Program's window won't hold its resize

[highstream]

I use the audio program Linn Kazoo. When I first installed it several weeks ago, its window opened a normal size, but since an uninstall/reinstall for unrelated reasons - now three times - that's no longer been the case. Kazoo's window now always opens wide and off the bottom of the screen, down through the bottom taskbar. See the screenshot. The way I adjust window size permanently in Windows is to hold the Cntl key while resizing, but unlike other programs, such as Opera browser last night, Kazoo refuses to hold the resize on the next open or the next computer session. I've run Yamicsoft Win 8 Mgr and scannow but that didn't help. I posted the problem on the Linn forum, but someone else with the same size monitor - 1920x1200 - hasn't seen this. This is Windows 8.1 Pro x64, dpi=115%. Any ideas? Thanks,

 

[MilesAhead]

Try holding the Shift key while resizing.

Also you can set the size and position, then save it as a custom size. You can hit a hotkey to set size and position using my MoveIt freeware. Unfortunately it only has single monitor support as that's all I have to test with. You may download from
Miles Ahead's Windows Downloads

Note on Windows 8, you probably need to run MoveIt As Administrator. Documentation is in About Box and Readme.txt.

Edit: ( See hotkey z for setting a custom size and position for one of the hotkeys )

 

[highstream]

Thanks. Holding Shift doesn't work, I had already tried it. I'm having a hard time with MoveIt. It's having no effect on Kazoo but resizing this window as I type. I don't normally use hot keys other than a few standard Windows' ones, so probably don't quite get it. Also, I don't have a Win key (IBM model M keyboard).

 

[MilesAhead]

Did you run MoveIt as administrator? In W8 it seems to need that.

The fastest thing to try is put the mouse on the caption bar of Linn Kazoo window, hold down the middle mouse button, press the 'c' key. It should take up most of the screen and be above the Taskbar. If the Taskbar is set to AutoHide then the system does not give work area info. The work area is reported the same numbers as the screen res. Try it with AutoHide disabled.

If it does resize when you press 'c' then size the window with the mouse, middle mouse hold on caption bar and press 'z' key. An input box will open. Press the 'c' key and click OK. Now when you hotkey 'c' using the middle mouse as before, it should size and position as you set it with the mouse.

Edit: If it does "resize as you type" then I suspect you have some malware on your system. In that case I would start with a full scan using MBAM

The free version of MBAM is fine for scanning.

 

[highstream]

Thanks for those instructions. The good news is it works, the bad is that I still haven't figured out why Kazoo isn't responding to the normal Windows sizing commands. With MoveIt, I also found something else: it works as long as I start MoveIt manually, but not if the program is put in the startup folder and thus started at boot up.

 

[highstream]

Thanks for the instructions. The good news is that MoveIt works per your instructions, the bad is that I still don't know why Windows resizing method isn't. In addition, something I noticed about MoveIt is that it only works manually, i.e., it doesn't respond if run at computer startup (from the startup folder).

 

[MilesAhead]

I know. Windows won't let a program Run As Administrator autostart unless it runs as a service or is started using Task Scheduler. I hate scheduled tasks. But here's a tutorial how to set up any program using it:

Task - Create to Run a Program at Startup and Log On - Windows 7 Help Forums

What i do is use a macro to click a shortcut that runs all my stuff that has to be run as admin. But if the Start Page flyout is over the desktop like when I click for WiFi hotspots, it doesn't work. I see WizMouse sets up task scheduler to get around it. Maybe I can ask the programmer for his code that does it.

 

[MilesAhead]

While working on the problem you might find a more automatic work-around using WinSize2

If it needs run as admin on W8 I do not know.

 

[Cliff S]

I know. Windows won't let a program Run As Administrator autostart unless it runs as a service or is started using Task Scheduler. I hate scheduled tasks. But here's a tutorial how to set up any program using it:

Won't it run at start up if you create an icon for the program and place it in
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
That's how I'm running System Transparency from Prisoner. For the settings he has an .ini configuration file, that places itself in Documents, but you could also place it in App Data like most software Devs do to make sure the user doesn't accidently ruin it if it's not to be used by him.

 

[MilesAhead]

It will try to run but Windows will not allow it. That's why Brink has the tutorial to create a scheduled task and the author of WizMouse creates a scheduled task to autostart the utility when it must be run as administrator.

