how to open minimized chrome using cmd

Question

I'm coding a script using python to help me mange my open browser pages. I'm using the os.system("start ...") to open up chrome and I want it to open as a minimized program.

I noticed that I can't do this using the flag /min (I tried "start /min chrome www.google.com") not from the python script and also not from the command line itself or the RUN.

Does anyone know how to open up a minimized chrome window? Or maybe instead the command for minimizing an existing chrome window (I'll open it and than minimize it, hopefully it would be quick enough for me to notice)?

All I found is how to minimize the command line itself. The flag /min works perfectly fine when I'm using "start /min notepad" from the cmd. I'm using Windows XP operating system if it matters anyhow.

Answer 1

http://code.google.com/p/pywinauto/

might be helpful.

Based on its example, you can use "Minimize()" to do the job:

def do_test_1():

  "1st Watsup Test"

  app = Application().start_(r"c:\windows\Notepad")
  notepadWindow = app.Notepad

  notepadWindow.Edit1.SetEditText(u"Hello, 鋑ain!", 0, -1)
  sleep(0.8)
  notepadWindow.Edit.SetEditText("\r\nYou still there?")

  sleep(0.2)
  notepadWindow.Edit.SetEditText("\r\nGoing Bye Bye now!!")

  sleep(1)
  notepadWindow.Minimize()

  sleep(1)
  notepadWindow.Restore()

Answer 2

I wrote this to get the result required.

probably not the best code ever to be honest, but after several hours of trying this actually worked.

Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32.dll" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As IntPtr

Private Const SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED As Integer = 3
Private Const SW_SHOWMINIMIZED As Integer = 2
Private Const SW_SHOWNORMAL As Integer = 1


            ' Start Chrome with a Blank document so we know what the Name will be.
            ' This is a bit of a work around but after trying for hour to get the handle 
            ' the the actual Chrome window that opens this is the only way.
            Process.Start("Chrome.exe", "--new-window --start-fullscreen _Blank")  ' C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\

            ' Need to wait until the window has been initalised, the name will not be set until
            ' the page has been loaded. Chrome will take a little while to start and then 
            ' realise that "_Blank" is not a valid URL.
            ' We will loop round for 30 seconds, after the the page will not be opened.
            Dim LongTimeEscapeCounter = 300
            While iHwndOrderStatusScreen = 0 And LongTimeEscapeCounter <> 0
                LongTimeEscapeCounter = LongTimeEscapeCounter - 1
                iHwndOrderStatusScreen = FindWindow(vbNullString, "http://_Blank/ is not available - Google Chrome")
                Sleep(100)
            End While
            Debug.Print("Chrome Handle: " & iHwndOrderStatusScreen.ToString)
            If iHwndOrderStatusScreen = 0 Then
                MsgBox("Failed to find the Google Chrome Handle, reboot the PC and try again.", vbOKOnly + vbExclamation, "Error")
                Exit Sub
            End If

            ' Open the actual page the user wants
            Process.Start("Chrome.exe", txtFileName2.Text)
            Sleep(5000)
            ShowWindow(iHwndOrderStatusScreen, SW_SHOWMINIMIZED)
            Beep()

Kev