Resize Any Window

Some windows are locked and won’t let you resize them. Joe Cassels applies some gentle persuasion.


One of the most enduring features of Windows is the ability to minimize, maximise or resize each window. However, not every window will easily resize. Many dialog boxes and control panel applets aren’t resizable and some pop up web pages are locked. In most cases where the static windows are properly designed, this poses no problem, but a non-resizable window that’s been set to too small a size can be very frustrating. It’s also quite irritating if you use a very high screen resolution to deal with tiny windows. ResizeEnable is a simple program that hacks the Windows interface so that pretty much any window will resize.

The program works by running in the background and intercepting messages to and from windows displayed on the desktop. It uses three hooks or simple algorithms to help modify the way each window behaves. The first one is applied when new windows are created. As soon as a new window is formed, the program attempts to change its style so that it can be resized by clicking and dragging.

The second hook intervenes when a window sends or receives a message associated with resizing. If a window is resized, this hook determines if it is one of the windows that the program previously changed the style of to support resizing. If it is, then it scales the window contents including all buttons and edit boxes. As some parts may be generated from simple image files, this rescaling can result in blocky images, especially if the aspect ratio is changed.

The final hook examines the mouse pointer and determines if it has been placed in any of the usual resizing areas of the window. If it has and the mouse button is depressed, then the program takes care of resizing the window.

While ResizeEnable works fine with most static windows, there are some that misbehave. Some developers don’t follow established guidelines for generating windows. In these cases the window may not resize or might tantalizingly resize until you release the mouse button, then snap back to the original size. Nothing’s perfect, but ResizeEnable helps in most cases.

Enable Resizing
ResizeEnable is a clever shell hack that runs quietly in the system tray.


1
Browse to http://www.digitallis.co.uk/pc/downloads.html and opt to download ResizeEnable. Save it to an easily accessed location. Extract the contents of the zip file to a suitable place and opt to browse through the extracted contents.


2
Launch ResizeEnableRunner.exe by double clicking it. You’ll see the ResizeEnable icon appear in the system tray. It’s a standalone application so it doesn’t need to be installed. Once it’s running you’ll be able to click and drag the edges of any window.


3
Some windows can look quite odd when resized because their contents weren’t designed to stretch. To return to the original size, close and reopen the window. To shut down ResizeEnable, right click its system tray icon and choose Quit.