Tiling Window Manager

[PascalSenn]

Summary of the new feature/enhancement

Developing software on a Linux machine has always been a different experience than developing on a Windows machine.
The freedom of the shell, window manager etc. of choice was great.
The most productive dev experience I ever had was on linux with suckless.org tools.

dwm (Dynamic Window Manager) is making the difference. It's pretty similar to FancyZones, but it's more complete.
FancyZones gives us the possibility to manage windows and their layouts on the machine. It even supports keyboard shortcuts to control the whole experience by the keyboard.
It's great. Really!

I really like the overall Windows 10 experience. For i.E. writing, browsing or researching it's great. Floating Windows, a taskbar, a desktop, all things that support a normal office workflow. I don't really need those as an administrator though. I just want quick access to my applications, quickly shift between windows, having multiple virtual desktops that are preconfigured and always the same, having everything i need for a particular workflow in reach.

In DWM there is nothing like a desktop or a classic taskbar visible. Pure focus - Nothing that distracts or gets in my way. I don't have to search for anything on my screen because everything has it's place. I need the browser? Desktop 1 on the left. I need my Notepad? Desktop 4 Fullscreen. - Everything is in order, everything has it's place. And I can access everything with at most 2 keyboard shortcuts.

I think something like a FocusMode would be really nice.
Once you are in the focus mode you and your window manager are on their own. The "normal" windows taskbar is hidden and the focus mode taskbar is shown.

TaskBar

• It shows the current virtual desktops as numbers
• date and time
• and the search bar
  
• Fully configurable experience per config file (Like the new terminal ;) )

FancyZones

• Windows are automatically aligned with the FancyZone layout.
• Applications can be attached to a specific zone. (I know that this is already somehow supported)

Virtual Desktops

• Are shown in Taskbar.
• a default FancyZone layout per virtual desktop can be configured Multi virtual desktops. Save apps positions on appropriate desktops (after computer restart). #311
  i. E. Desktop 1: 2 Columns - Browser and Dev Tools
  Desktop 2: 2 Columns - for Editor and terminals
  Desktop 3: 4 Grid - File Explorer
  Desktop 4: Full Screen - OneNote

This are just the first thoughts about this idea, nothing mature.

[dcasati]

This. I’m also on the same page. I’d add that today for me to get somewhat closer to my productivity on Linux (i3wm) I’m using the following on Windows 10:

• keyperinha (to simulate dmenu)
• autohotkeys (mapped ALT+ENTER to launch the new Windows Terminal)

Autohotkeys (or an equivalent thereof would also be necessary)

I did try FancyZones and I believe that there’s a lot of potential here - PascalSenn described them quiet well. Bug.n is somewhere close to what we are looking for but having something such as FancyZones would be a blessing.

[QuiZr]

For me, the biggest issue is that you cannot change the focused window with keyboard easily.
On my i3 setup I have it configured that using SUPER+Arrow keys I can select which window currently have focus - It makes it really easy to i.e. browse the web and switch to my IDE with a keyboard only.
On windows I have to use ALT+TAB and arrow keys which isn't as convenient.

[prabirshrestha]

You can try this if you are looking for win32 port of dwm. https://github.com/prabirshrestha/dwm-win32.

Release tab has binaries that you can download and run without compiling.

[PascalSenn]

Wow @prabirshrestha That's a lot cleaner than the autohotkey stuff.
I currently work with bug.n and I'm quite happy, i may switch over to you r port though as soon as the keyboard shortcut manager of powertoys is ready

[enricogior]

Closing this in favor of #2694