This has been an issue for a few years for me. I play multiple instances on a machine. I use the Windows "snapping" feature to snap to a quadrant or a half of a screen. Most of the time the first "snap" never works/sticks. Instead, EQ gets thrown practically off my displays pixel area and I then have to try and grab EQ by about 1 or 2 pixels in the border of the window to try and expand the window or drag it back onto my monitors display area. This is the only program this happens to, so I'm assuming it's an EQ thing and not a Windows thing. It's incredibly annoying and frustrating. On the off chance I cannot grab the window, I have to do a system restart and hope to Tunare EQ chooses to load somewhere on the screen I can actually retrieve it from--no guarantees! Then I have to start changing resolutions or bring out an old 1080p display to trick it back into selection.
This is not a solution but workarounds as I am not sure how much of it is the quirks that come with Windows/multiple monitors/window positioning in general before EQ is brought into the mix. If you are avoiding third party utilities, I think your only option for automatic window placement is separate install directories for each instance since the startup window position comes from the eqclient.ini. Each instance you start from that directory uses the same eqclient.ini. If you do get a window off in the void, you can always right click the taskbar and use "Cascade windows", "Show windows stacked" or "Show windows side by side". It moves every window but it will bring things on screen that got offscreen without messing with hardware. The window position memory can get a bit wonky since in windowed mode, the desktop window manager gets involved but EQ positions itself at certain points in the loading process and also saves window settings to the eqclient.ini file when you move the window. During the loading, there are points where you can attempt to move the window and it will not respond, however, it is just queuing those move actions behind something else that is currently processing. I find it is best to wait until at least the character loading screen to try to drag and snap since EQ is just hanging out waiting for input at that point. Moving the window is also going to update the window settings in the eqclient.ini in the directory that instance was loaded from at some point. If you go with separate installs for each instance, dragging the window should prompt EQ to update the ini that loaded that instance so it those settings next time. In the eqclient.ini you can also manually adjust the settings. For window placement in windowed mode: WindowedModeXOffset WindowedModeYOffset WindowedWidth WindowedHeight Negative Y offset is a hack to hide the title bar offscreen if you do not have a monitor above the one you place the instance on. You could also . As far as 3rd party options there are a number of options. I only have experience using IS B**** to manage window layout on up to 6 accounts on one PC. Typically I would load 4 instances to one 32" screen in quadrants and 1 each on smaller side monitors. It captures your monitor layout, account usernames and character information to manage loading your instances via virtual ini files. When something needs to change, it is not too difficult to update the configuration. It can also handle certain per instance display settings to help with performance. From a single install directory it just loads each instance one after the other in the specified configuration. You can have any number of configurations and you do not have to use any of its the other features. You can also shutdown IS B**** after the instances have been loaded if all you need is window placement.
