Tool to open, position and resize apps, docs, folders and tabs

Question

I'm new to this forum so apology if it's a wrong category.

I have tens of repetitive tasks to do every day. I need to open different things for each of these tasks. I work on two monitors and like to have everything visible so my screen looks similar to the screenshot below. For each task my screen looks differently but for the same task it looks the same every day. It really speeds things up as I memorise the locations and can do these tasks almost subconsciously.

The thing is that I spend ages to open, resize and position everything and make it ready to perform the task. That includes programs, documents, folders and Chrome tabs. Then I do around 10 to 20 repetitions of the task and I need to close everything. Then I need to open everything for second task and so on.

I thought there might be a piece of software that does the opening for me. Perhaps I can make a list of all programs, folders, tabs and documents I want to open, give them some parameters like height, width and x,y position and save it as a profile with a name. Profiles are listed the way I can click on them and upon clicking everything opens magically.

Or maybe I just open, resize and position everything I want and them I press a button and the program saves the state and saves it as a profile... You get the point.

Does anyone know of anything like that for Windows 7? Any tips are greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Answer 1

You can write a very simple script using AutoIt to do this.

I have just such a script in the Startup folder in Windows which opens the windows that I want every day, sizes them and moves them to the part of the screen where I want them. The resizing and moving can override the default opening location that Windows imposes.

You can open and control too. For example, you can open two copies of Windows Explorer, each at a different opening directory.

If you use a laptop, you can also put checks in the script for whether you are on a docking station or not and alter the windows appropriately. You can either put all your settings in the script itself or into a file as you suggest in your question.

The script language is very simple to pick up.

Answer 2

NirSoft AdvancedRun and a batch file should help you.

• works on Windows 7 (XP to Win10)
• can run a program (one only, that's why you need a batch file)
• can specify windows position and size

Screenshot from website: