I have a Windows 10 laptop and an ultrawide (3440x1440) second monitor, and I scale both monitors to 125% for readability. I use PortableApps but don't "port" it - it's simply installed in a folder on my main drive. I have Firefox Quantum 62.0, Portable of course. I normally keep my Firefox window on the second monitor, and it used to happily open wherever it was when I closed it previously. One day that changed. Now, if it was closed while on that second monitor, it will reopen below and to the right of where it was when it closed (roughly 360 pixels down and 160 pixels to the right). That differential is consistent no matter where on the monitor it was. The window's size is remembered correctly, and I normally use Firefox mostly filling the right half of the ultrawide, so when it does this, it is slid partially off the screen in both axes. Yeah, I can slide it back. Yeah, it's a first-world problem. But it's annoying.
The problem does not occur with any other software, even Thunderbird Portable. (Some software is dumb and always reopens on the primary monitor, but any software that can reopen on the second monitor will do so in the right place.) If I set the scale to 100%, or if it's on the primary monitor (even at 125%), Firefox behaves correctly.
This problem started recently (sometime within the last couple weeks, I think), and I've not changed anything about my monitor arrangement in ages. I don't know if I did something wonky with Firefox right before it started acting this way, but if I did, how do I fix it?
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Firefox and Thunderbird don't maintain window position internally. It's handled by Windows itself. So, there's nothing we can do to alleviate the problem.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Thanks - that was not what I expected. Is that true just of those, or all apps? If Windows is handling positioning for everything, it seems strange that it would launch some apps where they were before and other apps in some default spot (e.g. always on the primary monitor)? I would expect Windows to handle them all the same. In fact, it's interesting that my PortableApps apps have a better batting average than my expensive stuff like Adobe (some Adobe apps "remember", some don't), DirectoryOpus, etc., even though nothing is stored in the Windows registry for the PortableApps stuff and Windows acts semi-oblivious to their existence in other respects (like not offering them in the "Open with..." context menu). Still baffled about how my computer works...
Did you happen to update to a new build of Windows? That might have something to do with it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Perhaps. The two most recent system updates (according to the history) were 8/16 and 9/12. I thought the time this glitch started was more like the middle between those dates, but I could be wrong. And it's entirely possible that FF was open when Windows abruptly restarted - when Windows Update wants to restart the PC without my permission (grrr!), it does not close the portable apps beforehand like it does other apps.
If Windows is doing it, is there a registry entry for the position of each app? If so, perhaps removing it and letting Windows recreate it might shake something loose.
I didn't do anything special that I'm aware of, but about a month after it started, it stopped doing that annoying behavior. The window now opens in the place I closed it, like it should. I just thought I'd close the loop on this thread in case someone else reads it.
I'm a bit late to the party now on this topic but just want to give http://www.brianapps.net/sizer4/ a mention. I've used it for years for resizing windows to preset sizes and positions in little more than a couple of clicks. Well worth looking into.
Use Portable Apps on both Flash Drive and HDD/SSD.