IDEA: tool to allow resizing controls inside windows of other apps

[LuckMan212]

ok... stay w/ me here..   I have some poorly coded apps that have very tiny dialog boxes with very tiny edit boxes, list controls, etc.  These days most of us run 1280x1024 or higher resolutions and this is just unacceptable for certain tasks.  I would like to be able to "grab" a control inside one of these dialogs and resize it.  I believe this is possible, I have seen other programs "fiddle" with controls such as enabling "disabled" buttons, and making "non-resizable" windows resizable. 

the way I see it working is, you run the program, it sits in the tray.  Then you click to activate it, and as you hover the mouse over standard windows GUI controls (buttons, dialogs, editboxes etc) they will be outlined in red.  Probably most of you have seen this type of thing with screen-capture programs when you choose "object" mode. Then if you select that control by clicking on it, you can grab its edge and resize it.

does anyone know if something like this is even possible??  I feel like it should be, but not sure.  Hoping somebody will have the answer!!
cheers,
Luke

[r0bertdenir0]

Yr best bet would be either AutoHotkey or AutoIt.
For once off things the approach you describe is fine 2 drag & resize controls.
If you use these tiny apps regularly then that's too tedious 2 do all the time.
Rather have a script made in these languages monitoring 4 yr badly designed apps & as soon as they appear the windows & controls are resized automatically.

I prefer AutoHotkey cos of mouse hook support but both the above apps will do wat you ant very elegantly.
If you're lost then just download, install & play around with AutoHotkey & we can assist you more from there.

[LuckMan212]

I dont have too much experience w/ autohotkey, not sure where I would start with this one.  I use AutoIt because of its ability to compile native x64 apps.  Can you steer me in the right direction or link to some sample code (I am guessing I need to dive into WinAPI to achieve this, the built in AHK functions will surely not do what I am asking...)

[thefritz_j]

Dunno if the apps are ".net" but here's a handy tool I use all the time

"Hawkeye .Net Runtime Object Editor"
http://www.codeplex.com/hawkeye