HMW - Hide my Windows [Updated 2024-Oct-18]

[KaFu]

HMW - Hide my Windows

Current Version: v4 (2024-Oct-18)

HMW is a free program to stash away the Windows on your desktop. With HMW you can set any program Window as hidden, while the program itself will run silently in the background. Additionally all the Hotkeys used can be customized to your needs.

[*] With HMW you can improve your “Visual Privacy”. No-one looking at your desktop will see instantly what programs you’re running anymore.

[*] You can hide away programs which have long processing runs, cluttering your desktop and impairing the overall usability.

[*] HMW is fully portable, the settings are stored in a "hmw.ini" file created in the scriptdir.

It works fine on my XP-32bit, Win7-64bit, Win8(.1)-64bit and Win10 machines. If you find bugs please let me know.

The source and executable can be downloaded from my site: https://funk.eu

Kudos to Ascend4nt, Prog@ndy, UEZ, Yashied, Tuape & wraithdu for parts of the code.

Please let me know if you found some piece of code in the source for which I forgot to mention a credit.

Enjoy, let me know what you think of HMW and with Best Regards

Edited October 19 by KaFu

[KaFu]

2011-Nov-21, Changelog 1.2 > 1.3

• Fixed a bug related to fetching the underlying process of a window
• Removed Child Window tab (not everything what can be done also makes sense )...

Source and Executable are available at

http://www.funk.eu

Best Regards

[spudw2k]

Is the pass-protect function only enforced by the tool? What would happen if used other methods outside your tool to show a hidden window that has been pass-protect'd? Does your tool monitor those processes?

(Unable to test atm otherwise I'd find out for myself.) Just curious.

edit: the screenshot looks nice btw.

Edited November 23, 2011 by spudw2k

[KaFu]

No, currently it does not monitor changes invoked from outside and the password is only asked for when you want to recover the HMW gui from a hidden state. But it sounds like a nice feature to implement for me, ?

[KaFu]

2011-Dec-03, Changelog 1.3 > 1.4

• Fixed some bugs
• Add a lot of features (see screenshot first post)
• HMW now monitors changes on windows it changed itself, e.g. it now tries to force a window to stay hidden if some other program tries to unhide it

Source and Executable are available at

http://www.funk.eu

Enjoy , Best Regards

Edited December 3, 2011 by KaFu

[KaFu]

Upsa, found and corrected a startup error, please re-download v1.4 ...

[KaFu]

Had to fix another startup error, sorry for the inconvenience, please re-download v1.4.

[somdcomputerguy]

Always nice seeing a reference , thanks somdcomputerguy

()

You bet man. It's a neat little program.

[KaFu]

2011-Dec-31, Changelog 1.4 > 1.5

• Added AltTab selection radio button

Source and Executable are available at

http://www.funk.eu

Enjoy , Best Regards

[KaFu]

2012-Jan-02, Changelog 1.5 > 1.6

• Win7: Added "Desktop" to AltTab selection

Source and Executable are available at

http://www.funk.eu

Enjoy , Best Regards

Edited January 2, 2012 by KaFu

[Qwerty212]

Love it. Thanks a lot

[Bluesmaster]

Hello Kafu,

This is a great work and I am using it quite a  while. Now I decided to branch a little part of it  for another purpose but unfortunatly something deciding is missing:

It doesnt gather the tray icons anymore under windows 8 x64. The warning is

- Invalid Icon handle: OwnerWin:   Process Name: explorer.exe

...for every icon in the tray.

I read this

 '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

but cant really figure out why its not working. Do you have any idea why icons do not work anymore?

best regards

Bluesmaster

[KaFu]

It doesnt gather the tray icons anymore under windows 8 x64. The warning is

 

Hi,

I'm running Win8(.1) for some three month now and noticed that too. Fixed that in v2, which I had lying around finished for a month or so already, sounds like a good opportunity to make a new release .

In "_SysTray_GetIcon_v09.au3" there's something like this:

    Switch @OSVersion
        Case "WIN_2008R2", "WIN_7", "WIN_2008", "WIN_VISTA"
        Case "WIN_2003", "WIN_XP"
    EndSwitch

which I've change to this:

    If $__WINVER >= 0x0600 Then ; Vista+
    Else
    EndIf

Regards

[KaFu]

2013-Dec-08, Changelog 1.6 > 2.0

• Fixed   -   Hotkeys lost assignment on Win7 after a while
• Fixed   -   On Win8 systems tray icons were not extracted correctly
• Updated -   Minor design tweaks
• Updated -   Added WM_SYSCOMMAND handling for GUI minimize event
• Updated -   Made "Undo last hiding" timeout optional / HMW icon now displayed in tray by default

Source and Executable are available at
http://www.funk.eu

Best Regards

[Bluesmaster]

Its working like a  charm.

Thank you KaFu

[Rogue5099]

Very well done!!

For the more creative and secretive people:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL_HAmWQTgA

[TheDcoder]

Hi, I have a feature request, Oh boss key "Exit" .

[KaFu]

On Boss-Key start "taskkill.exe" Param "/IM hmw.exe"

[TheDcoder]

@KaFu I know that dirty hack! but I want a more integrated and native feature!

[TheDcoder]

@KaFu I have tested the "dirty hack" and it did not work! Your script is not responding to the termination messages sent by taskkill, I had to use the /F switch which forces the program to close.

The force close has it down-side, it automatically kills the process, therefore, any operations before closing (like closing the hidden window processes) will not be performed!

I would very much like to see this feature .