Set The Window Position of an application via command line

Question

I have an application which start in 0x0 position of my desktop  I want to open it in center of my desktop  I do not want to open it and use a move command to move it into center  just want my app to start immediately in center position   Is there any way to do this via command prompt  Any other way

User · Answer

I just found this question while on a quest to do the same thing.

After some experimenting I came across an answer that works the way the OQ would want and is simple as heck, but not very general purpose.

Create a shortcut on your desktop or elsewhere (you can use the create-shortcut helper from the right-click menu), set it to run the program "cmd.exe" and run it. When the window opens, position it where you want your window to be. To save that position, bring up the properties menu and hit "Save".

Now if you want you can also set other properties like colors and I highly recommend changing the buffer to be a width of 120-240 and the height to 9999 and enable quick edit mode (why aren't these the defaults!?!)

Now you have a shortcut that will work. Make one of these for each CMD window you want opened at a different location.

Now for the trick, the windows CMD START command can run shortcuts. You can't programmatically reposition the windows before launch, but at least it comes up where you want and you can launch it (and others) from a batch file or another program.

Using a shortcut with cmd /c you can create one shortcut that can launch ALL your links at once by using a command that looks like this:

cmd /c "start cmd_link1 && start cmd_link2 && start cmd_link3"

This will open up all your command windows to your favorite positions and individually set properties like foreground color, background color, font, administrator mode, quick-edit mode, etc... with a single click. Now move that one "link" into your startup folder and you've got an auto-state restore with no external programs at all.

This is a pretty straight-forward solution. It's not general purpose, but I believe it will solve the problem that most people reading this question are trying to solve.

I did this recently so I'll post my cmd file here:

cd /d C:\shortucts
for %%f in (*.lnk *.rdp *.url) do start %%f
exit

Late EDIT: I didn't mention that if the original cmd /c command is run elevated then every one of your windows can (if elevation was selected) start elevated without individually re-prompting you. This has been really handy as I start 3 cmd windows and 3 other apps all elevated every time I start my computer.

User · Answer

Bill K  s answer was the most elegant if you just want to start a window at startup or start from a shortcut on the desktop   Just open the window where you want it   right click and choose properties  select Layout uncheck  let system position window  and click OK   Window will now open just where you want it  You can set font and window colors at the same time on other tabs  sweet

User · Answer

Thanks To FuzzyWuzzy   set the following code   Quick  amp  Dirty Example for 1920x1080 screen resolution - without automatic width and height calculation or function use etc   in AutoHotKey  to achive the following      v cmd   c  temp 1st Monitor ps1 Run  Powershell exe -executionpolicy remotesigned -File  v cmd  SetTitleMatchMode 2 SetTitleMatchMode Fast WinWait  PowerShell Sleep  1000      A   Active window -  x y width height  WinMove A   0  0 1920 500  v cmd   c  temp 2nd Monitor ps1 Run  Powershell exe -executionpolicy remotesigned -File  v cmd  WinWait  PowerShell Sleep  1000      A   Active window -  x y width height  WinMove A   0  500 960 400  v cmd   c  temp 3rd Monitor ps1 Run  Powershell exe -executionpolicy remotesigned -File  v cmd  WinWait  PowerShell Sleep  1000      A   Active window -  x y width height  WinMove A   960  500 960 400   SMALL EDIT same code with Auto X   Y screen size calculation   4 monitors    yet  can be used for 3   2 monitors as well   Screen X    A ScreenWidth  Screen Y    A ScreenHeight   v cmd   c  temp 1st Monitor ps1 Run  Powershell exe -executionpolicy remotesigned -File  v cmd  SetTitleMatchMode 2 SetTitleMatchMode Fast WinWait  PowerShell Sleep  1000      A   Active window -  x y width height  WinMove A   0  0 Screen X 2 Screen Y 2  v cmd   c  temp 2nd Monitor ps1 Run  Powershell exe -executionpolicy remotesigned -File  v cmd  WinWait  PowerShell Sleep  1000      A   Active window -  x y width height  WinMove A   Screen X 2  0 Screen X 2 Screen Y 2  v cmd   c  temp 3rd Monitor ps1 Run  Powershell exe -executionpolicy remotesigned -File  v cmd  WinWait  PowerShell Sleep  1000      A   Active window -  x y width height  WinMove A   0  Screen Y 2 Screen X 2 Screen Y 2  v cmd   c  temp 4th Monitor ps1 Run  Powershell exe -executionpolicy remotesigned -File  v cmd  WinWait  PowerShell Sleep  1000      A   Active window -  x y width height  WinMove A   Screen X 2  Screen Y 2 Screen X 2 Screen Y 2

User · Answer

This probably should be a comment under the cmdow exe answer  but here is a simple batch file I wrote to allow for fairly sophisticated and simple control over all windows that you can see in the taskbar   First step is to run cmdow  t to display a list of those windows   Look at what the image name is in the column Image  then command line   mycmdowscript cmd imagename   Here are the contents of the batch file      mycmdowscript cmd   echo off SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION  SET IMAGE  1 SET ACTION   2 SET REST 1 SET PARAMS      GET ANY ADDITIONAL PARAMS AND STORE THEM IN A VARIABLE  FOR   I in      DO      IF  REST  geq 3         SET PARAMS  PARAMS    I         SET  A REST  1    FOR  F  USEBACKQ tokens 1 8    I IN   CMDOW  t   DO        IF  IMAGE     J            you now have access to the handle in   I      cmdow   I  ACTION   PARAMS             ENDLOCAL  echo on  EXIT  b   example usage     will set notepad to 500 500  mycmdowscript cmd notepad siz 500 500   You could probably rewrite this to allow for multiple actions on a single command  but I haven t tried yet   For this to work  cmdow exe must be located in your path   Beware that when you download this  your AV program might yell at you   This tool has  I guess  in the past been used by malware authors to manipulate windows   It is not harmful by itself

User · Answer

If you are happy to run a batch file along with a couple of tiny helper programs  a complete solution is posted here  How can a batch file run a program and set the position and size of the window  - Stack Overflow  asked  May 1  2012

User · Answer

Have found that AutoHotKey is very good for window positioning tasks   Here is an example script   Call it notepad ahk and then run it from the command line or double click on it   Run  notepad exe WinWait  ahk class Notepad WinActivate WinMove A   10  10  A ScreenWidth-20  A ScreenHeight-20   It will start an application  notepad  and then adjust the window size so that it is centered in the window with a 10 pixel border on all sides

User · Answer

You ll need an additional utility such as cmdow exe to accomplish this  Look specifically at the  mov switch  You can either launch your program from cmdow or run it separately and then invoke cmdow to move resize it as desired

User · Answer

You can use nircmd project here  http   www nirsoft net utils nircmd html Example code  nircmd win move ititle  quot cmd exe quot  5 5 10 10 nircmd win setsize ititle  quot cmd exe quot  30 30 100 200 nircmd cmdwait 1000 win setsize ititle  quot cmd exe quot  30 30 1000 600

[windows] Set The Window Position of an application via command line

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