Get a Linux-style tiling window manager on Windows

Tiling window managers (WM) provide Linux users with a way to customize a desktop environment to suit their personal preferences. Windows can be arranged to avoid overlapping and altered on the fly simply by typing in keyboard commands.

Inspired by the likes of i3 (a Linux window manager aimed at power users and developers) and Polybar (a fast and easy-to-use tool for creating status bars), GlazeWM brings this functionality to Windows, and the tool has just undergone a massive update. Version 2.0 fixes a number of problems and introduces a wealth of new features.

New features in GlazeWM 2.0 include:

• Restore hidden windows when the WM is killed unexpectedly.
  • Introduced a new "watcher" process, which restores all windows when the main process dies.
• Highlight the active window with a customizable border.
  • Exclusively on Windows 11 due to the underlying API not being available on W10.
• Automatically focus windows underneath the cursor.
• Cursor jumps to windows focused by the WM.
• Introduce an IPC server and a CLI for querying GlazeWM's state and running WM commands.
  • Both the IPC server and CLI support the same commands.
• Lots of new components for the bar:
  • System tray component
  • WiFi/ETH stats component
  • CPU stats component
  • GPU stats component
  • Memory/RAM stats component
  • Weather component
  • Text file component
  • Volume component
  • Image component
• Further improvements to the bar include:
  • Customizable border radius for components and the bar window itself
  • Fully remove the bar
  • Show the bar above all other windows
  • Support for mixing font family, font weight, font size, and foreground color within a label. This means that icons and text fonts can be used together in a label
• Add an equivalent to workspace_auto_back_and_forth from i3wm. The new option general.toggle_workspace_on_refocus allows switching back and forth between the previously focused workspace when focusing the current workspace.
• Add new command for setting width/height of a window to a specific value.
• UWP windows now tile correctly.
• Customize individual outer gaps, eg. gaps.outer_gap: 10px 5px 10px 5px.
• Floating windows can now be moved and resized. The amount of movement is controlled by general.floating_window_move_amount.
• Window transition animations can be disabled globally via general.window_animations.
• Ctrl can be used instead of Control when defining keybindings.

The latest executable can be downloaded via releases. You can also download it using the Winget package manager.

winget install GlazeWM

Image Credit: @HolbyFPV