IE7 How to Open shortcut in full window?

**Marvinator** · January 29th, 2007, 05:01 PM

I have several shortcuts on my desktop which under IE6 would open in full Screen. Now that I have IE7, when I double click on the shortcuts, I get a smaller window which shows me very little. So I now have to open the shortcut and then double click the Title Bar to get it to fill the window.

I've looked and looked for some way of getting this to work as it did before. I even tried a registry hack setting the following keys:
HKLM/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/Internet Explorer - MAIN/FullScreen = Yes
HKCU/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/Internet Explorer - MAIN/FullScreen = Yes
When I reboot, I open ONE window in the large size and every subsequent window opens in that small size again.

To further confuse me, when I open IE7 from the Desktop Icon now, i get a full screen window. I close this window and double click my shortcut and I get the little window again. (Closing this and reopening IE from the Desktop icon again gets me the full screen.) There is, of course, no way to edit the shortcut to bring up a full screen - at least no way I can see.

I've found a lot of talk about this 'feature' in IE7 in other forums around the net but figure that the techs here would have the fix.
So....

Has anyone figured this out?

**Steve R Jones** · January 29th, 2007, 06:15 PM

Close the first large window->

While Holding the CTRL key the WHOLE time-> Drag the little window to the size you want then click File->Exit

**Marvinator** · January 30th, 2007, 09:28 AM

No Change. Same effect.
Thanks for trying.

Originally Posted by Steve R Jones

Close the first large window->

While Holding the CTRL key the WHOLE time-> Drag the little window to the size you want then click File->Exit

**electric** · January 30th, 2007, 10:47 AM

i'm using IE 6...i found if you open the short cut than grab the edges
of the screen to make the screen bigger ,it will stay that way when
you reopen the short cut again

may work in IE 7 ??

**Marvinator** · January 30th, 2007, 07:56 PM

No, and that is the entire problem. This functionality seems to be gone in IE7. I have a fix that i"m testing, and if successful I'll post it here.

**kenboyles72** · January 31st, 2007, 10:00 PM

right-click on desktop shortcut > choose propreties > click "Shortcut" tab > where it says "Run:" select maximized.

**Marvinator** · February 1st, 2007, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by kenboyles72

right-click on desktop shortcut > choose propreties > click "Shortcut" tab > where it says "Run:" select maximized.

Sorry, Internet Shortcuts no longer have those options.

================================================== ========

Here is the fix, as promised:

I began by checking out any registry hack which would force the page to full screen. I found the hacks mentioned above and used them.

HKCU/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/INTERNET EXPLORER/MAIN
FullScreen=YES

HKLM/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/INTERNET EXPLORER/MAIN
FullScreen=YES

Close
Reboot

This didn't really help, but it would force Explorer to a full screen the first time the shortcut was double clicked. Each subsequent time, however, the window was small again. So I was close anyway.

In checking on other areas where changes might force a full screen, I was doing some looking at the file types.

For no reason whatsoever other than experimentation, I changed the way in which HTML documents are opened.

Double Click My Computer
Click TOOLS - FOLDER OPTIONS - FILE TYPES Tab.
Scroll to HTML, click to highlight
Click the Advanced Button.
Click on OPEN - Click EDIT.
Click "Application used to perform this action"
Move to the end of entry and BACKSPACE OVER THE "%1", removing it from the entry.
Click OK
Click OK
Click Close.

Reboot.

Now, when the shortcut is clicked, the page opens in full screen (this is expected due to the changes to the registry above.) However, if you close the IE window and open it again and you will AGAIN get a full screen. Problem Fixed! (though, to be sure, I"m not sure exactly what this did other than fix the problem...)

I hope this helps anyone else with this problem.

**fidmas** · February 15th, 2007, 01:49 PM

I just had the same kind of problem for a couple days. Nothing worked. The stumbled-on solution is:
- Launch IE7 from the Quick Launch icon or the big Desktop "e". Nowhere else.
- Make sure it's NOT maximized.
- Drag the edges to where you want
- Close IE7.

From now on URL shortcuts will open IE7 at that size.

Confusing as all hell, if you ask me.

