Remembering an Application’s Size and Position on Multiple Screens

[dummzeuch 1387]

David Hoyle just blogged about this topic (go ahead, read it first but remember to come back. 😉 )

Welcome back.

I think he is making two mistakes here (for suitable definitions of “mistake”):

 

...

 

https://blog.dummzeuch.de/2018/12/10/remembering-an-applications-size-and-position-on-multiple-screens/

[Sherlock 627]

My 2Cents:

Storing all kinds of (overall) useless information into the registry is a nuisance. It is like back in the day where everyone stored useless information into the win.ini increasing boot time severely. Which forced MS to up the game and introduce the registry.  Of course, the registry is much more performant and flexible, but it still is actually something used by the OS for the OS. It is MSs fault to actually let all the hoodlums in and manipulate it. Nowadays reading and writing registry items can cost a noticeable amount of time. And considering that 90% of the applications that write into the registry don't bother deleting their entries at deinstallation time (at the latest), it is full of dead stuff (hence the registration cleaners, that tend to break stuff). So I applaud the idea to store size and position information into a simple, easy to find and delete, file.

[dummzeuch 1387]

Hm, it just occurred to me, that with roaming profiles, the registry entries are not restricted to the same computer but will move with the user to possibly different computeres with different monitor setups.

 

In the environment I am currently working, we don't use roaming profiles, so I tend to forget.

[David Hoyle 66]

Thomas,

I use INI files as some of my apps generate a lot of persistent information. I was put off the registry in the early days of 32-bit OSs due to the number of corrupts that occurred (not necessarily to me). Additionally, I can backup the ini files and restore them if needed - not so easy with the registry. Lastly, my INI files contain the username and computername so would not be used on another machine is roaming profiles were actually roamed (my company stop this very soon after it was available due to the increased login and logoff times.

[dummzeuch 1387]

27 minutes ago, David Hoyle said:

I use INI files as some of my apps generate a lot of persistent information. I was put off the registry in the early days of 32-bit OSs due to the number of corrupts that occurred (not necessarily to me).

That's why I wrote "All the above does not apply to other settings of a program, you might still want to store these in INI files to make them portable." (or for backup).

I don't consider the window positions important enough to backup them ("back them up"?).

I don't use the registry for anything else though, only for the window positions for exactly that reason.

 

(GExperts is an exception to this rule which I have often considered changing but never came around doing.)