I was wondering, would it be possible to create a small piece of software that would allow the user to minimize a window by scrolling down on it? (on the top part that can be used to move it via drag and drop, obviously).
Following the same idea, it would be cool to be able to scroll up on the task bar icons to restore a minimized windows. I thought it would be cool (and since the user does not actually click but scrolls instead, it would prevent accidental nearby program openings when trying to restore a window)!
I am a total newbie when it comes to things like these. Could you please indicate me:
if Windows would let me do that (I doubt it wouldn't)?
How to code something like that (what language, and so on...)?
A way of doing this for maximizing the tabs open in the taskbar would be to create a custom taskbar identical to that of the main one. The second taskbar from Dual Monitor Taskbar works this way. There are also libraries in languages such as C++ which can detect scroll wheel movements.
Although this wasn't the most helpful answer, hopefully this could give you some ideas.
It is definitely possible. I found a software that does that 6 years ago and I have been using it ever since. It is called Preme for windows (http://www.premeforwindows.com/)
I have been using the software for about 6 years now and I cannot use windows without it. It also allows closing windows when clicking the mouse scroll key and maximizing a window with scroll up.
I hope this helps you. I am always wondering why Microsoft does have these options built in in the OS!!
I am looking for a lightweight solution that would allow me to detect which form/ dialog is open in an application, then emit some keystrokes / mouse moves and clicks. I do not have control over (nor the source-code for) the application.
I am familiar with MacroMaker, also testing products like SQA / Mercury offer similar functionality. The last time I had hands on exposure in this are is late 2004, I welcome any pointers to bring my knowledge up to date.
AutoIt is a scripting environment for Windows with a long history. It's quite easy to use and flexible to do things like detect the open window or dialog, change to another one, type something, etc. I would definitely recommend it.
In case anybody is curious, in the end I decided to use Microsoft UI Automation. Here is nice intro:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163288.aspx
Most of the time I work Visual Studio with two monitors.
I setup my Visual Studio to sit nicely across both monitors with code on the one side and property windows etc. on the other.
However, occasionally I need to remove into my work station from home where I only have one monitor.
What ends up happening is I have to re-setup my entire workspace to be used on one monitor, and when I get back to my work station I have to undo this again to get to my optimal 2 monitor environment.
Is there a way to save some set layouts in Visual Studio so I could quickly switch back and forward?
Example: One Monitor Layout versus Two Monito Layout?
stumbled upon this which really helped:
link text
The actual solution seems to throw an error for me, but one of the comments suggests you use your "full screen" view to do it.
So I setup my screen the way I like it.
Then I press "shift+alt+enter" which turns on full screen mode.
I then setup my environment for "One Screen mode: (ironic, I know)
Visual Studio now remembers my full screen setup.
So now when I remote in I can just press "shift+alt+enter" and I'm in one screen mode.
Hopefully this post will help someone else, otherwise I would be interested to hear other solutions.
I am using Visual Studio 2010 with Windows 7
Maybe this is a dumb question, but I have the following behavior in Visual Studio 2005 while designing forms:
1 - Drop a control onto the form (suppose it's a Label, just for discussion)
2 - Drag that label to a specific location (aligning w/other controls, whatever)
3 - Release the mouse button
4 - The control is still stuck to the mouse!!!
To get it un-stuck from the mouse, I have to hit ESC, which restores the Label to it's original location.
This is driving me nuts. I literally have to use the arrow keys to move each control into place, pixel-by-pixel. I don't observe this behavior anywhere else in VS2005, nor do I observe it in the OS in general.
I am running on Windows XP inside a Parallels Virtual Machine, hosted on OS X. I don't think there is a driver problem though, b/c as I already said, no other apps demonstrate anything like this.
Please tell me there is some tiny checkbox buried somewhere that will turn off this behavior.
Sounds like you might have ClickLock enabled (or a similar feature). Try this:
Go to Control Panel in Windows
Open the Mouse control panel
Go to the Activities tab
Deselect ClickLock
If that doesn't work, maybe you have a similar feature in OS X?
This problem spread to other applications within my VM, so I reinstalled Parallels tools and it went away.
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Ultramon is a great program for dual monitors (stretching screen across monitors), but I was wondering if there is any way do to something in Visual Studio like have one tab of code open on one monitor and a second tab of code open on the second monitor with only one instance of Visual Studio running?
