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

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

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

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

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  amp  amp  start cmd link2  amp  amp  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

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

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

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

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

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