I am using CentOS 6.4 (Gnome desktop). I have a launcher for Thunderbird on the panel. For the entire time I have been running this configuration (about a year now) Thunderbird has always launched maximized. Today I added a new email account which uses an IMAP server. The other accounts use POP servers.

I am noticing that about 2 out of 3 times when I launch Thunderbird from the panel it opens in a small (resized) window. I maximize the window, close Thunderbird again and sometimes it is maximized but usually not. What a pain.

Never one to subtle in resolving computer issues I shoved the Thunderbird profile aside and replaced it with a copy from my backup taken last evening. I re-added the new account and Thunderbird launches maximized as it has always done.

The issue now seems fixed. However, I am wondering if there is any way in Gnome to control the window size upon launch? Windows used to have a "maximize on start" sort of setting on shortcuts. I do not see anything similar in Gnome.

TIA,

Ken

You can install maximus or devilspie.
I hope it will help.

There is a option in compiz of ubuntu(dont know if it can be installed on centos) so you can set default opening condition of window.

some desktops at least unity use a rule that if the window being opened takes less than 75% of the screen it will launch as minimized. not sure if gnome does this but it may. one way i think your goal can be accomplished is to edit the thunderbird.desktop file. this works in gnome for ubuntu but i don't know where these files are in CentOS. below is how to do it on gnome ubuntu. it should be the same steps but the files may be in diff location so just check that part.

find thunderbird.desktop file and edit the "EXEC" line to Exec=thunderbird --window --maximize
then log out and back in

***i think this file is in ~/.local/share/applications
***i never did this on CentOS or with Thunderbird specifically but this does work to launch the gnome-terminal in full screen on ubuntu
***also if you can create a launcher in gnome like XFCE you may be able to just add --window --maximize after the aplications command

Usually when you close any application, it remembers the size, and next time, when it opens again, it will open in same size as it was. So if you close any app while maximized, it will again open in maximum size (full screen).

However, try --maximize option to open in full screen. I use it for gnome-terminal, cant say it works for others.

In launcher properties:
command: gnome-terminal --maximize

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks, man! you helped me a lot. This works on latest Gnome.

You can use wmctrl to toggle the attribute. I use cwm which has hot keys for window actions. So Control+Alt+F to toggle fullscreen. Most older things respect the -geometry attribute which can get is "near" full screen. And of course -fs or --fullscreen type flags for "some" things. Some things remember their state at the last closing. And some of those things forget when they have updates.

In many cases the app will open with the last window state. So if you close it maximized, it will open maximized.

This is an old thread come back from the dead! One item I might add... I have a Windows program (Visual FoxPro 6) which runs under Wine. I have two monitors, one is set to landscape and the other to portrait. FoxPro would always open to the width of the portrait monitor although I always ran it on the landscape monitor. It would not remember that it had been maximized. It WOULD remember that it had been stretched to fill essentially the whole display. This also worked with Vivaldi on Ubuntu Mate 16.04 running on a Raspberry Pi 3B and accessed with vnc.

Ken

I've had issues like that for my 1366x768 laptop with a 1920x1080 display attached to the HDMI. Using xrandr with the --primary option for the larger display made it so videos would scale to the larger screen resolution. Although I mostly --off the laptops display. Clamshell mode without actually closing the lid. Better thermals, plus access to the power button with it open.