Windows marshalling

[Alex Eisenhut]

Oh... MY...... GOD! I can not believe in 2022 you can still have windows off-screen! Especially in an OS called Windows! You should be able to see them!

Yes I know how to use alt-space and alt-tab, somehow the engineers at Siemens found a way to ignore convention.

Is there any magic software somewhere that will marshall all open windows onto the monitor? The visible part, not my wall three feet away?

[PKTKS]

of course there are not one but several dozens...

Your main problem is that this OS uses a business model beneath it..
a single display oriented to track user and "partners"  alike business and tools..
and content management.. and licensee management..

the os per si has nothing to do with serious computing workflow business itself...

Change this OS entirely **OR***   run any XServer on top of it...
and make use of a serious WindowManager... and DisplayManager...

Any Tiling window manager can "TILE" CASCADE at bare minimum..

A very handy customization tool is available.
http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/x/xdotool/

although  a bit old.. it is agnostic and can do amazing tricks ..
like arranging your full desktop will custom profiles...

You need a serious vanilla XServer.. not Wayland rubbish..
and it works on REMOTE or local servers...

i use it for decades ...   daily

Get rid of this OS .. it is way  past out...
Paul 

[SilverSolder]

I recall some virtual desktop software that gives you a huge desktop, that you then "slide" your monitor window over.  I forget what it was called, but it was actually pretty handy! 

[T3sl4co1l]

Yeh, which Windows?  That's been mostly fixed since XP/7; if something's getting stuck, try forcing a desktop resize (e.g. change monitor resolution, or extend from/to a new monitor).

No idea if there's a more convenient button for that.  Presumably one or a few function calls would do to accomplish the above, but the key actions might be buried deep in win32 internals, who knows.  Did you search for a program to do it?

of course there are not one but several dozens...

Your main problem is that this OS...

Tim

[rsjsouza]

Yeh, which Windows?  That's been mostly fixed since XP/7;

Mostly indeed, but not totally. Non-standard applications that remap Alt-Space are a problem with any Windows (I am looking at you, Sumatra PDF).

[T3sl4co1l]

Yeh, which Windows?  That's been mostly fixed since XP/7;

Mostly indeed, but not totally. Non-standard applications that remap Alt-Space are a problem with any Windows (I am looking at you, Sumatra PDF).

Huh, current version SumatraPDF ALT+Space-s fine for me?

Oh, another downside is modal dialogs.  Lots of things block access to the main window.  Or bleed through (on top of) other programs.  Like Altium's tooltips often get annoying like that.  Have seen things sometimes where you tab to the main window, but the main window is blocked by a dialog that you can't tab to.  I don't know how they manage that, but, maybe that's getting closer to the cruft you're talking about...

Tim

[rsjsouza]

Yeh, which Windows?  That's been mostly fixed since XP/7;

Mostly indeed, but not totally. Non-standard applications that remap Alt-Space are a problem with any Windows (I am looking at you, Sumatra PDF).

Huh, current version SumatraPDF ALT+Space-s fine for me?

Thank you for the confirmation. I had a version of SumatraPDF that was downloaded not long ago (around June/July 2021) that opened another menu instead of the typical Alt-space menu. If it was a bug or intentional I don't know, but that shows how the developer can ruin things by meddling with standard OS shortcuts.

[T3sl4co1l]

Hmm, I don't see anything out of the ordinary on the official shortcut listing.  Curiously (or not?), the Windows defaults are not listed (F10 or tap ALT to highlight the menu bar, or ALT+(menu shortcut) to open a menu), which may be something of an oversight as the compacted ("hamburger") menu I don't think works in the Windows-default way, but recreates it nonetheless (ALT+F does indeed bring up the File menu, etc., even though they're actually submenus, nice).

So yeh, I never noticed anything nonstandard about it, besides the extremely low profile design (eschewing toolbars/ribbons entirely).  Unless it's differently behaved on other Windows versions, or you have, like, AHK or other shortcut/modifier thing installed, or something else paranoid like that(!?).  But yeah, dunno.

Tim

[Alex Eisenhut]

I remote access my W10 work machine. But I doubt that is the problem, the stinky CAD software I am using doesn't respect the alt-space convention, as soon as I press alt it highlights the menu bar and does not respond to alt-space, it doesn't show the menu.

So in any case, the remote connection software has a special magical pixel in the upper right hand corner, if I jam my mouse there it "peels" the screen so I can click there to access the remote special screen that allows sending ctrl-alt-del to the remote machine.

So... I just noticed that the window of the program I want to move on-screen is also jammed in the upper right corner, so even if I notice that the single-pixel line I see belongs to the window I want, the remote client software does the "peel" thing instead.

If I click just at the right location then I can finally select the window and resize it onto the visible screen. As long as I can click on the right pixel, it works.

2022 and it's too much coding to do a simple "am I within the visible screen coordinates" test when popping windows and dialogs?

 

Sorry, just ranting. It just seems like stinky and dumb program behavior.

[free_electron]

alt arrow keys. bring window into current viewport.

my gripe is with pop up windows that steal focus.
typing an email , just before i hit enter a popup comes , from a different application with a question  ( reboot to install bios updates ) i hit enter and the system starts shutting down without option to stop it.

it should be impossible for applications to pop up windows if they are not the active program (foreground window). i'm ok if they pop up windows the moment i activate the main window of a program. but they should not pop to foreground and not steal input focus !

[T3sl4co1l]

Ah well if that's RDP (Windows Remote Desktop), ALT+TAB, ALT+SPACE, etc. go to the local machine; you need the translated version: ALT+(edit buttons) are the trick.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/termserv/terminal-services-shortcut-keys

At least, that works in Win7, but that article looks current, so, probably hasn't changed?

Tim

[SilverSolder]

alt arrow keys. bring window into current viewport.

my gripe is with pop up windows that steal focus.
typing an email , just before i hit enter a popup comes , from a different application with a question  ( reboot to install bios updates ) i hit enter and the system starts shutting down without option to stop it.

it should be impossible for applications to pop up windows if they are not the active program (foreground window). i'm ok if they pop up windows the moment i activate the main window of a program. but they should not pop to foreground and not steal input focus !

Yeah, this is a pet peeve of mine too.   Too many programmers think their application is (a) the only one in the universe, and/or (b) the most important one in the universe!