CMD Shortcut Properties/Layout Ignored

After installing Win11 yesterday, I found a minor, but annoying nit.

Using an existing shortcut to CMD.EXE, when I double click on it, the window displays near the middle of screen #2. Before Win11, as shown in the window's Properties|Layout, it displayed in the upper left corner of screen #3.

Under Win11, that layout seems to be ignored, along with the window's height & width.

The entire shortcut command line is

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /E:ON /F:ON /T:1E /K C:\UTIL\AUTOEXEC.BAT

FWIW: the checkbox "Let system position window" is unchecked.

Note that when viewing the Layout section of the shortcut's Properties, the "Window Preview" shows the expected layout. Moreover, if I click on any of the Width/Height/Left/Top up/down arrows, the window moves in the expected direction within the Preview. It just seems to be ignored when displaying the actual window on the screen.

I also tried creating everything from scratch using the same Layout properties, and the result was the same.

What am I missing, or is this just a Win11 bug?

So Win11 is an Upgrade from Win10? Most times the previous icons will remain but positioning will change. It must be kept in mind that the desktop is not Static like a picture on the wall but Dynamic, always being refreshed/redrawn, not always seen doing it. Programs can cause changes as what is in memory has an affect. Sometimes a third-party software will be needed but can't recommend as I don't use one, have to be able to see what my clients see which usually requires defaults.

Hello,
I can see you have some DOS experience. I wonder what you use the autoexec for.
Anyway, I strongly suggest you use Terminal, which can incorporate Powershell & others.
I find it always repositions the panes correctly.




As you can see, you can even use 4NT, a more powerful cmd.

OAT said:

Hello,
I can see you have some DOS experience. I wonder what you use the autoexec for.
Anyway, I strongly suggest you use Terminal, which can incorporate Powershell & others.
I find it always repositions the panes correctly.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I created a shortcut to Powershell, right clicked on the icon, selected Properties, and then Layout. Here is where we have the chance to both size the window (Height and Width) as well as position it by setting its Left and Top position. Note when you make significant changes to any of those fields, the image in the Preview pane changes, too. For example, press and hold the mouse on (say) the up arrows in the Left Edit box, and see the Preview image move to the right. Then save the settings and double click on the icon. As with CMD.EXE, regardless of which settings are changed, they have no effect.

This appears to be a problem with shortcut properties and is independent of the underlying program, be it cmd.exe or powershell.exe, etc.

W11 now defaults to opening a CMD or PS shell inside the Terminal app, instead of the familiar Windows Console (conhost). Whereas the Win32 conhost obeyed the shortcut's options, Terminal does not as an UWP app.

You can choose to switch back to Windows Console, using this tutorial:

garlin said:

W11 now defaults to opening a CMD or PS shell inside the Terminal app, instead of the familiar Windows Console (conhost). Whereas the Win32 conhost obeyed the shortcut's options, Terminal does not as an UWP app.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestion. I created a shortcut to conhost.exe and examined its properties. They do not include a Layout section where I can select window size and position, so I'm still looking for a command line program where I can select the corresponding window size and position.

Try changing the default to conhost (see link below ) and then test your original batch file shortcuts.

LesFerch said:

Try changing the default to conhost (see link below ) and then test your original batch file shortcuts.

Change Default Terminal Application in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to change the default terminal application to Let Windows decide, Windows Console Host, or Windows Terminal for your account in Windows 11. A default terminal is the terminal emulator that launches by default when opening a command line application. Starting from...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

Interesting suggestion that almost works. I changed the Default Terminal App to "Windows Console Host", opened my previous shortcut to cmd.exe, and indeed it displayed according to the Layout settings. Hooray!

However, after I changed the Layout settings to where I wanted it, and opened the shortcut, it reverted to displaying in the middle of the 2nd screen, not where I had specified. When I went back to Settings where the default behavior of Terminal App is controlled, Windows had changed it back to "Let Windows decide"!

In fact, as further experiment showed, many of the changes to the window properties (such as setting the font or BG color), triggers reversion to "Let Windows decide".

My workaround is to have the Settings>System>For Developers window open, apply a change to the shortcut properties, change the Terminal app default from Console to Terminal and back to Console, then test my changes. Is this what they call progress?

BTW, at some point in this experiment, Win11 slowed to a glacial crawl requiring a System Reset from the case.

sudleyplace said:

Interesting suggestion that almost works. I changed the Default Terminal App to "Windows Console Host", opened my previous shortcut to cmd.exe, and indeed it displayed according to the Layout settings. Hooray!

Click to expand...

Use autohotkey to create a script to launch ps, Cmd or terminal and assign screen positions at launch for them.

sudleyplace said:

Interesting suggestion that almost works. I changed the Default Terminal App to "Windows Console Host", opened my previous shortcut to cmd.exe, and indeed it displayed according to the Layout settings. Hooray!

However, after I changed the Layout settings to where I wanted it, and opened the shortcut, it reverted to displaying in the middle of the 2nd screen, not where I had specified. When I went back to Settings where the default behavior of Terminal App is controlled, Windows had changed it back to "Let Windows decide"!

In fact, as further experiment showed, many of the changes to the window properties (such as setting the font or BG color), triggers reversion to "Let Windows decide".

My workaround is to have the Settings>System>For Developers window open, apply a change to the shortcut properties, change the Terminal app default from Console to Terminal and back to Console, then test my changes. Is this what they call progress?

Click to expand...

Issue noted here:
Legacy mode + shortcut propsheet may reset Default Terminal setting · Issue #17053 · microsoft/terminal

Another workaround: Set the layout as you want and then change Target to conhost cmd. The layout tab will disappear, but it will honor your last settings. If you wish to change the layout, temporarily change target back to cmd, click OK, reopen, change layout, and then change target back to conhost cmd.

I'll see if I can find a better fix, like a way to set conhost as the permanent, locked down, don't mess with it, default.