Can't resize tiny application window - help!

Below is a screenshot of my Windows 10 laptop at the moment. I have an app called Canon IJ Scan Utility, and I've opened to find its application window is so incredibly tiny that the only thing I can do is close it. (The "window" for the app is in the middle of a blank Paint image, to give you a sense of scale.) This has obviously never happened to me before with this or any other app; Google tells me that normally you're supposed to be press Alt + Spacebar and have a window pop open that gives you options to change the size of the window, minimize/maximize it or restore it, and that works with my other apps, but you can see below what I get when I do that with this app. Any thoughts?

Tiny window.png
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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SoSH Member
Mar 26, 2005
30,386
Below is a screenshot of my Windows 10 laptop at the moment. I have an app called Canon IJ Scan Utility, and I've opened to find its application window is so incredibly tiny that the only thing I can do is close it. (The "window" for the app is in the middle of a blank Paint image, to give you a sense of scale.) This has obviously never happened to me before with this or any other app; Google tells me that normally you're supposed to be press Alt + Spacebar and have a window pop open that gives you options to change the size of the window, minimize/maximize it or restore it, and that works with my other apps, but you can see below what I get when I do that with this app. Any thoughts?

View attachment 52215
What happens when you right click the window?

Also, the Windows Key and Up arrow is the keyboard shortcut for maximizing windows; might that help?
 
Not sure if the window for the app is showing up in your taskbar or via Alt-Tab, but this site has a lot of options for maximizing an open app:

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/minimize-maximize-apps-windows/#ftoc-heading-6
Thanks for that comprehensive link. Unfortunately, none of the options work for me - and I've tried them all now!
Also, the Windows Key and Up arrow is the keyboard shortcut for maximizing windows; might that help?
This was one of the options in the article at @OfTheCarmen's link; no luck.
What happens when you right click the window?
Right-clicking the window gives me the set of options shown in my screen capture - "Move", "Close", and "About...".
 

cgori

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Oct 2, 2004
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SF, CA
It's possible that there is a registry setting that controls window size that was corrupted (and is not getting cleared by reinstalling the app). The registry entries are app-specific so I can't speculate what they would be called (since I don't have the Canon software). But, here's an example of how it works for notepad:

https://superuser.com/questions/532256/where-is-the-information-about-the-position-of-a-window-stored

You edit the registry by running "regedit" - but be very careful, you can definitely muck some stuff up if you aren't sure what you are doing.
You could have a look to see if there is an HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Canon\... set of registry entries. If you've not used regedit before, the left hand side is a tree browser, you can select an item and then expand it to see the children underneath it.

I quickly looked at a few other apps on my computer just now, and they don't use registry settings (as the superuser article says, each program stores this info in its own way), so this could be a wild goose chase. I figured it was worth taking a look since you seem pretty stuck at the moment.

EDIT: I've had sort of this problem with Chrome before (window becomes 1x1 pixel or something like that), but when I do the alt-spacebar trick, I get the full list of options (resize, maximize, etc) so that will resolve it. What you are seeing is pretty strange, to me.
 
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It's possible that there is a registry setting that controls window size that was corrupted (and is not getting cleared by reinstalling the app).
Thanks for the idea. I've looked at all of the Canon registry entries and don't see anything obvious...but that's fine, insofar as after further testing I think this it might just be that my scanner is corrupted, and that the tiny window is related to that somehow rather than an operating system issue. (I've downloaded two new apps and tried scanning via Adobe Acrobat and gotten the same error message every time - which is weird, because I can still print to the printer function of the all-in-one machine even though I can't scan using it.) Oh well...thanks again to each of you for your responses!
 

cgori

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 2, 2004
3,994
SF, CA
Thanks for the idea. I've looked at all of the Canon registry entries and don't see anything obvious...but that's fine, insofar as after further testing I think this it might just be that my scanner is corrupted, and that the tiny window is related to that somehow rather than an operating system issue. (I've downloaded two new apps and tried scanning via Adobe Acrobat and gotten the same error message every time - which is weird, because I can still print to the printer function of the all-in-one machine even though I can't scan using it.) Oh well...thanks again to each of you for your responses!
You've tickled some deep memory in my brain now, my parents have a Canon multifunction scanner/printer and the scanner part also got corrupted at one point (though not exactly like this - same thing though where the printer part worked and not the scanner).

I think (? - this is a long time ago) one of the keys to getting Canon's scanner software to work was to unplug the scanner before installing it. So I think the steps to fix it were something like 1- unplug printer/scanner, 2- uninstall canon software, 3- reboot computer, 4- install canon software, 5- plug scanner/printer back in. (Possibly 4A- reboot computer again, I don't remember now for sure.) Basically I think there is some weird interaction between the default plug-n-play drivers in windows that detect a generic scanner and the canon hardware + software, so the software needs to be installed before plugging in the scanner, or else the generic/default scanner driver kicks in and nothing works.

If you're not connected via USB, ignore everything above :)