Remember window sizes and placement when unplugging and replugging second monitor.

Question

Here's something that sucks:

1. Plug in external monitor to laptop (Mac OS X Leopard in my case).
2. Arrange your windows to have the IDE on one screen and browser on another. (Etc etc. Resize, rearrange, fuss, fuss, fuss.)
3. Unplug monitor to run to a meeting, or whatever.
4. Goto 1.

I'd like to replace step 2 with "computer remembers exactly how I had it and just puts it back that way".

(I personally only need a solution for Mac but collecting solutions for other systems here might be useful for others. I'm sure it's a common problem.)

Answer 1

Before you unplug the monitor, close everything that's not entirely on the main monitor. Applications generally save their state (including window placement) when they close, and read it when they open, so if the second monitor is present at both of those times you should be fine.

You can take advantage of applications which allow more than one instance to be open at a time, but only save state on close. Close the multi-monitor instance (which causes the state to be saved). Unplug the second monitor. If you have a second instance running, it should be repositioned onto the main monitor, or you can start another instance. Don't close this instance before plugging the second monitor in again and starting another instance (which would then read the multi-monitor configuration on startup). Then you can quit the single-monitor instance (saving that state), and then the multi-monitor instance (overwriting the single-monitor state).

A more complex option might include figuring out where the state is saved, backing it up, and writing a batch file / script to restore it before opening the application, which would allow you to make a link to do this automatically when you start the application.

Finally, there may be such a utility for your platform, or writing one might not be too complex. For Windows, there is a program called ShiftWindow that can reposition windows either on application startup or on a certain hot-key. I'm afraid I don't know MacOS well enough to say if a similar utility exists. This is probably the ideal solution, second only to having the OS support such a thing directly.

Answer 2

At least on Windows, many apps will restore themselves if you maximize them before switching monitors. Leave them alone while you're in the meeting, then restore them after reconnecting.

It's still an incomplete fix (and hassle) but it's the only thing I know to do if I want some chance of resurrecting my carefully placed windows. ShiftWindow sounds intriguing though...

And if you go from two monitors down to one, Alt+Spacebar+M then arrowkeys is a life-saver (Windows again, sorry) if you "lose" your windows.

Answer 3

http://www.n8gray.org/code/forget-me-not/ for OSX 10.4

Answer 4

http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/twoup/index.html

I found this via Lifehacker, and it works great for me. I'm using the pro version SizeUp as opposed to the free TwoUp, and it's perfect.

Answer 5

I'm a Windows user and was looking how to switch off the new Windows 7 feature to move all windows away from the unplugged external monitor. I found the receipt (for ATI video cards) to set all DMMEnableDDCPolling values in registry to 0. It disables the automatical check if the monitor is switched off. Now if the monitor is unplugged and plugged again, all windows keeps in the same position.

Here's the answer which helped me: http://superuser.com/questions/120983/how-to-disable-monitor-auto-detection-in-windows-7 (answer by Alex)

Answer 6

You guys need to have a look at Stay by Cordless Dog. I believe it does exactly what you're looking for.