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
-foreground_background_dual_position=0	turn off dual position switching
-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 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), in case restore is incomplete or monitor fails to go to sleep due to restore starts too early.
-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

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 "Restore windows from disk" menu.

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Shortcuts to manipulate positions of one window

• Switching a window between foreground and background mode with potentially different positions and sizes, aka Dual Position Switching.
  • 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 bring a background window to foreground without restoring to 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 PW icon
• To put the foreground window behind all other windows (similar to the Alt+Esc shortcut provided by Windows OS, which however does not work for windows inside a remote desktop window)
  • Alt click the desktop window.
  • Ctrl Alt click the PW icon if the foreground window is maximized.
• To momentarily suppress window capture, for example during start menu invocation
  • press Ctrl Alt keys
• To enable/disable auto restore for non-toplevel window (such as a child or dialog window)
  • To include a child/dialog window for auto capture/restore, move the window once using mouse
  • To exclude a window from auto capture/restore, press Ctrl Shift keys when moving the window

Other features

• Replace the default app icon with your customized one
  • Save your icon file as pwIcon.ico and copy it to C:/Users/\<YOUR_ID>/AppData/Local/PersistentWindows/, or copy it to the directory where you are invoking PersistentWindows from using the -redirect_appdata command argument.
  • Save the second icon file as pwIconBusy.ico in the same directory. This icon is displayed when PersistentWindows is busy restoring windows.