Both Studio and Companion are accessible from the Sound Utilities. They are the two default items on the Launchbar, if the user provides the paths during the install. Any other items can be dropped onto the Launchbar, too, even non executables like documents. I am not sure how you could make an existing program an MDI child form to dock it. It might be possible to do something like get the screen metrics if either was running and make the GUI snap to its edge, but that would require a fair bit of research and may be too much work for too little gain.
If I hard coded the links to the IDEs, I might be able to have them check for the process of either before launch and, if possible, bring them to the front if they are already running. That way, the buttons would function both to launch or reactivate them. This seems a little backwards to me, though. The GUI should be callable from the IDE instead of the other way around.
The GUI stores preferences, which can be accessed from "Tools" > "Options", but this is just for the GUI. Studio stores its preferences in a Registry key, so those could be accessed from the GUI. Companion seems to not store preferences that could be manipulated from the GUI.
What we really need is a reworking of either IDE, but C++ is not really one of my skill sets. As is, anything done will have to be as an independent application.
