What are the best tiling window managers for Windows?

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Feb 7, 2024

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Updated

HashTWM vs FancyWM vs GlazeWM

vs PowerToys vs Mosaico vs SplitView vs AquaSnap vs bug.n vs komorebi vs Amethyst Windows vs i3 vs Snap It! vs GridWM (Grid Window Manager)

Specs

License

Platforms

Technology

Required Windows build

Type

Programming Language

Initial Release

Latest Release

Wireless

License

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Technology

Required Windows build

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Programming Language

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Latest Release

Wireless

License

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Technology

Required Windows build

Type

Programming Language

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Wireless

License

MIT Licence

Platforms

Windows

Technology

C++, C#

Required Windows build

Windows 10 1803 (build 17134) or later

Type

Programming Language

Initial Release

Latest Release

Wireless

License

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Technology

Required Windows build

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Wireless

License

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Technology

Required Windows build

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Programming Language

Initial Release

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Wireless

License

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Technology

Required Windows build

Type

Programming Language

Initial Release

Latest Release

Wireless

License

Platforms

Windows

Technology

AutoHotkey

Required Windows build

Type

Programming Language

Initial Release

Latest Release

Wireless

License

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Technology

Required Windows build

Type

Programming Language

Initial Release

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Wireless

License

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Technology

Required Windows build

Type

Programming Language

Initial Release

Latest Release

Wireless

License

Modified BSD (3-Clause)

Platforms

Technology

Required Windows build

Type

Tiling / Dynamic

Programming Language

Initial Release

March 15, 2009

Latest Release

April 22, 2020

Wireless

yes

License

Platforms

Technology

Required Windows build

Type

Programming Language

Initial Release

Latest Release

Wireless

License

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Technology

Required Windows build

Type

Programming Language

Initial Release

Latest Release

Wireless

Pros + Cons

Pro
Window stacking

While both Groupy and TidyTabs add tabbed or stacked programs to Windows, neither of them has automatic stacking or supports splitting the screen into multiple sections with its own automatic stack.

Comment

When splitting the screen in half horizontally, sometimes the windows on the right side of the screen will be partially off the screen. Usually only the scroll bar is hidden and resizing the two halves fixes the problem. This program is in its early development stages so odd glitches are bound to happen.

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Con
Lack of tabbing windows in the same FancyZone

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Pro
Native and supported by Microsoft

No need to install third-party tools, and is efficiently integrated with Windows 10.

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Con
No window snapping

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Con
Free for personal use only

The free version is also very limited. For example, no window tiling or multi monitor support.

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Pro
Very CPU and memory efficient

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Comment

Pro
Like Windows Snap, but better

Essentially the Windows Snap feature but allowing for more than a 4 quadrant set up.

Comment

Pro
Very advanced tiling window management

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Pro
Simple to use, don't need to change your habits

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Pro
Based on hotkeys

A lot of the other alternatives are GUI based, which are very inefficient compared to the hotkey approach of bug.n.

Comment

Pro
Very customizable

You can radically change the way bug.n works to suit yourself, although it takes a little bit of work some times.

Comment

Pro
Disabled very easily (windows+ctrl+q)

This is especially helpful while learning to use bug.n.

Comment

Pro
Handy resource monitor

Has an own conky style resources monitor in its statusbar showing cpu/ram/disk reads/writes, network uploads/downloads and time.

Comment

Pro
Customizable through config files

Just like DWM, bug.n is configured through a plain text file. This is a great resource for setting up your configuration. Original link is down, try this one for the Archive.org copy.

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Pro
Supports multiple monitors

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Pro
Open Source

bug.n is free and open sourced.

Comment

Pro
Saves a lot of windows space

Bug.n can increase the available screen estate by freeing up the space occupied by the Microsoft Windows Taskbar & the title bar for every single window by hiding and replacing all with a single slim status bar. The status bar shows the current config of your window setup & can also show system information like time, date and memory usage.

