PersistentWindows/Help.md

PersistentWindows Quick Help

Command Line Options

Command line option	Meaning
-delay_start 10	Delay the application startup by 10 seconds. Useful if PersistentWindows autostart fails to show the icon because of Windows Update.
-redirect_appdata	Use the current directory instead of the User AppData directory to store the database file. This option is also useful for launching multiple PersistentWindows instances.
-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
-notification=1	Turn on balloon tip and sound notification when restoring windows
-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 window positioning event logs for the processes notepad.exe and foo in event viewer
-prompt_session_restore	Ask the user before restoring the window layout upon resuming the last session. This may help to reduce the total restore time for remote desktop sessions on slow internet connections.
-delay_auto_capture 1.0	Adjust the latency from window move event to auto-capture to 1.0 second, the default latency is 3~4 seconds.
-delay_auto_restore 2.5	Adjust the latency from monitor on/off event to auto-restore to 2.5 seconds (the default latency is 1 second), in case some monitor fails to go to sleep due to auto-restore starts too early.
-slow_restore	Slow down the auto-restore progress to avoid incomplete restore due to adversarial moves by Windows OS
-redraw_desktop	Redraw the whole desktop after a restore in case some window workarea is not refreshed
-fix_zorder=1	Preserve window Z-order for automatic restore. 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

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Other Features

• Save a named capture to disk:

  • Ctrl click the "Capture windows to disk" menu option, then enter a name in the pop-up dialog

• Restore a named capture from disk:

  • Ctrl click the "Restore windows from disk" menu option, then enter the saved name in the dialog

• Run PersistentWindows with custom icons:

  • Save your icon file as pwIcon.ico and copy it to C:/Users/\<YOUR_ID>/AppData/Local/PersistentWindows/, or copy it to the current directory if running PersistentWindows with the -redirect_appdata command line option.
  • Save the second icon file as pwIconBusy.ico. This icon is displayed when PersistentWindows is busy restoring windows.

• Manipulate the window z-order:

  • Bring a window to the top of the z-order by clearing the topmost flag of an obstructive window:
    • Click on the other window first to de-focus, then Ctrl click the window that you want to bring to the top (or the corresponding icon on the taskbar).
  • Send a remote desktop or vncviewer window to the bottom of the z-order (because the Alt+Esc hotkey may not work for them on Windows 7 or old Windows 10 versions):
    • De-focus the rdp window first, then hold Ctrl+Win and click on the rdp window

• Enable/Disable auto restore for any (child or dialog) window:

  • To add a window for auto capture/restore, move the window using the mouse
  • To remove a window from auto capture/restore, hold Ctrl+Shift then move the window