Windows users are familiar with application windows that are not resizeable – they are displayed in a fixed format, for better or worse. While the behavior is typical for dialog or pop-up windows, it isn’t always isolated to just those. On the surface, it does seem to be an odd restriction to be enforced but nevertheless it exists.
Here is a fixed dialog taken from Internet Explorer and the Internet Options preferences panel. It’s an excellent example of the problems introduced by the window not being resizeable. Not only do you have vertical scrollbars, you also have horizontal scrollbars; reading configuration options involves scrolling up and down and left and right! Not the most pleasant of user interfaces in my mind.
ResizeEnable is a tiny – only 3 files – portable software that applies a nice little hack while running, the ability to resize most any window. With the usual disclaimer that results may vary, ResizeEnable sits in the Windows tray and is essentially silent in it’s operation. You know it’s doing it’s job when you position your mouse cursor around the edges of a previously unresizeable window – you get the familiar double arrow icon and the window can be stretched or shrunk as necessary.
With ResizeEnable I was able to remove the horizontal scrolling component in this dialog window which greatly improves the usability of the preference system in Internet Explorer. These types of situations exist all throughout Windows and if annoys you to know end, ResizeEnable is an excellent companion software for your PC.
