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Download Shove-it version 1.5

Windows has a bug related to window placement. Microsoft says it is not Windows' fault but the applications' faults instead. In fact, the API is probably most at fault for being ambiguous and ever changing, but in any case most of Microsoft's own applications exhibit the bug so they can't escape blame.

The bug is "caused" by the new desktop taskbars that you can dock at the edges of the screen. If the taskbar is on the bottom of the screen, then your desktop is smaller than your screen size. If your taskbar is docked at the top of the screen (my favorite place) then your desktop is smaller than your screen size and your desktop's top-left corner is no longer at (0,0)! This is the biggest problem for application developers who use similar but fatally unrelated API functions to get and set the coordinates of their windows.

In the simple case you might have a window whose edge sticks off the screen. In more severe cases you might have a window that is too big for your desktop space. In some cases a window will be created with the caption bar completely hidden by the taskbar – not only is the Close box hidden, but you can't click on the title bar to drag it back into view! The worst case is likely when the window creeps completely off-screen so the only way to see it is in Maximized mode.

The fix

Shove-it fixes this bug by monitoring your application windows and correcting any that stray out of the desktop bounds. The way it does this is user configurable, and it can even re-size a window to fit on the desktop if necessary.

Shove-it normally runs as a background program performing its magic diligently without any user intervention. To change the Shove-it program Properties, right-click the Shove-it icon that appears in the taskbar tray (next to the clock) and select Properties from the menu. Or, if you have the tray icon turned off, just run Shove-it a 2nd time and the Properties dialog will appear.

Shove-it is distributed as a self-installing .EXE file. Execute the .EXE and follow the installation prompts. If you have an older version of Shove-it running you should close and uninstall it before installing the new version.

When Shove-it is installed it is loaded as part of your StartUp group so that it will autmatically run each time you restart your computer. To uninstall Shove-it, use the Control Panel "Add/Remove programs" applet or simply click "Uninstall" in the Shove-it program group on the start menu.

Shove-it began as a small (4 hours) project in 1994 to fix a very annoying problem in the new Windows 95 Beta. I've now spent a few hundred hours on it not including answering all my mail. Shove-it version 1.5a is shareware. Enjoy.

This site is infrequently maintained by Phil Hord
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