I also tried using the Run registry key. No dice. Of course if it is not run as administrator it starts without a problem. On W7 and earlier it does not need to run as admin to work.

Edit: The only utility I saw to auto start run as admin programs without using task scheduler relaunches itself requesting debug privileges, then it launches the run as startups. I got funky errors no doubt due to the debug privileges.

 

[Cliff S]

It will try to run but Windows will not allow it. That's why Brink has the tutorial to create a scheduled task and the author of WizMouse creates a scheduled task to autostart the utility when it must be run as administrator.

I also tried using the Run registry key. No dice. Of course if it is not run as administrator it starts without a problem. On W7 and earlier it does not need to run as admin to work.

Edit: The only utility I saw to auto start run as admin programs without using task scheduler relaunches itself requesting debug privileges, then it launches the run as startups. I got funky errors no doubt due to the debug privileges.

I was just wondering if one makes the shortcut run as admin, like my batch file shortcuts, if it would work. I'm more a power user, and definitely not a coder or software dev. But I always try to learn something.

 

[MilesAhead]

It will try to run but Windows will not allow it. That's why Brink has the tutorial to create a scheduled task and the author of WizMouse creates a scheduled task to autostart the utility when it must be run as administrator.

I also tried using the Run registry key. No dice. Of course if it is not run as administrator it starts without a problem. On W7 and earlier it does not need to run as admin to work.

Edit: The only utility I saw to auto start run as admin programs without using task scheduler relaunches itself requesting debug privileges, then it launches the run as startups. I got funky errors no doubt due to the debug privileges.

I was just wondering if one makes the shortcut run as admin, like my batch file shortcuts, if it would work. I'm more a power user, and definitely not a coder or software dev. But I always try to learn something.

I tried that. It won't work because Windows considers it a security issue. What you can do is use Brink's tutorial to run a program as admin from scheduled tasks, and have that program run all shortcuts in a folder. I have a folder with all run as shortcuts and a program to run it. But I have to run a macro to double click the desktop icon or click it myself.

I was toying with the idea of setting up a task to launch the program using Brink's tutorial. But it seems like every time I try to use task scheduler something gets corrupted. I once copied the Vista Calendar program into W7 to have it open only when there was an appointment using task scheduler. It worked great for about 2 weeks. I had to keep refreshing the task file for some unknown reason. It's just a pita.

 

[Cliff S]

every time I try to use task scheduler something gets corrupted

Yeah that is a sensitive part of Windows. A few years ago I had a spare HDD that I imaged my Win7 onto to test some of those "Optimization" software like IOBIT, Wise & Glary to see what they did and how long till something broke, and very often the Task Scheduler would be corrupted after about a week... then some service or another would bite the bullet being most depend on task scheduler to activate them(oddly never had a registry problem though).

 

[highstream]

I have a program, MinimServer that ran from the Startup folder when I first set it up, but since an uninstall/reinstall hasn't. MoveIt shows up in the sys tray like it's started, but the functionality in terms of hotkeys is not there w/o closing and running it manually.

 

[MilesAhead]

I have a program, MinimServer that ran from the Startup folder when I first set it up, but since an uninstall/reinstall hasn't. MoveIt shows up in the sys tray like it's started, but the functionality in terms of hotkeys is not there w/o closing and running it manually.

It is weird. I have some VMs with Linux and Windows. I have a utility that adds a shortcut to the Registry Run key for the current user. I tried some of my utilities in W7 64 bit VM to start as admin. Some would some not. Seems no rhyme or reason to it.

WizMouse seems o work pretty well without running as admin. So for now I think I'll stick with a program to launch all my startups that need to run as admin. If the double click macro doesn't work I just hit it manually and it starts everything else.

You are welcome to use it if it is of any help. It's only a few lines. You would need to get AHK from here:
AutoHotkey

On my system I put all my shortcuts for startup run as admin in
C:\Utils\StartAdmin

You may change the script as you like.

SendMode Input
SetWorkingDir,%A_ScriptDir%
Loop  C:\Utils\StartAdmin\*.lnk
  Run %A_LoopFileLongPath%

 

[highstream]

Thanks, I'll take a look at it. As for now, I'm wearing out the scroll wheel on my mouse since installing MoveIt

 

[MilesAhead]

Glad it's useful to you.

btw the script should be run as admin itself so it can launch the shortcuts with the same privilege level.