Comment

Pro
Dynamic Tiling Window management

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Comment

Con
Some applications need manual configuration to have them work well

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Pro
WHKD is great nonetheless

Whkd is Windows Hotkey Daemon which is also another program written by the same author. The whkd manages your shortcuts and when triggered with a specific shortcut runs the specified command in your preferred shell. This program makes shortcuts a breeze because it's as simple as configure your whkdrc and add some shortcuts. You can write your scripts and assign them to a shortcut of your choice to make it more efficent working inside the system.

Comment

Pro
Easy to configure

Because it is configured by a cli program, "komorebic", its available options are listed there(run komorebic --help to see the options) and can be changed in run-time. However, the changes you make will be for that session unless you write your configuration settings to its startup script named "komorebi.ps1" in your home folder.

Comment

Pro
Works with yasb

yasb has native support for komorebi

Comment

Con
Little bit glitchy

It can be glitcy at times while configuring. The active window borders for example does not disappear for me when I specified the program as one that goes full screen. It disappears after I refocus on the app but not when, for example, switching to a workspace where app which can go full screen exists and when it does the borders are still visible.

Comment

Pro
Excellent documentation

Every feature is thoroughly documented (including examples), and documentation is kept up-to-date. For questions that are not answered by the i3 user guide, because they concern tools outside of i3 for example, there is the community question & answer site.

Comment

Pro
Easily readable plain-text configuration

i3 has plain-text configuration, meaning that no lua or haskell is needed. This makes it rather easy to recommend i3 to other people without worrying whether or not they have the knowledge to configure it as it can be read by anyone without prior knowledge.

Comment

Pro
VIM Style key bindings

You can configure i3 so that your keys for moving windows is similar to vim, for example, M-j to move the window down.

Comment

Pro
Easily switch to and manage floating windows

i3 can allow for the user to manage floating windows. Floating mode can be toggled by pressing $mod+Shift+Space. This way the user can take advantage of tiling as well as floating windows, all in the same session.

Comment

Pro
Can be reloaded quickly and configured without a client restart

Just two hot keys: Shift+Super+C to reload the config and Shift+Super+R to restart (which takes less than one second). Restarts pick up new versions of i3 or the updated config file, so you can upgrade to a newer version or quickly see the changes to i3 without quitting your X session.

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Pro
Layouts can be saved and reused

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Pro
Configuration allows for multi-monitor support

User can assign specific workspaces to specific displays as well as apps to workspaces. This makes possible opening set of most used apps with 1 shortcut always on the same screens.

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Pro
Simple to use

Configuration is nearly automatic and simple, which can be really helpful to beginners.

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Pro
Sane development process

i3 uses test driven development with an extensive test suite to prevent bugs from ever happening again. All external contributions require a thorough code review to guarantee a certain level of quality.

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Pro
Never have to take hands off keyboard

Keyboard shortcut based navigation can seem daunting at first, but one quickly gets used to it. It enables the user to never have to take their hands off the keyboard, meaning that they can use their computer quickly and efficiently.

Comment

Pro
RandR support

RandR provides more information about your outputs and connected screens than Xinerama does. To be specific, the code which handled on-the-fly screen reconfiguration (meaning without restarting the X server) was a very messy heuristic approach and most of the time did not work correctly — that is just not possible with the limited information that Xinerama offers (just a list of screen resolutions and no identifiers for the screens or any additional information). Xinerama simply was not designed for dynamic configuration.

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Pro
Terminal bell can be used to notify of completed actions

Terminal-bell gets passed through and marks the workspace visibly.

Comment

Pro
Windows can be turned into Tabs

i3 permits tabbing through windows by turning on Tab mode with $mod+w. This shortcut can be changed in config file.

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Pro
No window borders

Screen area is not wasted by window decorations. This allows programs to use the entire screen. NOTE: Default config has window title bar enabled so there is a little screen space lose on the top of the screen.

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Pro
Fully configurable (including tiling)

One of the biggest attractions of i3 is that it can be configured just about any way the user likes. Ranging from custom keyboard shortcuts to placement of opened apps, it is up to the user as to how they would like their window manager to behave.

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