Questions tagged [window-manager]

A window manager takes care of the placement and appearance of windows in a GUI-driven operating system. Sometimes, the term also refers to plugins that extend this basic functionality.

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61 votes
9 answers
31k views

Make window always on top?

Some applications do not have the functionality like Task Manager's "Always on top" feature. Is there a way around this?
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308 votes
22 answers
702k views

How to move windows that open up offscreen?

I have a dual monitor setup, and I recently played around with the positioning settings, and some of my single window applications do the favour of preserving where they were last closed, and opening ...
Matthew Scharley's user avatar
69 votes
7 answers
37k views

How to disable sticky corners in Windows 8?

I have 2 monitors and in Windows 7 I used to just mouse-flick maximized windows from one monitor to the other. With Windows 8 however (charms disabled), my mouse hangs in the corners while doing this. ...
Arista2's user avatar
  • 791
21 votes
4 answers
10k views

Use ALT to move windows in Windows like in Linux

In most Linux window managers, one can use the Alt key while clicking and dragging to rearrange windows. This is one of my favorite features of Linux window managers. Is there a way to do this in ...
Corey D's user avatar
  • 407
162 votes
16 answers
287k views

What keyboard shortcuts move, resize, and maximize windows under Mac OS X?

I just checked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_keyboard_shortcuts but the following "Window management" entries are blank for Mac OS X: Move the focused window Resize the focused window ...
Philip Durbin's user avatar
15 votes
4 answers
21k views

How to keep any Window "Always on Top"? [duplicate]

Some software have an option for their window to be "Always on Top". Is there any way to get the same functionality for any window. Let me give an example where this would be useful. Suppose I have a ...
Devdatta Tengshe's user avatar
11 votes
6 answers
2k views

"Ghost" UI elements

Occasionally, I get part of an application lingering behind on my desktop: This is part of a context menu for an application. It is always top-most, meaning that it is always on the screen, and I ...
adrianbanks's user avatar
  • 1,104
189 votes
10 answers
107k views

Keyboard shortcut to unhide or unminimize a window in OS X

I know how to Hide (Cmd+H) or Minimize (Cmd+M) a focused window in OS X, but I can't find a keyboard shortcut or even a menu item to restore, unhide, unminimize, or otherwise show a window that I've ...
brandonjp's user avatar
  • 2,205
84 votes
11 answers
336k views

Make any windowed application 'Always On Top' without keyboard shortcut?

I've checked the previous question here, but unfortunately: DeskPin mostly doesn't work since Windows 8, and it still doesn't work in Windows 10 PowerMenu hasn't been updated since 2002, and does not ...
Nur's user avatar
  • 1,220
48 votes
3 answers
60k views

Windows utility to save/restore window size & position history? [closed]

Is there a Windows utility that keeps a record of the size and position of all active windows for later retrieval? For example, if I have my text editor and web browser open side-by-side, and then ...
James Sulak's user avatar
154 votes
3 answers
130k views

What Tiling Window Manager for Windows do you recommend? [closed]

What is the best tiling window manager for Windows? I'm looking for something like awesome. It would be nice if it removes the title bar and has "comfortable" shortcut keys (for me that's vi keys, ...
voyager's user avatar
  • 2,750
14 votes
4 answers
18k views

Is it possible to get the Ubuntu 'Always on top' functionality in Windows? [duplicate]

In Ubuntu when you right click on a window, you get the option to keep it 'Always on Top'. This is incredibly useful sometimes when I want a window to take up the whole desktop (e.g. Internet Browser) ...
Connor W's user avatar
  • 3,943
14 votes
8 answers
48k views

What to do if a window is bigger than the screen resolution?

I'm using Windows 7 on a 8.9' monitor with 1280x768 screen resolution. Using the might of arithmetics, I'm able to determine that my dpi (actually ppi) should be 167. Win7 is really helpful in that it ...
syockit's user avatar
  • 772
7 votes
3 answers
22k views

Windows 8 Restart Desktop Window Manager

Is there a way to restart the Desktop Window Manager in Windows 8? Note that this is not Explorer, but DWM itself (restarting Explorer didn't do anything for me). Currently mine is using 4,352MB RAM ...
Scott Salyer's user avatar
25 votes
5 answers
9k views

Windows 11 desktop switching is slow since latest update

Since a recent Windows Update (2023-09 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5030310) probably?), switching desktops is much slower. I normally use Win+Tab, ...
Brad's user avatar
  • 6,152
20 votes
5 answers
81k views

Is there a name for the close, minimize and restore buttons?