**Cade Foster** · February 18th, 2007, 09:25 PM

Yet something else that microshaft stole and messed up

**RayH** · February 25th, 2007, 11:31 AM

I use a freeware called IE Maximizer. It opens IE all the time in a full sized window.

**sandbar** · November 4th, 2007, 07:27 PM

Marvinator, you are a genius! Just wanted to add a curveball: my Internet shortcut icon points NOT to an html page, but to a PDF document within an html. I opened and closed it several times and it opens full size every time. Other pages opened from IE7 on the desktop icons seem to work normally (full size).
Thanks again.
sandbar

**cispecialist** · June 5th, 2008, 09:44 AM

Just removing the %l from the Internet Shorcut opening string works. (Go to Folder Options (in any folder) -> File Types -> Internet Shortcut -> Advanced -> Open-> Edit -> Delete the %l at the end of the string. This will also change it to a %1 which I supposed would also work instead of just deleting.

**Bobbyd1156** · July 29th, 2008, 07:43 PM

Open internet options>TABS>SETTINGS...under the heading "Open links from other programs in",
Click the " A new window"

then ok, and apply

**tgn** · May 14th, 2009, 06:51 AM

I had the same problem and the solution posted by "fidmas" on 2/15/07 worked. Thanks a lot.

**thomcat7777** · May 26th, 2009, 07:04 PM

HOW TO,, PRESET THE SIZE OF SHORTCUT WINDOWS
RIGHT CLICK INTERNET EXPLORER,, GO TO PROPERTIES,, ON THE RUN LINE,, SET IT TO OPEN IN "NORMAL WINDOW"...
THEN OPEN IE-7 -- SET TO RESTORE DOWN,, = "THE MIDDLE OF THE THREE BOXES AT THE TOP RIGHT",, -- THEN,, USING THE MOUSE,, DRAG THE WINDOW TO THE SIZE THAT 'YOU WANT IT TO BE"...
CLOSE IE AND TRY SOME SHORTCUT'S... IT WORK'S ?? GO BACK TO IE PROPERTIE'S,, SET TO "OPEN MAXIMIZED".

**tennisrme** · December 14th, 2009, 10:17 PM

hey...weird but I stumbled on you solution over 2 years later and got
a fix for my IE 8 problem as yours...been searching the internet for over a week...from forums to MS sites...all BS.....why can't they have a site
at MS just for IE 8 fixes that work??? Your solution worked perfectly for
IE 8 to...thanks again for your help.

Originally Posted by fidmas

I just had the same kind of problem for a couple days. Nothing worked. The stumbled-on solution is:
- Launch IE7 from the Quick Launch icon or the big Desktop "e". Nowhere else.
- Make sure it's NOT maximized.
- Drag the edges to where you want
- Close IE7.

From now on URL shortcuts will open IE7 at that size.

Confusing as all hell, if you ask me.

**fidmas** · December 15th, 2009, 09:35 AM

Cool.

I completely forgot about this post. Glad it helped. Thanks for replying.

Originally Posted by tennisrme

hey...weird but I stumbled on you solution over 2 years later and got
a fix for my IE 8 problem as yours...been searching the internet for over a week...from forums to MS sites...all BS.....why can't they have a site
at MS just for IE 8 fixes that work??? Your solution worked perfectly for
IE 8 to...thanks again for your help.

**paulnap** · October 1st, 2011, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by fidmas

I just had the same kind of problem for a couple days. Nothing worked. The stumbled-on solution is:
- Launch IE7 from the Quick Launch icon or the big Desktop "e". Nowhere else.
- Make sure it's NOT maximized.
- Drag the edges to where you want
- Close IE7.

From now on URL shortcuts will open IE7 at that size.

Confusing as all hell, if you ask me.

**fidmas** · October 1st, 2011, 06:52 PM

Glad it helped

God, that post is almost 5 years old now.

You'd think MS would have documented it somewhere by now.

**dacook** · August 22nd, 2012, 12:44 AM

I know this is really old now, but there is actually a really simple solution, a command-line switch for IE.

Create a shortcut to iexplore.exe with the switch "-k", then the URL that you want to go to (if not the home page). For example:
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" –k "www.myfullscreenwebsite.com"

For more information:
How to Open Internet Explorer in Full Screen Kiosk Mode