Or are there any other suggestions on getting most bang for buck on dual monitors and Visual Studio?
have one tab of code open on one monitor and a second tab of code open on the second monitor with only one instance of Visual Studio running
you can simply drag a Tab outside of VS onto your other screen.
Personally, I have my windows set up so that one my main monitor, I have the main visual studio monitor, so therefore my code window, maximized, with only the toolbox docked, on the left. This means the code window takes up as much space as possible, while keeping the left hand edge of the code close to the middle of the screen, where my eyes naturally look. My main monitor is a wide screen, so I find that gives me more than enough room for my code.
My secondary monitor has a second window, which contains the tool windows that I use. So I have solution explorer, error list, task list (//todo: comments), output window, find results etc. all taking up as much space as they like on my secondary monitor.
When debugging, the solution explorer moves the main monitor, and the watch, autos and locals windows take its place.
I find this gives me a very large area to write code, and really helps usage of all of those additional windows, by giving them more real estate than they'd usually have.
Update: In response to everyone talking about using the second monitor for documentation or running the app, I wholeheartedly agree, and forgot to mention how I do that. I use PowerMenu alot to acheive this. Basically I can right-click on any window and set Always On Top. So while i'm debugging, i want to see my output window, but then if I have to refer to some documentation, I just flick to Mozilla (on the second monitor), set it on top, and go back to visual studio. I find this lets me manage the tool windows without having to either shuffle them around a lot, or take up valuable space in the code window.
I have three monitors, so I usually run with this configuration:
Left Monitor: documentation / ebooks.
Middle Monitor: code / debugging
Right Monitor: Test application / scrolling logfiles (if needed)
This usually works pretty well, and since the monitors are fairly big I rarely need to use the test application in full-screen, so there's plenty of room for my tail -f windows.
I also use AutoHotkey to assign hotkeys that flip to the most important windows, like Firefox or my SSH session. That way I can simply use a shortcut key to access them when necessary.
The left monitor is actually a separate computer running Linux and keyboard/mouse shared with Synergy, so I have multiple ebooks or documentation pages open, one on each virtual desktop... I can flip between the documentation by moving my mouse to the left and using a shortcut key.
When I first got two monitors I wanted to do the same as you, use all the space for visual studio, but I think that you come to realize that it's best to keep VS on one monitor and use the second monitor for documentation, external resources etc. You wouldn't think it at first, but all the little touches like just being able to maximize other resources without them hiding your code is a great feature.
For GUI debugging is awesome being able to run the app into one screen and having the debugger in another screen. That's one of the most practical uses..
But really, depends on which kind of application you're developing, i.e., if you need to monitor open file handles, logs, etc.
I have VS in my left monitor and the GUI/running window in the right. However, if you want to have to code tabs open on each monitor, you could use UltraMon's option to expand a window across both monitors, then drag a code page over such that it puts up a divider. Then, you align that divider with the break in your monitors.
I've done that before, just to test it out. It's not a bad setup.
Three monitors -- all 1600x1200
Left: Email, IM, SQL Server Management Studio, Remote Desktops to servers
Middle: VisualStudio -- maybe multiple instances -- maximized, solution explorer and team explorer docked on right, errors/output docked bottom, others auto-hide
Right: Web browsers -- app debugging and normal web work, ADUC (if needed)
Other apps get moved around depending on what I'm working on and how crowded the monitors are and the interaction between the app that's open and what I need the info from it for.
I have three monitors, set up where Visual Studio is full screen on the middle monitor, the right hand monitor has all the tool windows configured and the left monitor is for browser, help, SSMS, email, etc..
Works well except if I have to remote in, so I have a separate exported configuration to bring move the tool windows back into Visual Studio, and one to set them back up for multiple monitors.
Though I use StudioTools for other purposes, it has a "Tear off Editor" option, with which you can "tear off" the file to a window and resize the window. Find it quite helpful
I find the Code Definition window absolutely invaluable to have open in my other monitor. As the cursor moves over a type name in your editor the other window shows its definition.
You could try right-clicking a file in solution explorer, Open With, and then go find devenv.exe. That will open it up in a new instance of VS. Plus, it saves devenv as one of your default options in the future, so you don't have to go hunting around for devenv all the time. Not beautiful, but an option.