphic.

Late answer, sorry for that.

Well, for PM stuff I don't need that fortunately, some other small but useful ones were in my mind, but understand the difficulties.

Have you tried using the "HIDE" option in the FSUIPC Run options? If that works, then so should MAX and MIN if I add them. With Wideclient it would need an extra keyword immediately after the = I think.

Actually I wanted this feature for both, fsuipc and wideclient, but the first case unfortunately HIDE doesn't work with the app I tried with, and I wasn't aware that it would be at all possible with wideclient, so frankly I don't really understand the one about the extra keyword.

Regards,

Andras

[Pete Dowson]

Actually I wanted this feature for both, fsuipc and wideclient

I understand, but if it works in FSUIPC I can add it to WideClient. If it doesn't work, there's no point. See?

but the first case unfortunately HIDE doesn't work with the app I tried with

In that case nor would MINIMIZE or MAXIMIZE -- the program evidently doesn't use the initial window state provided.

and I wasn't aware that it would be at all possible with wideclient, so frankly I don't really understand the one about the extra keyword.

Well, frankly too, there's not going to be those extra keywords since you've now confirmed that it won't work in any case. :wink:

Regards,

Pete