I'm working on a Win32 app with multiple windows, some of which use WS_POPUPWINDOW style (no caption) and some of which use WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW style. The app has System DPI awareness.
When I move the overlapped windows between monitors, they scale to match the current monitor DPI as expected. But the popup windows only do this if there are no other open overlapped windows. Otherwise, they always try to match the scaling of the last active overlapped window in the same process, even if it's on another monitor with a different scale factor.
I guess this makes sense for some use cases, since you'd always want eg. a popup menu to match the scale of the current window. But I want my popups to behave as independent windows with their own scale factor.
How do I make popup windows always match the DPI of the monitor that they're positioned on?
As a quick fix before I eventually convert the app to per-monitor DPI awareness, I created an invisible overlapped owner window for the popup that tracks its position / size. This ensures that whenever the popup is active, it updates to use its owner's scaling, which always matches the current monitor.
We've run into a tricky situation developing our Windows application (problem applies to both our old WinForm-based app as well as our new UWP-based app). The application is used on a touch screen based device (15 – 27 inch touch screen depending on system size). Hence, no touch pad involved. Touch screen only (which does not have any Windows-related adjustments available that does effect this scenario. The touch device is identified as a “10-point multi touch screen” by Windows.
When using the tap-gesture (as opposed to previously using PointerPressed) the interface gets very picky about the way the user taps. If there is only the slightest "glide" when the finger touches the button (which is very often the case, it turns out, in usability studies) the pan-event is trigged (as opposed to the tap-event) and the button is not "pressed". The pan gesture is used for other purposes in the application.
The problem is specifically noticeable on smaller devices (with higher DPI). Probably a function of the finger used "does not scale" as the display does.
Is there a way to adjust for high DPI for the tap gesture? Something along the lines “if the slide is less than x pixels, then it’s not a pan but a tap”-kind of value?
“Google” has little to offer on the subject.. On the other hand - we simply cannot be the first to run into this situation!?
Basically I would like to run OS X application in full screen mode on two monitors. There is no specific layout I would like to accomplish, I would just like to zoom in application to use whole two screens. Only application that I saw behaves that way is parallels.
How do I accomplish that ?
UPDATE:
This application will run only on my personal setup where i have two screens with the same resolution. OSx application contains two tableview's. One table view have one column and second tableview have numerous columns. In fullscreen mode i would like to see as much of those columns from tableview2. Preferable would be that tableview2 stretches to use both screens.
There are several different approaches that you could use:
Create two full screen windows in which you will put two scrollviews
containing two tableviews displaying your data. Then, you will
need to scroll the tableviews to the appropriate position, in order
to display your content. You will also have to synchronize scrolling between the views.
Create one window that you enlarge, so that it spans across the monitor. This will be far easier than solution (1) since your displays are the same size. You have one large tableview. You have to take care of the dock and the toolbar.
Other solutions, requiring more voodoo. Not worthy of detailing.
Pro / Cons
Solution 1: the OS takes care of the dock and the toolbar for you. it is easy to deal with display of different size / resolution. But the setup (programmatically) requires some amount of effort.
Solution 2: Easy to setup. But you have to take care of the dock and the toolbar, and won't really work if the displays are of different size/resolution.
My purpose is to size a window to a width/height greater than the size of my physical screen programmatically under Win32. How can I do this?
On my systems it seems the maximum size of a given window is bound by the size of my screen whether programmatically or whether sizing manually by dragging the sizing cursor.
I have tried programmatically with SetWindowPos() and MoveWindow() and both cap the size of the target window. Oddly I know some people do not have this 'cap' so I wonder whether this is perhaps due to some OS setting (registry). Does anyone know something about this? Or perhaps some way to workaround it?
// Edit: new developments
I am testing on Windows XP and Windows 7. The graphics cards I'm using are a NVIDIA Quadro NVS 290 (256MB) and a Geforce 9800GT (1GB). After further investigation it looks like Windows is intercepting the message and fiddling with the parameters. For example, if you call SetWindowPos to make a target 2000x2000 it will only receive a WM_SIZE for the capped x/y.
Implement a message handler for WM_GETMINMAXINFO to stop Windows from applying the sane default behavior:
case WM_GETMINMAXINFO: {
DefWindowProc(hWnd, message, wParam, lParam);
MINMAXINFO* pmmi = (MINMAXINFO*)lParam;
pmmi->ptMaxTrackSize.x = 2000;
pmmi->ptMaxTrackSize.y = 2000;
return 0;
}
Windows with a thick frame (to allow user resize) are restricted from growing larger than the desktop.
Try SetWindowLong() clearing the THICKFRAME (0x40000) flag.
The following should allow programatic sizing, but the user will lose the ability to resize. If you add the Thickframe back after sizing, the user can resize, but when he does so the window will immediately shrink back to the desktop limited size.
The following is from some csharp code that also removes all borders, caption, etc:
WS style = (WS)GetWindowLong(ptr, GWL_STYLE);
style = style & ~WS.BORDER & ~WS.ThickFrame & ~WS.SYSMENU & ~WS.CAPTION | WS.POPUP;
SetWindowLong(ptr, GWL_STYLE, (int)style);
A good tool to play with window settings is uuSpy.
It's like Microsoft Spy++, but allows you to modify settings like THICKFRAME.
Yes, windows can be larger than the screen (or even the sum of all your monitors). Windows can also be positioned off-screen (which some applications do as a hack to hide while remaining active).
Perhaps the Windows 7 desktop manager is kicking in and trying to "dock" those windows to the edges of your screen for you.
You might try using the slightly lower-level API SetWindowPos, which gives you control over notifications, z-order, and other stuff.
You can get a window to be larger in resolution (and even way way larger) than your screen, using the 'Infinte Screen" software:
http://ynea.futureware.at/cgi-bin/infinite_screen.pl
Here's how to use it:
Download it, run it.
