This one had been nagging me for quite a while. I’m still using Windows 7 on a workstation and one of the big annoyances I have with it is that Internet Explorer won’t remember its last window size. For example, I open IE, manually resize the window to the size I want it to be, close IE, reopen IE, and it doesn’t remember how I sized it. This can get frustrating if for some reason I starts opening with a very small window size as it means every time I launch the program I have to resize the window, argh…
I searched the help forums on this issue, but none of the suggestions they offered seem to work. Then this morning while writing this newsletter I found a way to make Internet Explorer remember how I resize its window. Here’s what I did:
- First, I have IE pinned to the taskbar so I can launch it quickly.
- Next, I closed all IE windows that were open.
- Then I held down both the CTRL and SHIFT keys and clicked the IE icon on my taskbar.
- IE opened, and I resized the window the way I wanted by dragging the title bar and corners of the window.
- I closed IE and then opened it again by clicking the IE icon on the taskbar.
- Presto! IE remembered the way I resized it.
- I then resized the window differently, closed IE and reopened it.
- Wow, it remembered the NEW size this time!
In other words, it seems that closing all IE windows and then holding down both CTRL and SHIFT while clicking the IE icon the taskbar somehow “reset” IE so that it can now remember the last way I resize its window.
The above tip was previously published in an issue of WServerNews, a weekly newsletter from TechGenix that focuses on the administration, management and security of the Windows Server platform in particular and cloud solutions in general. Subscribe to WServerNews today by going to http://www.wservernews.com/subscribe.htm and join almost 100,000 other IT professionals around the world who read our newsletter!
Mitch Tulloch is an eleven-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award and a widely recognized expert on Windows Server and cloud computing technologies. Mitch is also Senior Editor of WServerNews. For more information about him see http://www.mtit.com.
Just a note that this will work from a desktop shortcut as well!
Nope – Does not work in Win10. tried all sorts of key modifiers, loading and closing. Worked in Win7 and previous well, silly M$ breaking a great feature!
Dave try posting this issue to https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=win10itprogeneral and maybe someone there has a workaround.
–Mitch
Here’s one that works on Windows 10 when I launch IE from its pinned taskbar icon, but doesn’t work when I launch from a URL shortcut (incidentally I have folder C:\Users\rcarnegie\Quick Launch mounted as a “Toolbar” inside the taskbar, that’s where the URL is) –
Position the window as you want it, size and location, then hold down the Ctrl keyboard key and click on the “X” graphical button at top right of IE’s window. Then IE will open in that position, until something else changes it.
Try this with other programs too. Alternatively… I also use a third-party utility called “AutoHotkey”. Besides trapping keystrokes in games (its original role), and having a very crude programming language, it can send a bunch of fancy commands to other programs, including window size and position. This lets me use a touch-screen keyboard program called “Fitaly” with the right-side one-quarter of the screen occupied by the taskbar and Fitaly sitting on the taskbar area, which otherwise would have Fitaly pushed away from the border or else hidden by the taskbar; every couple of seconds, my AutoHotkey script pushes Fitaly to the front of the screen. If you want details, contact rja dot surname at gmail – using my surname if you see what I mean.
Ctrl+Shift launches as Administrator. I had to do this 2 or 3 times of opening as Admin, resize, then closing before it finally stuck, but it did work. Thanks! On Win 10 1809.
Thanks, I wasn’t aware of that keyboard shortcut!