Visual Studio Console Window Location

Question

Is it possible to make the console window in Visual Studio show up in the same location on screen for each compile?

I always have to move it around whenever I compile because its starting location overlaps things.

Ehm, are you talking about the console window when you are debugging? — FailedDev, Nov 20 '11 at 02:41
See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1548838/setting-position-of-a-console-window-opened-in-a-winforms-app — 3Dave, Nov 20 '11 at 02:41
David, that's a badass suggestion but it looks like I'll need to make a framework that manually allocates a console window for that. Is there any way to simply change it in my IDE settings? — James Linden, Nov 20 '11 at 02:49

score 41 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 21 '11 at 01:01

By default you can change console window settings per application and windows will save them for the next time when this application is run. You may change the start location by clicking right button on the console title bar, then choosing Properties and Layout tab. Then uncheck the "Let system position window" checkbox and type the coordinates you would like.

Unfortunately Visual Studio when you run an application without the debugger (Ctrl + F5) will launch the cmd.exe /c <your app> command. So changing properties on this window will also change settings for all console sessions in the system.

This does not apply to the debug run as under the debugger VS launches just the application and so the settings apply only to its console windows.

Thank you! I was always on top of Visual Studio and now it it not. — Daniel Williams, Jan 04 '21 at 23:07

rmawatson · Answer 2 · 2018-05-17T12:30:59.457

I came here with the same problem, and was sure there must be an option in VS. I ended up writing a quick python script that runs in the background, searches for the window and sets its last position. Also optionally sets it to always on top, and persists the position in a file. Hopefully will help someone else out.

import win32api
import win32gui
import win32con
import msvcrt
import sys
import time
import threading
import pywintypes
import argparse
import re
import weakref
import pickle

def log_message(message,*args):
     print(("[%s]" % message).ljust(30) ," ... ",*(str(arg) for arg in args))

def make_file_name(arguments):
    return arguments.save_file_name or "window_" + re.sub("[^a-z]","_",arguments.title_text,flags=re.IGNORECASE)

def update_proc(flags,arguments):            
    found_pos  = (0,0,500,500)
    found_hwnd = -1

    if arguments.save_to_file and not arguments.reset:
        load_file_name = make_file_name(arguments)
        try:
            with open(load_file_name,"rb") as load_file:
                found_pos = pickle.load(load_file)
        except:pass

    while not flags.exit: 
        try:
            hwnd = win32gui.FindWindow(arguments.class_text,arguments.title_text)
            if not hwnd: continue

            if hwnd != found_hwnd:
                log_message("new window found",hwnd)
                for _ in range(10):
                    win32gui.SetWindowPos(hwnd,0 if not arguments.on_top else win32con.HWND_TOPMOST,*found_pos,0)
                    time.sleep(0.01)
                log_message("setting window position",found_pos)

            found_hwnd = hwnd

            time.sleep(0.1)

            if win32gui.IsIconic(found_hwnd):
                continue

            rect = win32gui.GetWindowRect(found_hwnd)
            new_pos = (rect[0],rect[1],rect[2]-rect[0],rect[3]-rect[1])

            #ignore negative pos
            if True in [ r < 0 for r in new_pos[0:2] ]:
                continue

            if new_pos == found_pos:
                continue


            if arguments.save_to_file:
                log_message("saving position",new_pos)
                save_file_name = make_file_name(arguments)
                try:
                    with open(save_file_name,"wb") as save_file:
                        pickle.dump(new_pos,save_file)
                except:pass
            else:
                log_message("updading stored position",new_pos)

            found_pos = new_pos
        except pywintypes.error:pass

if __name__ == "__main__":

    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument("-s","--savetofile",help="Save window settings to a file",action="store_true",dest="save_to_file")
    parser.add_argument("-sfn","--savefilename",type=str,help="File name to use if --savetofile specified (or a default is generated)",dest="save_file_name")
    parser.add_argument("-ot","--ontop",help="Window Always Ontop",dest="on_top",action="store_true")
    parser.add_argument("-c","--class",type=str,help="Window Class Name",dest="class_text")
    parser.add_argument("-r","--reset",help="Reset Window Position",action="store_true")        
    parser.add_argument("-t","--title",type=str,help="Window Title Text",required=True,dest="title_text")

    arguments = parser.parse_args()

    flags = type("", (), {"exit":False})()
    update_thread = threading.Thread(target=update_proc,args=[weakref.proxy(flags),arguments])
    update_thread.start()

    if arguments.save_to_file:
        log_message("saving to file",make_file_name(arguments))

    while True:

        if flags.exit: break
        key = msvcrt.getch()

        if key == b'q':
            flags.exit = True
            log_message("exiting")
            break

    update_thread.join()

Visual Studio Console Window Location

2 Answers2