mc.exe : Beta 4.

01
Readme & Instructions What is it? A simple Expos like tool with some of the features of Mission Control, and a few more. Like Expos, MC arranges live thumbnails of all desktop windows on a single monitor, and like Mission Control MC groups thumbnails of multiple instances of the same program in piles. In addition, MC allows you to specify that multiple applications be grouped in the same pile. For example, you can specify that thumbnails of all web browser programs, such as Chrome, Opera, IE, Firefox, etc., be displayed in a single pile. The features of MC can be accessed using mouse actions, keyboard shortcuts or a combination of both. Dependencies MC has been built as a 32-bit windows application under Windows 7. It should work under Vista as well, but has not been tested under Vista. It has been tested under the Windows 8 release candidate distribution, and functions correctly for Windows 8 desktop applications but at this point ignores Windows 8 Metro full-screen applications and the Windows 8 start screen. MC requires that the free, 32-bit x86, Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable has been installed on your machine. This redistributable is available for download from Microsofts web site at
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8328

Installing the Program Download the .zip version from SourceForge.net, and copy the files into a directory somewhere on your machine. If you decide to install the files in a subdirectory of either the Windows Program Files or Program Files (x86) directory, make sure that the subdirectory and its contents are writable so that you can edit the configuration file and that MC can create its log file. Create a shortcut to run the mc.exe program from that directory and place the shortcut on your desktop and/or your start menu and/or any other program you use to launch programs. Running the Program There are three ways to start MC. First, configure your shortcut to run the application without any command line arguments, simply mc.exe The application will run, and when finished remain resident to monitor for hot key or shortcut activation. If the hot key is pressed or if any shortcut to mc.exe is activated, the resident application will activate. Alternatively, you can run the application in single-use mode: configure your shortcut to run the application as mc.exe onetime click on your shortcut and the program will run a new each time.

Finally, you can have the application started in background mode at system startup by dragging a shortcut to mc.exe resident into the All Programs -> Startup directory of the Windows start screen. This version of MC does not currently support activation via hot corners, but if you require that feature wed recommend installing one of the freeware applications providing this functionality. Google hot corners shareware and youll find some links. General Concepts The normal display on your screen is referred to as the desktop view. When activated, MC creates a thumbnail view on your screen,1 and animates a transition between the views. In the thumbnail view the thumbnails are arranged into piles based on the application name and the settings your configuration file. You may change which thumbnail appears at the top of a pile, or zoom to a full-size view of a thumbnail, but these changes dont usually affect the z-order of windows in your desktop view. The exceptions are the mouse or keyboard commands, below, which allow you to select a window to be moved to the z-order top of your desktop, to move a window to the z-order bottom of your desktop, to minimize all windows on your desktop or to restore all minimized windows to your desktop. In the command listings below, and operation that affects the positioning of windows on the desktop view will say so. In the thumbnail view only one thumbnail at a time will have focus. This will be visually indicated by a more pronounced drop shadow. The focus thumbnail can be changed using either mouse actions or keyboard actions. Mouse Actions in Thumbnail View Hover mouse cursor over a thumbnail: Give focus to the thumbnail and move the thumbnail to the top of its pile. Note: when the focus is moved to a different window, the thumbnail will be restored to its original position in the pile. [Left Button Click] with mouse cursor on the desktop background thumbnail: Minimize all desktop application windows and restore the desktop view. CHANGES DESKTOP VIEW. [Left Button Click] with mouse cursor on the grey border: Restore the desktop view. [Left Button Click] with mouse cursor over a thumbnail: Move the application to the top of the desktop z-order and restore the desktop view. CHANGES DESKTOP VIEW.

If you have multiple monitors on your system, the thumbnail view will be displayed on the monitor windows considers the primary monitor, which contains the pixel coordinate (0,0).

<CTRL>[Left Button Click] with mouse cursor over a thumbnail: Minimize all desktop application windows except for the selected thumbnail, and restore the desktop view. CHANGES DESKTOP VIEW. [Middle Button Click] with mouse cursor over a thumbnail: Moves the thumbnail to the bottom of its pile and pushes the matching desktop window to the bottom of the desktop z-order. CHANGES DESKTOP VIEW. <CTRL>[Middle Button Click] with mouse cursor over a thumbnail. Kills a desktop application. The process or thread underlying the thumbnail window thumbnail is terminated. Note: it is possible that a poorly written application will ignore the instruction to terminate. The thumbnail window is closed. CHANGES DESKTOP VIEW. [Right Button Click] with mouse cursor over a thumbnail: Animates a zoom of the thumbnail to a full-size preview. Right click and hold stay zoomed until the button is released. Right click and release stay zoomed until any mouse button or any key is pressed. Keyboard Actions in Thumbnail View <ENTER> Move the focus window to the top of the desktop z-order and restore the desktop view. CHANGES DESKTOP VIEW. <CTRL><ENTER> Minimize all desktop applications except for the focus window, and restore the desktop view. CHANGES DESKTOP VIEW. <ESC> or <ALT><TAB> Restore the desktop view. <CTRL><M> Minimize all desktop windows and restore desktop view. CHANGES DESKTOP VIEW. <CTRL><N> Restores (normalizes) all minimized desktop applications and restores desktop view. Note: because of the way the desktop windows manager restores minimized windows, the z-order of the restored windows may be unpredictable. CHANGES DESKTOP VIEW. <CTRL><B> Moves the focus window thumbnail to the bottom of its pile and pushes the matching desktop window to the bottom of the desktop z-order. CHANGES DESKTOP VIEW. <CTRL><Z> Zooms the focus thumbnail to a full size preview. Pressing any key or clicking any mouse button will restore the thumbnail view.

<CTRL><K> Kills a desktop application. The process or thread underlying the focus window thumbnail is terminated. Note: it is possible that a poorly written application will ignore the instruction to terminate. CHANGES DESKTOP VIEW. <CTRL><R> Reinitializes the thumbnail view this is useful if a desktop application terminates or a new desktop application starts while mc is in thumbnail view. <RIGHT ARROW> or <TAB> Move the focus to the topmost thumbnail in the next pile. <LEFT ARROW> or <SHIFT><TAB> Move the focus to the topmost thumbnail in the previous pile. <UP ARROW> Move the focus up one thumbnail in the pile. <DOWN ARROW> Move the focus down one thumbnail in the pile. NOTE: The arrow and tab keystrokes to change focus all wrap around. For instance, moving focus up from the top thumbnail in a pile moves the focus to the bottom thumbnail in the pile.

Configuration MC reads a configuration file, mc.cfg from its run directory. This file allows you to specify which applications to combine into piles, which applications to ignore and 4 parameters that control how thumbnails are arranged on screen and how animations appear. The mc.cfg file included in the release illustrates all of these settings. Log File Each time it is activated, MC creates a short log file mc.log in the directory from which mc.exe was run, listing information about application windows included in thumbnail display. This can be useful for modifying the mc.cfg file. Acknowledgements Many thanks to the many individuals who have identified bugs in Beta versions 1, 2 & 3 or have suggested functional enhancements. Also Sourceforge.net, Microsoft and, of course, Apple for the beautiful concept.