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, , , -based applications, most cross-platform ports from Unix/Linux, and many others.

The most well-known and typical example of a console window is the Windows Command Prompt facility which is the instance of the command-line shell available in Windows. Command-line shell is the integral part of any modern operating system: it's used whenever a large vocabulary of internal commands or external command-line utilities, coupled with a wide (or arbitrary) range of options, can be entered more rapidly as text than with a pure GUI. Moreover, considering the ability to compound separate commands into a batch scripts that can automatically do sophisticated jobs, it's obvious that command-line shell is a powerful, flexible and fast facility which is widely used by programmers and system administrators, in engineering and scientific environments, and by technically advanced personal computer users. Due to such popularity, console windows are also known as command prompt windows (or CMD windows because the filename of shell's executable is cmd.exe).

extended visual styles of XP interface themes. According to the same reason, console windows were not extended by Actual Tools utilities and no advanced opportunities were available for them.

Nevertheless, starting from version 5.0, Actual Tools software engineers have developed a unique technology which finally allows the extended manipulations with console windows in WinNT product line. Though some features due to a specific nature of console windows, the most important and helpful Actual Tools functions now can be easily applied to console windows as well as to common ones: minimize to tray/on screen, keep always-on-top, resize, align, change priority/affinity, etc. Moreover, all these features can be triggered in various ways (both automatically and manually) and are available either in Default settings or in Specific settings, which you can create just for a particular kind of console windows (e.g. all Apache web server windows).

for the Command Prompt window (view the on how to do this). Finally, its should look as follows:





Figure 1. Target Window values for the Command Prompt windows

Please note that all console windows share the same Window class value (ConsoleWindowClass), so we should also enable both Window caption and Program (as in the Figure 1) to define more exactly that just created settings are for Command Prompt windows only.

Go to the Position property sheet and mark there the in the Change Window Position Automatically group, then select the top-center alignment and specify, for example, 50 pixels as Vertical shift value:





Figure 2. Align at Startup values for the Command Prompt windows

Go to the Size property sheet and mark there the in the Resize Window Automatically group, then specify 640 as Width value and 480 as Height value, then select pixels as measure units (the other way is to click the Predefined button and select the 640x480 to automatically fill these values):





Figure 3. Resize at Startup values for the Command Prompt windows

to apply the just made tunings.

Spending just a few seconds (just once!) on making some specific settings for often used console windows in the manner described above will save seconds (then minutes, then hours!) of your precious time which you are used to spend on tedious manual manipulations every time you open them.

You can also change the size and position of any console window on-the-fly clicking and title buttons, choosing the corresponding or using ( for Resize and for Align by default).

, which will allow you keeping the selected window on top of other open windows so that it's always accessible and never covered by them - even when it becomes inactive.



Figure 4. Keep monitoring console windows (such as ping, telnet, netstat etc.) always-on-top

It is an ideal solution when working with multiple windows open at once (as it happens every day). You can select a window to Stay Always-on-Top all the time, so it never falls behind another window.

lets you by hiding a console window to Windows® notification area (also known as system tray) or to virtually any place on your desktop

lets you minimize a console window

lets you put the foreground console window without closing it and maintaining its original size and position

allows you keeping a particular console window , denying any attempts of its minimization in any standard way (including Windows® "Minimize all" and "Show desktop" system commands).

are the fastest and the easiest way to activate the functions described above, but Actual Window Manager lets you use other alternative triggers, both and ones.

can be extremely useful to manage console windows in multiple display environment. With the help of this action, you will be able to:

• quickly move a console window to a next monitor via



• quickly place a console window to desired monitor either using Move to Monitor title button's context menu (to call it, simply right-click this button) or via



• automatically place the particular console window (note that this feature is available in only)

Conclusion

Starting from version 5.0, Actual Window Manager introduces a unique technology which finally allows the extended manipulations with console windows in WinNT series of Microsoft® Windows® operating systems. Due to this technological breakthrough, now you can operate console windows as easy as usual ones in many advanced ways that Actual Window Manager offers: minimize them to tray, make always-on-top, roll them up, easily position and resize them, change their priority and affinity - and do all this stuff in any conventional way provided by our software, either automatically or manually. Almost 50 functions, which many users have already got accustomed to, are now available for any type of windows.

Actual Tools bring in the full spectrum of features to the full spectrum of windows! Enjoy the advanced window management with no limit!