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Microsoft Windows has a feature that automatically moves and resizes all application windows whenever the desktop dimensions change. Ideally this should happen only when the user permanently shrinks or disconnects a display so window drag handles stay reachable by the mouse cursor. In practice there are many other trivial events that can trigger the re-positioning. For various reasons it becomes much more noticeable in multi-monitor systems.

There are questions around the web such as this one that address specific trivial events triggering the re-positioning, but this question is not about any of those specific problems. In my circumstances this feature does more harm than good and so I want the option to take complete responsibility for managing window positions.

Is there any way to disable this feature?

(A common workaround is software tools that save and restore window positions, but the process of re-arranging a large set of windows twice wastes a lot of user time and the process sometimes causes application-specific problems.)

DBN
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    its not a feature, its a side effect of screen redraw. if the DPI or Res changes, then the index for the window position is going to be a different pixel then it was before the change. – Frank Thomas Apr 03 '22 at 05:14
  • @FrankThomas You seem to be referring to the fact that the desktop coordinate system's center is the [top left corner of the primary monitor](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/gdi/window-coordinate-system). This is exactly the positioning I want to be left unmodified. If the feature I am referring to is disabled and the primary monitor shrunk, existing windows would stick off the right and bottom edges of the monitor. As it is, the windows initially appear in such positions and sooner or later get moved to different in-bounds positions. – DBN Apr 03 '22 at 05:33
  • Do you mean that when shrinking the screen resolution, you wish some windows to stick out of the screen (if required)? – harrymc Apr 03 '22 at 10:18
  • Yes, if disabling this feature causes windows to stick out of the screen or become completely hidden I am okay with that. I already know the procedure to recover lost windows. (If any Microsoft developers are reading this, the preferred UX would be for a popup to ask the user if they want to correct the window positions, just like the confirmation popup after changing screen resolution.) – DBN Apr 04 '22 at 03:25

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