Reopen my workspace

[pcbuilder002]

Hello
is there anyway with one click to save my current running apps and restore all same windows later with one click?
for example now I am working with there browers and calculator, I want to save the desktop and back to it with a single click
is this possible with any third party tools?

 

[Brian Boru]

Welcome to the forum

Assumptions:
You're on Windows 10 or 11;
You don't want to reboot, but rather switch to doing other stuff on PC, then switch back;
The apps would vary, ie not the same ones every time.

Are those correct?

 

[pcbuilder002]

Win11
even if shutdown or reboot, I want to bring everything back with one click if possible

 

[Brian Boru]

I've never done this personally, apart from a brief fling with Windows Steady State back in XP days, so below is for what it's worth—also, I'm on Windows 10, but 11 is very similar.

Possible Apps

These 2 haven't been updated since 2010:

SmartClose

SmartClose - Download & Review

Download SmartClose 1.3 - Can close all running programs, disable the screensaver and halt all other processes that can interrupt without asking

www.softpedia.com

CacheMyWork

Cache My Work - Download

Download Cache My Work 1.2.0.0 - Reboot Windows without losing your place in your work with this software application that creates a cache of all the apps you currently have open

www.softpedia.com

2 others I have in my notes:

Twinsplay
I can't find a download site I'm comfy linking—dev Zinstall seems to have dropped it.
Smart Windows

SmartWindows

Boost Productivity on Windows 10 & 11 with SmartWindows! Auto arrange all your windows, whether on one screen or many with a single click! Get Started – It’s Free Windows 10 (19.03 and above) Windows 11 Organise your Desktop Display Efficiently Use SmartWindows to save and restore your display...

smartwindows.app

These Windows Settings should help:

In Folder Options, View tab, tick this box…

Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options—turn this on…

Set your browsers to launch with the tabs which were open when you closed it.

Other wild ideas:

Different User
When you switch back to another user, will Windows restore their apps & files?

Virtual Machine
Heavy duty solution.

Batch file
Copy names and paths of all open apps and files, relaunch them with a click.

Hibernate
This copies RAM contents to disk, should be a way to do something with that…
I think there's also a 'Suspend' thing…

 

[pcbuilder002]

Thanks! SmartWindows is good one, but its expensive, I use dual monitor

 

[Zloth]

*IF* that list of programs doesn't change much, just make a little .bat file with the programs you want running again.

1. Make a text file on your desktop. Edit it with Notepad or whatever.
2. Give the full path in quotes for each program you want to run, one per line. So, if you wanted to start Notepad, you would have a line that says: "C:\Windows\Notepad.exe"
3. If you want to open a folder, you put Explorer on the front. So, if you wanted to open the program files directory, you would have a line saying: Explorer "C:\Program Files"
4. Save the file and rename it to Whatever.bat.
5. When you double-click on the batch file, it will start all those programs.

There are lots of fancier things you can do, like checking to see if a program is already running.

There's no way to easily make that list, but the .bat files are free and it's easy to make a few of them if you want.

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm moving this to Hardware forum, members there may know more.

 

[ZedClampet]

*IF* that list of programs doesn't change much, just make a little .bat file with the programs you want running again.

1. Make a text file on your desktop. Edit it with Notepad or whatever.
2. Give the full path in quotes for each program you want to run, one per line. So, if you wanted to start Notepad, you would have a line that says: "C:\Windows\Notepad.exe"
3. If you want to open a folder, you put Explorer on the front. So, if you wanted to open the program files directory, you would have a line saying: Explorer "C:\Program Files"
4. Save the file and rename it to Whatever.bat.
5. When you double-click on the batch file, it will start all those programs.

There are lots of fancier things you can do, like checking to see if a program is already running.

There's no way to easily make that list, but the .bat files are free and it's easy to make a few of them if you want.

for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=," %%a in ('wmic process get name,executablepath /format:csv ^| findstr /v /i /c:"node" /c:"name"')

etcetera....? I'm not really good at making batch files, but it seems like it could work. One batch file grabs paths and such and creates the second restore batch file. Just run it before you log off and then run the restore when you log back on.

I'm an amateur, though. I'd have to brute force my way through this.

 

[Zloth]

If you're going to go to that level, you'll probably want to get out of ye olde batch files and into the more modern Powershell scripts.

Introduction to scripting in PowerShell - Training

Learn how to script by using PowerShell.

learn.microsoft.com

 

[ZedClampet]

If you're going to go to that level, you'll probably want to get out of ye olde batch files and into the more modern Powershell scripts.

Introduction to scripting in PowerShell - Training

Learn how to script by using PowerShell.

learn.microsoft.com

Don't try to make me get with the times