In the Oversize tab, choose the Windows you want to enlarge.
Give it the Width and Height you want. Done!
Just in case you need a large screenshot (that's how I ended up here):
If you want to get a screenshot of the window, you've got a screenshot option in the same Oversize tab. (Because screenshots are normally no bigger than the screen size, even if the window is larger). Another (and better) way to screenshot the window is using Greenshot, as you can save them in .tiff and directly watching the window.
Is there anything like Winsplit Revolution for Mac OS X?
Try these:
Zooom/2 ($15) has been my favorite since I installed it. Fast, flexible, and minimizes the number of key combinations I need to remember
Divvy ($15) might soon replace Zoom/2 for me. It's closer to Winsplit. You can arrange windows on a grid, define your own grid arrangements, and define your own shortcuts. It also minimizes the number of keystroke combinations you need to remember. BONUS: There are Mac and Windows versions, which means if you use both platforms you can use the same window management method across all your machines.
Breeze ($8) makes it easy to make windows fullscreen, split left, or split right. It also lets you save screen states (generic) and for specific apps.
Moom ($5) is a more recent entry. It supports both keyboard shortcuts and mouse shortcuts. For the mouse shortcuts, moving the cursor over the greeen zoom button displays a popup list of different layout options: full screen, left/right half, top/bottom half, or any of the corners.
SizeUp ($10) mimics various aspects of WinSplit functionality, but it relies on many keystroke combinations that take time to learn. The advantage is quickly moving windows. The drawback is that it uses up a lot of global keyboard shortcuts, and there are so many I couldn't remember them all.
Cinch ($7) is a mouse-driven app by the makers of SizeUp. Drag your window to various hot zones on the screen edges and the window will "cinch" to that edge and resize to fill half the screen. Similar to the built-in resizing feature in Windows 7.
MercuryMover ($20) is quite powerful and offers fine-grained control. However, there are a lot of different key combinations and, overall, I didn't find it as easy to learn or as elegant as WinSplit. I uninstalled it almost immediately. It struck me as powerful, but inefficient and unwieldy.
The DIY approach (free) mentioned in another post is to combine some applescripts and bind them to quicksilver triggers. I haven't tried this. But it is a free solution.
I found the weak window management one of the hardest things to cope with when I started using a Mac.
Why go beyond spaces and expose?
Winsplit significantly adds to what spaces and expose can do. I didn't understand the appeal until I actually used it. Before that, I thought virtual desktops (ie, like spaces) was enough. Now I consider it must-have functionality, especially on large monitors and multi-mon setups.
On my Windows machine running 3 monitors, I would rank the importance of these different apps in the following order:
Winsplit-like window rearranging
Spaces-like virtual desktops
Expose-like application switching
On my MacBook, I've learned to approach it the other way.
Expose-like application switching
Winsplit-like window rearranging
Spaces-like virtual desktops
From the Winsplit website I understand more or less the functionality; in the past I actually used to have my window manager (Waimea) configured to do exactly that in linux.
You may try using Quicksilver to trigger one of a custom set of applescripts; each applescript would resize and move the currently focused window to a predefined location.
See this macosxhints post for inspiration...
ShiftIt is a free option. Assignable hotkeys to resize to different portions of the screen (Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right, Full Screen and Center with current size)
Link to ShiftIt on github
Just click on the big download button towards the right of the screen.
Spectacle is a good option, its free and open source. And easy to use with keyboard shortcut :
Windows can be moved to a number of predefined regions of the screen:
Move to the left half ⌥⌘←
Move to the right half ⌥⌘→
Move to the top half ⌥⌘↑
Move to the bottom half ⌥⌘↓
Move to the upper left ⌃⌘←
Move to the lower left ⌃⇧⌘←
Move to the upper right ⌃⌘→
Move to the lower right — ⌃⇧⌘→
Another question on StackOverflow adresses the same issue
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/276760/tiling-window-manager-for-os-x
One answer provided links to an app called TwoUP. It's free, and does the job on OSX!
Thanks to Dong Hoon's answer, I have developed a hybrid solution. Using the AppleScript Editor, you can create scripts to resize the current window, like this:
tell application "System Events"
set _everyProcess to every process
repeat with n from 1 to count of _everyProcess
set _frontMost to frontmost of item n of _everyProcess
if _frontMost is true then set _frontMostApp to process n
end repeat
set _windowOne to window 1 of _frontMostApp
set position of _windowOne to {5, 0}
set size of _windowOne to {1150, 735}
end tell
such a script will work on a 13" MacBook. Using subtle variations of this script saved to /Users/[YourUserNameHere]/Library/Scripts, you can have configure the AppleScript Editor to show itself in the menu bar, where it will allow you to select a script to run.
Using several different scripts, I'm able to resize and reposition any window with only two clicks.
Hope this helps.
It looks like TwoUp is dead, but here are some other options:
Cinch ($7) is like Aero Snap for Mac.
Breeze ($8) allows you to save window states and restore them like a template to another window.
Divvy ($14) shows a grid on the screen where you can select boxes to indicate how you want the window to fill your screen.
I haven't used Winsplit, so I don't know how it compares, but an app I developed, Optimal Layout, offers very flexible window tiling, as well as moving and resizing from the keyboard:
http://most-advantageous.com/optimal-layout/
You can also try Arrange application which features resize and reposition with keyboard shortcuts, on screen menu and by dragging window.
You should also try out secondbar. gives you an extra menubar at the second display + re-arrange options. See this link.
You can even try SplitScreenapp.com. It allows you to resize Mac Windows in many ways including full split, half split, drag and snap, etc.
I doubt it. Between Spaces and Expose, there's not much need for a third-party app to help manage multiple windows.