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Author Topic: IDEA: Minimizes all windows except the active one (with fexiblity)  (Read 7426 times)

Sylex22

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Hi,

I found the awesome application (MinimOther) which does exactly what it says on the tin and is working like a charm.

However I'm struggling a little and hope you can help?

I have an application (Relation.exe), once opened it opens multiple other windows within itself. if I minimize the Relation.exe then it minimizes the app and all the windows within it. Therefore when MinimOther is running and I open a new window within itself it minimizes the whole Relation.exe itself therefore taking all the other windows with it.

I know the app ignores dialog windows which it seems to handle (i think). It seems these additional windows within Relation.exe are not dialog windows and are therefore treat like a seporate application.

Do you know if there is a way to stop it from minimizing windows within an active window? Also maybe some flexiblity to exclude certain applications?

This reason we want this application urgently is due to the fact that when minimizing an application it frees up so much memory (RAM), rather than flicking between applications which holds onto memory.

Example of RAM usage:

Outlook.exe - (on open: 24MB), (Minimized: 1.5 MB), (on restore: 6 MB)
Relation.exe - (on open: 80MB), (Minimized: 3.2 MB), (on restore: 9 MB)

We work in a terminal Server enviroment and users share RAM, by running MinimOther we can cut memory usage significantly!!!!

Your help would be much appreciated.

Please let me know if you need any further information.

Sylex22


 

brotherS

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Since there was no link to MinimOther in your post I googled and found that
a) it's by skrommel!  8)
b) lifehacker reported about it too! http://lifehacker.co...ndow-with-minimother - interesting comments.

Sylex22

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Yes the software can be downloaded from: https://www.donation...m/Software/Skrommel/

This is the free source code which I believe is coded in AutoHotKey (which I know nothing about - well scripting all together in fact):

;MinimOther.ahk
; Minimize all windows except the one active
;Skrommel @2005

#SingleInstance,Force
SetWinDelay,0

START:
Sleep,200
IfWinNotExist,ahk_id %id%
  WinRestore,A
WinGet,id,ID,A
WinGet,style,Style,ahk_id %id%
If(style & 0x20000)
{
  WinGet,winid_,List,,,Program Manager
  Loop,%winid_%
  {
    StringTrimRight,winid,winid_%A_Index%,0
    If id=%winid%
      Continue
    WinGet,style,Style,ahk_id %winid%
    If(style & 0x20000)
    {
      WinGet,state,MinMax,ahk_id %winid%,
      If state=-1
        Continue
      WinGetClass,class,ahk_id %winid%
      If class=Shell_TrayWnd
        Continue
      IfWinExist,ahk_id %winid%
        WinMinimize,ahk_id %winid%
    }
  }
}
Goto,START

I spoke a developer as well and he doesn't really know what to do.

Anybody any good with this scripting? Possibly needs a fews tweaks and then re-compiled?

Let me know your thoughts...

Sylex22

sri

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MinimOther is awesome! I didn't realize this is what I wanted when I was frustrated yesterday while trying to keep the active window in focus. I was minimizing everything to desktop and then activating the main window. Not any more. Thanks skrommel for making it and Sylex for mentioning it.
<a href="https://sridharkatakam.com">My blog</a>

lanux128

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adding some exceptions is possible so just hang in there. Skrommel would be able to take care of this when he is around but do give more info about this program such as screenshots, the actual program name. btw, here is the original thread for MinimOther.


Sylex22

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Thanks Lanux,

I will get some screen shots for you...

Interesting that the orginal post mentions the reduction in Memory usage. I did some calculations and it looks like it will save between 64% and 70% of memory just by minimising these apps! In a Terminal Server enviroment this is HUGE!

How are your apps behaving after using this app?

I'm testing using Office 2003 (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel), Internet Explorer 7, Pivotal eRelationship (problem app) to see how they behave.

Cheers,
Sylex22

Sylex22

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Also found this but it seems to use a constant 10% CPU.

http://lifehacker.co...y-windows-255055.php

lanux128

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Also found this but it seems to use a constant 10% CPU.

i thought that problem had been solved since i last posted about it but it seems apparently not. btw, i don't use the program all the time, so i can't say for sure how much are the RAM savings.. :)

also Sylex22, here's an idea on how to retrieve info about a program.

Sylex22

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I've been testing Swept Away all day and it seems to be doing the job, however it still has a problem with Pivotal eRelation (both Swept Away and MinimOther) and had to exclude it for now in Swept Away which is handy as I can push on until a fix.

Annoyning thing is that Pivitol eats up all the memory, but hopefully by minimizing the other apps (IE 7, Word, Excel etc etc)it will still make a huge difference to the memory usage!

So for the moment I'm happy using Swept Away as it has more features. MinimOther is great (does what it says on the tin).


lanux128

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Annoyning thing is that Pivitol eats up all the memory, but hopefully by minimizing the other apps (IE 7, Word, Excel etc etc)it will still make a huge difference to the memory usage!

how much RAM do you have on your system? if it's less than 1GB, it's better to upgrade since that way you'll gain a lot in terms of productivity. :)