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
-webpage_commander_window=0	Unregister Alt+W hotkey and turn off the webpage commander feature
-hotkey "Q"	register Alt + Q as the hotkey to (de)activate webpage commander window, default hotkey is "W" (Alt + W)
-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_restart 5	Restart PersistentWindows in 5 seconds. This option should only be used in case normal start of PersistentWindows fails.
-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_new_display_session_from_db=0	Disable window restore from DB upon PC startup or switching display for the first time
‑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
-dump_window_pos_at_exit=0	Disable window pos dump at exit of PersistentWindows

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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:

    • Ctrl + Move or resize the window.

  • 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 to the center of main monitor

  • Shift + 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 to bring foreground window to bottom Z-order.
  • Ctrl + Alt + Click the PersistentWindows icon to bring maximized foreground window to bottom Z-order.

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

  • Ctrl + Click 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, Ctrl + Shift + move the window

Webpage commander window

• A webpage commander window captures command shortcuts (which is carefully designed to be done single handedly) and translates them to the underlying web browser window, maximizing the efficiency of web browsing.
• Press Alt + W to activate/deactivate the webpage commander window inside any browser window (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Brave, Vivaldi etc)
• Once activated, a tiny commander window in blue color is displayed in synchronization with the mouse cursor.

  Command shortcut	Translation	Meaning
  1-8	Ctrl + #n	select tab #n
  9	Ctrl + 9	select the right-most tab
  TAB	Ctrl + TAB	select the next tab to the right
  Q	Shift + Ctrl + TAB	select the previous tab to the left
  W	Ctrl + W	close the tab
  T	Ctrl + T	new tab
  R	Ctrl + R	Reload the web page
  A	Ctrl + L	edit the web Address
  S	Ctrl + F	Search in current page
  X (or /)	/	search the web
  E	Home	scroll to page head
  D	End	scroll to page end
  F	Alt + Right	go Forward to the next url
  B	Alt + Left	go Backward to the previous url
  G	Ctrl + Shift + A	Goto (select) one tab (for Chrome/Edge/Brave only)
  V		goto the last Visited tab
  C		Copy(duplicate) the current tab
  U (or Shift + T)	Ctrl + Shift + T	Undo close tab
  N	Ctrl + N	New browser window
  H	Left	scroll left
  J	Down	scroll down
  K	Up	scroll up
  L	Right	scroll right
  Space (or left click in the commander window)	PgDn	page down
  P (or right click in the commander window)	PgUp	page up
  Z		Zoom in/out the commander window
  ~		toggle the color of commander window
  Alt + click commander window		send the mouse click to the underlying browser window

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.