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OS X – applescript to move all windows onto the screen

When switching from multiple monitors to a single monitor, some windows may be inaccessible due to being off the screen. They can be brought back by knowing the keyboard shortcuts for moving windows, but that's a pain. Here's an applescript that will bring them all back onto the visible screen: [js]-- original script from http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/index_files/move-all-windows-to-main-display.php -- thanks to Matt Swain -- Script modified and error handling added by Dustin Caldwell -- put processes not to move into this array property processesToIgnore : {} -- get the bounds of the desktop tell application "Finder" set desktopBounds to bounds of window of desktop set screenWidth to item 3 of desktopBounds set screenHeight to item 4 of desktopBounds end tell set r1 to "" -- return value set crlf to (ASCII character 10) set showAADError to 1 -- if every attempt to look at a window fails, then show error dialog at the end tell application "System Events" set newWindowLeft to 0 set newWindowTop to 22 set allProcesses to application processes set r1 to r1 & (count allProcesses) & " processes to check" & crlf -- loop through all processes looking for windows to move repeat with i from 1 to count allProcesses try -- catch any errors nicely -- check the list of processes to ignore set doIt to 1 repeat with z from 1 to count processesToIgnore if process i = process (item z of processesToIgnore) then set doIt to 0 end if end repeat if doIt = 1 then tell process i -- loop through all windows for this process to see if any are off the screen repeat with x from 1 to (count windows) try set winPos to position of window x set winLeft to item 1 of winPos set winTop to item 2 of winPos set winSize to size of window x set winRight to (item 1 of winSize) + winLeft set winBottom to (item 2 of winSize) + winTop if ((winLeft < 0) or (winTop < 0) or (winRight > screenWidth) or (winBottom > screenHeight)) then set position of window x to {newWindowLeft, newWindowTop} set r1 to r1 & " moved window " & title of window x & crlf -- offset each window by 10 pixels for a nice effect set newWindowLeft to newWindowLeft + 10 set newWindowTop to newWindowTop + 10 -- if there are so many windows that they'd be moved off the screen, start again at the top left if (newWindowLeft > (screenWidth - 200)) or (newWindowTop > (screenHeight - 200)) then set newWindowLeft to 0 set newWindowTop to 22 end if end if set showAADError to 0 -- if we moved a window, then this isn't a problem on error errText set r1 to r1 & " ERROR " & errText & " for window " & title of window x & crlf end try end repeat end tell end if on error errText number errorNumber set r1 to r1 & " ERROR " & errText & " NUM=" & errorNumber & " for process " & title of process i & crlf end try end repeat end tell -- display a friendly message if access for assistive devices is disabled. if (showAADError is equal to 1) then display dialog "Unable to move any windows. Access for assistive devices may be disabled. You must enable that for this script to run. You can do that in System Preferences -> Universal Access -> check box at bottom of window. (for OS X Lion)" end if -- uncomment the below to see the results in a dialog -- display dialog r1 return r1[/js]

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  • August 4, 2014 @ 14:05:47 [Current Revision] by PeterLugg
  • August 4, 2014 @ 14:05:47 by PeterLugg

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