Change load order of saved Session windows

[Timur Born]

Hello.

I am using saved Sessions to open multiple X-Change windows (!) with multiple tabs in each window. Unfortunately the windows are opened/loaded in a different order than what I need.

They are loaded like this:

image.png

But I need them like this (without having to re-arrange them every time I load the session):

image(1).png

Is there any way to affect/change the windows load order of a saved session, even if it meant manually editing the Registry or something?

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Timur Born

I am unsure if these can be controlled. To my knowledge, they are somewhat defined by windows itself based on the order in which a frame is opened, which leaves us affected by external factors like the storage drive speed, and file size in this area. If all the files are located on the same drive, and generally the same size, we do try to open them in the stored session order, but I do not know that we can guarantee anything.

I have spoken with the Dev team on it, and they agreed to investigate if we can do anything to make this more reliable, and the following ticket was created:
RT#7609: Bug?: Windows taskbar frame order from sessions

Kind regards,

[Timur Born]

Thank you! Can the stores session order be edited (and is it stored in the Registry or a file)?

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Timur Born

At this time, only by re-creating the session in question. This should be fairly easy, open the session once, close the files, then use the "history" pane to quick re-open them and create the windows in the desired order, before saving a new copy of the session.

Kind regards,

[Timur Born]

Thanks for the hint!

Since this would be a bit tedious for 19 open documents in 4 windows I first tried to change the load order via Registry (found the keys via Editor's SysAdmin manual). This *did* change the order of files when hovering the mouse over the session name in Editor, but it did not change the actual load order.

So instead I saved one session per window, then loaded these session windows in the correct order without replacing the already open ones and then saved the whole thing as new session. Now everything loads in the correct order.

image.png

Combined with the application "Groupy" I now have the 4 windows of thematically sorted files as tabs, each with their own tabs for the individual files.

image(1).png

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

[Vasyl - PDF-XChange]

Hi Timur.

Please clarify:

1. you have created session with A, B, C frames, in order they were created.
2. but, when you open such session - on the taskbar you get wrong order of frames, let's say B, C, A

- do I understand the problem correctly?

-Vasyl.

[Timur Born]

Please clarify:

1. you have created session with A, B, C frames, in order they were created.
2. but, when you open such session - on the taskbar you get wrong order of frames, let's say B, C, A

- do I understand the problem correctly?

Hi Vasyl. No the session is opened in the order that I created it, but that order turned out to be different to what I need and recreating the session in the correct order with multiple opened windows and many tabs/documents can be tedious. So I was looking for a way to edit a session (order) after it was saved.

My workaround - for the time being - was to create one session per windows and then open these sessions in the order I need just to save a new session with everything (all windows) in it. That's workable, but being able to edit sessions (order) would still be nice.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Timur Born

I've just let Vasyl know you posted a reply to him here, and added your latest posts details to the earlier ticket notes. If anything else comes up, we will keep you posted.

Kind regards,

[MishaH]

Hello, Timur Born

We have discussed this situation with the team. Since session handling works as intended and according to the designed logic, we consider that changing the window order is too niche a case to introduce a dedicated feature. This can be achieved simply by recreating the session.

That said, I’d like to share another method that might help you. You mentioned that you had already tried editing session data in the Registry to adjust the window order. Below, I’ll describe the correct way to do this.

Important: we do not recommend manually editing stored Registry data, as this may lead to irreversible data loss. Please make a backup before making any changes, and ensure that the application is completely closed while editing.

Session data is stored in the Registry at:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\Settings

• To change the last session that opens when the Editor starts, use the LastSession subkey.

• For a saved session, go to CustomSessions\Items\{N}. To identify the correct session, check the T field, which stores the session name. Then open the Data subkey.

From this point, the steps are the same for both cases.
The Frames subkey contains data about all windows in that session. The number of items corresponds to the number of windows open when the session was saved, and their order reflects the order of creation — this is the order in which they are restored when the session is opened.

To change the window order, you need to rename these items.
For example, in a session with 4 windows:

• 000000 – “GAM…”

• 000001 – “TX…”

• 000002 – “B3…”

• 000003 – “PC1…”

To achieve the order "PC1…" / "GAM…" / "B3…" / "TX…", perform the following renaming:

• 000000 → 000004

• 000003 → 000000

• 000001 → 000003

• 000004 → 000001

As a result, the session will open with the windows arranged in the desired order.

I hope this method helps you adjust your sessions the way you need.

Best regards,
Misha