How to start Adobe Reader with window maximized?
First of, this solution took some reverse engineering and random spelunking through the very vague resources Adobe gives. Feel free to check the revision log for the process that lead me to the solution; as it is quite big for what it's worth I've let it out of the answer.
Now, for the actual solution. Adobe Reader 10.0 in Windows stores it's window settings in these two places in the registry:
HKCU\Software\Adobe\Adobe Reader\10.0\SDI\bMaximizeNextDocument
HKCU\Software\Adobe\Adobe Reader\10.0\SDI\bNullDocMaximized
The two indicate Adobe to start maximized when opening a file and when opening the program itself (e.g. blank file). However, by setting manually those two values alone to their proper values only works once, because Adobe wants to revert back to it's predefined setting (which is to occupy all space on screen in a single regular window)
Alert: the following involves messing with the Windows Registry. Make a backup beforehand and thread lightly. You may end up messing up your system if you don't take proper precautions. And so on and so on. You have been warned.
My solution is to prevent access to Adobe Reader to those values.
First of, you need to set those values to their proper values before blocking access to the branch. Access regedit and navigate to HKCU\Software\Adobe\Adobe Reader\10.0\SDI\ Here are the before and after values for the relevant keys:
bMaximizeNextDocument (0) -> (1)
bNullDocMaximized (0) -> (1)
Right-click the /SDI/ branch and select Permissions. From there press on Advanced.
On the Permissions tab, select your username and afterwards press the Edit button. Check the following checkboxes on the Deny side:
- Define value
- Create subkey
- Delete
- Delete DAC
- Owner write
(I apologize beforehand if any of the terms don't match exactly, as I'm not in an English version of Windows and as such the translation might be off)
I might be somewhat conservative in the choices but this works. Probably the only key needed to deny would be "Define value". After all this is done press OK. A warning message might appear, confirm it, and exit regedit. Assuming everything is done right, Adobe Reader can no longer return to it's defaults regarding window placement.
Therefore, Adobe Reader will always open maximized, regardless of whatever window you happened to put in any session.