How can I start a program minimised, and restore maximised?

There are various options to start a program minimised, or to start a program maximised and they work well, but I'm always looking for new challenges.

If I start a program minimised using the Devil's Pie method, and then click on it in the launcher, it restores to its regular size. Instead, I would like it to restore to a maximised state.

In other words, I want it to act as though it had started maximised, and then been minimised.

1 Answer

You can achieve a minimized maximized window using Python:

import wnck
import gtk
import subprocess
import time
chrome = subprocess.Popen(["google-chrome"])
b = True
while b: screen = wnck.screen_get_default() while gtk.events_pending(): gtk.main_iteration() windows = screen.get_windows() for w in windows: if w.get_pid() == chrome.pid: w.maximize() w.minimize() b = False time.sleep(1)
chrome.wait()

google-chrome in this case will maximize then minimize. After this you just create a .desktop that can launch the script like the example shown below:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Application Name
Comment=Application Comment
Exec=python /exact/path/to/python/script.py
Icon=icon
Categories=valid categories;

Make sure to set the desktop as a executable file or it will not function.

The script should be edited on line 6 where google-chrome should be replaced with whatever command you wish to execute. If the program have parameters they can be passed as following: "google-chrome", "para1", "para2".

Cred to this question for the python script (changed to chrome in my testing).