How can I make a Tkinter application utilise all screen space?

Question

I'm trying to find a way to make a Tkinter application's main window utilise all screen space. I have to always maximise the screen after the app starts. I have tried this code:

win.state('zoomed')

However, it's not supported on Linux. I need a solution that will work on any platform.

Have you tried using the `wm_attributes` method? – Bryan Oakley Apr 27 '22 at 21:36 — Bryan Oakley, Apr 27 '22 at 21:36
@BryanOakley can you give me an example? – Al1nuX Apr 27 '22 at 22:16 — Al1nuX, Apr 27 '22 at 22:16
Try `win.wm_attributes('-zoom', 1)` as said by Bryan. – acw1668 Apr 28 '22 at 00:43 — acw1668, Apr 28 '22 at 00:43

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 28 '22 at 22:14

There's lots of information in the answers to this question, but there are issues on different systems with each:

root.state("zoomed") doesn't work on Linux, but it does work on Windows.
root.wm_attributes("-zoomed", True) works in Linux (and Mac, as far as I know), but not in Windows.
If you read the comments on the accepted answer, it appears it doesn't work well on all systems/on multiple monitors.

Basically, there doesn't appear to be any single cross-platform solution to this. So what I suggest is that you use a try/except block, and if one solution fails, use the other:

import tkinter

root = tkinter.Tk()
try:
    root.wm_attributes("-zoomed", True)
except tkinter.TclError:
    root.state('zoomed')
root.mainloop()

An alternative for those who don't like try/except blocks is to use the built-in platform module, and some if statements:

import tkinter, platform

root = tkinter.Tk()
if platform.uname()[0] == "Windows":
    root.state('zoomed')
else:
    root.wm_attributes("-zoomed", True)
root.mainloop()

I'm 99% sure this works on Windows, but as I don't have access to a Windows for testing, it'd be nice to have have someone confirm that it works on Windows. Hope this helps, and let me know if you have any questions!

How can I make a Tkinter application utilise all screen space?

1 Answers1