It seems to me that there should be a generic name for the close, restore, and minimize buttons on the title bar in window managers. It's been getting hard to search for answers associated with them. ...
beatgammit's user avatar
  • 1,445
14 votes
4 answers
26k views

Windows 7 Aero Snap two windows horizontally [duplicate]

As many people already know, there are several ways to trigger Windows 7 Aero Snap feature. A user can either press Win+{Left,Right,Up,Down} to snap the window to the left or right or maximize or ...
Patrick's user avatar
  • 1,899
7 votes
8 answers
9k views

Recover Windows Opening Off Screen?

Background: I have a three monitor setup, but sadly one of my monitors has died (control board is probably bad). I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with an ATI Radeon HD 5670 card. The third ...
jimp's user avatar
  • 445
7 votes
5 answers
16k views

Why does Desktop Window Manager leak memory or even crash?

My Desktop Window Manager memory usage keeps spiking and causing it to disable Aero, saying it ran out of allowed memory. DWM restarts and comes back up fine when I kill its process. Why is this ...
tsilb's user avatar
  • 2,512
5 votes
2 answers
5k views

How to open a program on particular desktop?

When I start GUI program, it's window appears on the currently active desktop (essentially, on a random desktop). How to make it appear on a specific desktop? For example, at startup I want certain ...
Vi.'s user avatar
  • 17.2k
3 votes
2 answers
846 views

Moving windows on Windows like on Gnome (Alt+DnD)? [duplicate]

Is there a hidden setting or an external utility that would enable moving windows on Windows like on GNOME? I'm particularly thinking of moving windows using Alt + Drag and drop (which can be changed ...
Alois Mahdal's user avatar
  • 2,284
3 votes
1 answer
713 views

Windows 7: window moving [duplicate]

I have recently installed Windows 8. But now in Windows 7, when I move windows, a line depicting the outline of the window shows the current position of the screen when dragging them. This is not like ...
Hele's user avatar
  • 575
2 votes
3 answers
2k views

Windows 7 resize shortcuts to Mac OS X

In Windows 7, it's possible to do various resize operations by dragging windows: drag window to top of screen, and it'll be enlarged to fill whole screen. Drag it to left edge and it'll cover left ...
Olli's user avatar
  • 7,631
1 vote
2 answers
6k views

How to get Windows XP to snap windows to desktop like Vista?

You can drag windows in Windows Vista to have them snap to the sides, and have the window only take up half the screen, etc. Is there software for XP that mimics this functionality?
rxmnnxfpvg's user avatar
38 votes
4 answers
23k views

KDE - move app window between monitors via keyboard

I'm looking for a utility that moves app windows between multiple monitors in KDE.
Jarek's user avatar
  • 1,743
27 votes
13 answers
5k views

Tiling Window Manager

I've been looking into tiling window managers because I'm tired of manually positioning and resizing all my windows whenever I want to see some information side by side. However, the tiling window ...
Kyle Cronin's user avatar
  • 7,389
27 votes
3 answers
18k views

What exactly does the little green "+" button do in Mac OS X?

OK, I must admit that I am from the Windows world and started using Leopard not for long. One really annoying thing when using my shiny new OS is that I can't predict what exact behavior it brings ...
keithchau's user avatar
  • 353
22 votes
8 answers
23k views

How to switch back to previous window on OS X?

As a long time Windows users I'm used to switch between two windows using keyboard. Now at Mac I just can't figure out how to do that! Command-Tab works nicely between apps, but how to do the same ...
user avatar
21 votes
4 answers
79k views

Keyboard shortcut for moving a window to another screen

When working with two (or more screens), a common problem is that launched applications appear on the "wrong" screen. I especially find this annoying when launching a text editor from the command line,...
wcoenen's user avatar
  • 2,290
12 votes
1 answer
77k views

Alternative to PuTTY Connection Manager? [closed]

Development of the free application Putty Connection Manager that can display more than one Putty sessions stopped in 2009, and it sometimes triggers this error when I double-click on any host in the ...
OverTheRainbow's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
8k views

ALT + Left Click to Drag and ALT + Right Click to resize windows on Windows? [duplicate]

Coming from Linux, I really miss some features of window manager like xfwm, etc... One thing I got used to was to be able to drag or resize a window while holding the ALT key. Is there such a tool ...
lang2's user avatar
  • 2,222
11 votes
1 answer
5k views

Window manager which allows multiple active windows/multiple input devices?

I have a huge desktop, with multiple monitors, and one pretty good computer. I also have multiple mice and keyboards laying around. Now I would really like to make use of all the hardware. Say a ...
bobbaluba's user avatar
  • 325
7 votes
5 answers
46k views

How to cascade windows vertically or horizontally in Windows 7?

