Xfce Forum

theophany77

Member

Registered: 2021-09-21

Posts: 2

Howto change default window properties (height, width) in launcher

Hi everybody,

First post here for me.

After several searches, I still have not found what I am looking for, so here is my question :

    Is it possible to add in a .desktop file, some height and width properties to change the default window size when the launcher starts ?

Thank you in advance.

Greetings from France.

Jean-michel

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,486

Re: Howto change default window properties (height, width) in launcher

Hello and welcome.

If the application in question supports the "geometry" parameter (or otherwise supports setting it's own height/width), then you can edit it's .desktop file and add the parameter to the "Exec=" line. It would be a good idea to first copy the .desktop file from the /usr/share/applications folder to ~/.local/share/applications, and edit this file instead of the main one (which might get overwritten during an update).

If it doesn't support the geometry parameter, you'll need to use a tool like devilspie or devilspie2 to force a geometry on an application as it starts.

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theophany77

Member

Registered: 2021-09-21

Posts: 2

Re: Howto change default window properties (height, width) in launcher

Hi ToZ,

Thanks for your help.
The called app does not support the geometry parameters afaik given it is a simple unix shell.

Jean-michel

Skaperen

Member

From: right by Jesus, our Saviour

Registered: 2013-06-15

Posts: 862

Re: Howto change default window properties (height, width) in launcher

how are you running a unix shell?   there should be a terminal emulator program.  these (including xfce4terminal) support -geometry but they work with the size units being characters.  i have worked with making xfce4terminal run with many geometries as well as font sizes.  both will affect the actual size of the window.  if you try to specify a window size in pixels like 400x400 is will just end up being full screen because it thinks you mean 400 characters by 400 characters.  try 80x25 as a starting point.