PersistentWindows/Help.md

PersistentWindows Quick Help

Command Line Options

Command line option	Meaning
-gui=0	Do not display the PersistentWindows icon on the System Tray. Effectively runs PersistentWindows as a service
-splash=0	No splash window at PersistentWindows startup
-legacy_icon	Switch to the original icon (as of 5.49 release)
-silent	No splash window, no balloon tip hint, no event logging
-ignore_process "notepad.exe;foo"	Avoid restoring windows for the processes notepad.exe and foo
-debug_process "notepad.exe;foo"	Print the window positioning event logs in Event Viewer for the processes notepad.exe and foo
-foreground_background_dual_position=0	Turn off dual position switching
-hotkey_window=0	Turn off hotkey window for web browsing
-ctrl_minimize_to_tray=0	Turn off ctrl minimize window to notification tray
-prompt_session_restore	Ask the user before restoring the window layout upon resuming the last session. This may help reduce the total restore time for remote desktop sessions on slow internet connections.
-delay_auto_capture 1.0	Adjust the lag between window move event and auto-capture to 1.0 second, the default lag is 3~4 seconds.
-delay_auto_restore 2.5	Adjust the lag between monitor on/off event and auto-restore to 2.5 seconds (the default lag is 1 second). This is in case the restore is incomplete or the monitor fails to go to sleep due to the restore starting too early.
-redraw_desktop	Redraw the whole desktop after a restore, in case some window workarea is not refreshed
-fix_zorder=1	Preserve the window Z-order for automatic restores. The Z-order of a window indicates the window's position in a stack of overlapping windows.
-fix_offscreen_window=0	Turn off auto correction of off-screen windows
-fix_unminimized_window=0	Turn off auto restore of unminimized windows. Use this switch to avoid undesirable window shifting during window activation, which comes with Event id 9999 : "restore minimized window ...." in event viewer.
‑auto_restore_missing_windows=1	When restoring from disk, restore missing windows without prompting the user
‑auto_restore_missing_windows=2	At startup, automatically restore missing windows from disk. The user will be prompted before restoring each missing window
‑auto_restore_missing_windows=3	At startup, automatically restore missing windows from disk without prompting the user
-invoke_multi_window_process_only_once=0	Launch an application multiple times when multiple windows of the same process need to be restored from the database.
-check_upgrade=0	Disable the PersistentWindows upgrade check
-auto_upgrade=1	Upgrade PersistentWindows automatically without user interaction

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Shortcuts to capture/restore snapshots

Snapshot command	Shortcut
Capture snapshot 0	Double click the PersistentWindows icon
Restore snapshot 0	Click the PersistentWindows icon
Capture snapshot X	Double click the PersistentWindows icon, then immediately press key X (X represents a digit [0-9] or a letter [a-z])
Restore snapshot X	Click the PersistentWindows icon, then immediately press key X
Undo the last snapshot restore	Alt-click the PersistentWindows icon

Shortcuts for capture/restore windows on disk

• To save a named capture to disk, Ctrl-click the "Capture windows to disk" menu option, then enter a name in the pop-up dialog
• To restore the named capture from disk, Ctrl-click the "Restore windows from disk" menu option, then enter the name of the previously saved capture in the dialog
• To restore capture from a different display config, Shift-click the "Restore windows from disk" menu option.

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Shortcuts to manipulate positions of a window

• Dual Position Switching allows a window to switch between foreground and background mode of different positions and sizes

  • To activate Dual Position Switching:

    • move or resize the window while pressing the Ctrl key.

  • Dual Position Switching functionality:

    • Click the desktop window to bring the foreground window to its previous background position and Z-order.
    • Shift-click the desktop window to bring the foreground window to its second last background position. This is useful if the previous background position is mis-captured due to invoking start menu or other popups.
    • Ctrl-click the desktop window to bring the foreground window to its previous Z-order while keeping the current location and size.

  • To cancel Dual Position Switching:

    • move or resize the window without pressing the Ctrl key.

  • To bring a background DPS window to foreground without restoring to the previous foreground position:

    • press any of Ctrl/Shift/Alt key when activating the window

• To restore a new window to its last closing position:

  • Ctrl-click the PersistentWindows icon

• To put the foreground window behind all other windows (similar to the Alt+Esc shortcut provided by the Windows OS, which, however, does not work for windows inside a remote desktop window):

  • Alt-click the desktop window.
  • Ctrl-Alt-click the PersistentWindows icon if the foreground window is maximized.

• To hide a window to the notification area in the taskbar:

  • Press the Ctrl key when clicking the minimize button

• To enable/disable auto restore for non-toplevel windows (such as a child or dialog window):

  • To include a child/dialog window for auto capture/restore, move the window once using the mouse
  • To exclude a window from auto capture/restore, press the Ctrl-Shift keys when moving the window

Hotkey window for efficient web browsing

• A hotkey window is used to translate simplified keyboard/mouse commands and relay them to the underlying web browser window.
• Press Alt + Q to activate/deactivate the hotkey window.
• Once the hotkey window is activated, the following command shortcuts are ready to use

  Keyboard shortcut	Translation	Meaning
  TAB	Ctrl + TAB	next tab
  Q	Shift + Ctrl + TAB	previous tab
  W	Ctrl + W	close tab
  T	Ctrl + T	new tab
  1-8	Ctrl + #n	goto tab #n
  9		goto last tab
  C		Copy tab (duplicate tab)
  R		Reload web page
  A		enter web Address
  S		Search in web page
  E	Home	goto page head
  D	End	goto page end
  F	Alt + Right	go Forward to next web page
  B	Alt + Left	go Backward to previous web page
  G		Go to the list of tabs (for google chrome only)
  P		page up
  N		page down
  J		scroll down
  K		scroll up
  Z		toggle the size of hotkey window, Zoom in/out
  X		toggle the color of hotkey window
  left mouse button click in the blank area of hotkey window		page down
  right mouse button click in the blank area hotkey window		page up

Other features

• To replace the default app icon with your customized one:
  • Rename your .ico (or .png) file as pwIcon.ico (or pwIcon.png) and copy it to the PersistentWindows program folder, or alternatively to C:/Users/<YOUR_ID>/AppData/Local/PersistentWindows/.
  • Copy another icon file to the same directory and rename it to pwIconBusy.*. This icon is displayed when PersistentWindows is busy restoring windows.