How can I cascade windows vertically or horizontally in Windows 7? In Windows XP, I'm used to pressing Ctrl, selecting some windows, right-clicking them and then choosing "Cascade".
user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
3k views

Gnome3 - Change window drag shortcut

Gnome defaults to using Alt+LeftMouse dragging for moving windows around - I hate this feature and it breaks some apps I use. In Gnome2 you could change the modifier key in one of the settings ...
cmannett85's user avatar
6 votes
6 answers
7k views

Win 7: How can I resize a window to make it much bigger than my screen?

I have a window that I'd like to make much bigger than my physical screen (explanation of why below). I hit Alt+Space, M, and then press the Up arrow to move the title bar above the physical top of my ...
RexE's user avatar
  • 566
6 votes
2 answers
889 views

Find and raise a window in KDE4 with shortcut

I was wondering about a possibility to find and raise some window in KDE4 with shortcut. Currently in KDE 4.4 there is a possibility to switch to window from krunner (Alt-F2). Say, I have an open ...
Andre_112's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is there any way to change a specific window's colors?

I'd like to find a way to manipulate window colors: invert, tint, change brightness and contrast of specific windows in Windows 7 (although I'm interested in solutions for 8 and 10 as well). Among ...
user1306322's user avatar
  • 4,766
5 votes
3 answers
4k views

How to I get window drop functionality on Mac OS X?

Windows 7 has a neat feature where the Windows Key in conjunction with the arrow keys tiles the active window. Windows key + left arrow moves it to the left half, windows key + right arrow moves your ...
Koobz's user avatar
  • 268
4 votes
2 answers
8k views

Awesome window manager does not start

I am trying to switch from gnome-shell to awesome on fedora 28. The problem I have is that when I try sudo awesome -r it tells me that another window manager is already running. So I have tried ...
iaquobe's user avatar
  • 187
4 votes
2 answers
9k views

Is there a way to force the mouse to be confined to an arbitrary window in windows 7?

I have a multi-monitor setup, and run almost all programs in windowed-mode. This works great for the most part, but is problematic when some applications, or even webbapps, use the position of the ...
simonra's user avatar
  • 165
4 votes
2 answers
8k views

Moving a window that can't be dragged by the title bar?

I have Fallout Collection and I am trying to run it windowed because of the low resolution. When I change the mode to windowed via the .ini file, however, it starts the game with the window shoved ...
ccat's user avatar
  • 41
4 votes
3 answers
5k views

How to prevent windows from being resized?

Adobe Audition is really stupid in that when you change the size of the window, and then change it back to the original size, all the frame positions are lost and you have to tediously reposition them ...
endolith's user avatar
  • 7,627
4 votes
6 answers
3k views

Starting GUI program from Linux terminal prevents further usage

I would search for this, but I have no idea how to phrase it for the search engine.. Basically, when I start a gui program from a terminal window, that terminal cannot be further used until I quit ...
splicer's user avatar
  • 145
3 votes
3 answers
4k views

How to move unseen windows => Cannot access my application after switching monitors

I switch monitors really often: At work I have a very poor computer, and gpu too, which is bad at keeping its configuration, resolution and monitor position between each reboot. Both monitor are ...
Stephane Rolland's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
309 views

Automatically restore windows as monitors are connected and disconnected?

I'm looking for a Windows 7 equivalent to the Mac OS utility Stay that let's you "automatically restore windows as displays are connected and disconnected". I have a laptop that usually stays ...
Arne Evertsson's user avatar
2 votes
4 answers
185 views

Is there a software for defining areas in Windows for sticking windows in them? [closed]

There are some softwares offered by Philips or Asus that come with their Monitors. Like when in Windows 7, if you pull a windows far to the left, it will suggest that the windows will take half of ...
Koray Tugay's user avatar
  • 1,930
2 votes
1 answer
433 views

how to make four windows of the same app fill four quadrants of a screen using slate

I can move a window to the top left corner of a screen using something like this in slate bind a:shift;cmd;alt move screenOriginX;screenOriginY screenSizeX/2;screenSizeY/2 usually when I fire sequel ...
abbood's user avatar
  • 1,274
2 votes
2 answers
317 views

Generic X balloon apps?

I am looking for a simple utility that lets me display ephemeral balloons (like the kind that are built into Thunderbird, or certain GNOME system notifications in Ubuntu, say) in a corner of my screen ...
Alex Balashov's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
398 views

Multi-Monitor with multiple computers

I need to know if there's an free application that does the same as the MaxiVista "Extended Screen" functionality. Basically is to use a 2nd computer screen as an extra monitor of the main machine. ...
AlexCode's user avatar
  • 121
1 vote
1 answer
57 views

cannot scroll down to click okay in libreoffice settings

I tried to follow the instructions here - LibreOffice 4.2.1.1: do not display list of recent documents Open the LibreOffice config: Menu "Tools" -> "Config"; In the TreeView: &...
cardamom's user avatar
  • 175