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microsoft / PowerToys

Windows system utilities to maximize productivity
MIT License
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Restore to this screen: Open minimized window to specific screen/desktop #12604

Open neman-pcas opened 3 years ago

neman-pcas commented 3 years ago

Description of the new feature / enhancement

The point: Currently in a multi-monitor setup, clicking the taskbar icon of a minimized application window restores it to its previous state on the same screen it was on when minimized.

This new feature would allow the user to restore the application window to its previous state on the desired screen.

Usage: Assuming the taskbar is visible on all screens in a multi-monitor setup, right-click (or hotkey-click) the application's taskbar entry on a screen that's not visible to your audience and select "Restore to this screen".

Behaviour: The application window restores to the screen that has the focus, regardless of what screen it was on when minimized. Any and all restoration animations take place on the screen that has the focus. If the application window was on another screen when originally minimized, no restoration activity of any sort is visible on that screen.

There's probably some benefit for virtual desktop users, but I'm not experienced enough with that feature to say.

Scenario when this would be used?

Almost every day, sometimes multiple times on the same day, I share an entire screen as part of an online meeting, am recording my screen for some reason, etc. In days past when presenting live, the presentation content was visible to the entire room.

I now want, for example, to check my email while sharing/recording/presenting my screen. My email application was minimized on some arbitrary screen - it could be the shared screen or not. I may have even forgotten which screen it was and now can't risk just restoring it as it could be visible to my audience.

The action of restoring, and the restored application window itself, should not be visible to my audience. It is, at the very least, disruptive. It could leak information to the wrong audience or just be embarrassing. It would create needless editing of a recorded video, or possibly redoing parts of a recording. It could disrupt students during a class, possibly show them the answers to an exercise. etc.

Supporting information

No response

franky920920 commented 3 years ago

I think this should be the enhancement of Windows 10/11 (The operating system), not for PT, a utility.

You can file this at the Feedback Hub

neman-pcas commented 3 years ago

That would be wonderful. I happen to wish everything in PowerToys was built into the OS. :-)

I've filed it at the Feedback Hub too - thanks for the link. If anyone picks up on this in PowerToys, I expect it'll see the light of day much more quickly than waiting for it to be released as part of the OS.

dedavis6797 commented 3 years ago

This would definitely be a useful feature in my own workflows, thanks for the suggestion! We'll log it for now and follow up internally on potential implementation paths after our general stability efforts.

Jay-o-Way commented 3 years ago

I guess in some situations this could indeed be very welcome. Also agree that somewhere in the OS would be the best solution, but

If anyone picks up on this in PowerToys, I expect it'll see the light of day much more quickly than waiting for it to be released as part of the OS.

is totally true. I'm afraid that, now Windows 11 is almost released, developments for Win 10 will become even less and less :-( My thought would be to insert a menu item in the menu on the task bar, below the normal "restore". Don't know how difficult it is to add anything to this menu, and handling it would obviously be done by a script.