WindowScatter

A Windows utility that brings macOS Exposé-style window management to your desktop. Trigger it with a hotkey or hot corner and all your open windows fan out into a live thumbnail overview. Click one to switch to it, press Escape to dismiss.

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Features

• Live DWM thumbnails — windows are rendered in real-time using the Desktop Window Manager API, not static screenshots
• Scatter animation — windows animate from their original positions to the overview and back
• Smart layout — windows are arranged to avoid overlap while preserving spatial context (each thumbnail appears near where its real window actually is)
• Keyboard navigation — arrow keys, Tab, and Enter to navigate and select without touching the mouse
• Hot corners — move your cursor to a screen corner to trigger the overview automatically
• Configurable hotkey — default is Win+W, changeable in settings.json
• Desktop capture background — blurred live desktop snapshot as the overlay background, falls back to wallpaper if unavailable
• Multi-monitor aware — scatter view opens on whichever monitor your cursor is on

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Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11
• .NET 8.0 Runtime (Desktop Runtime)

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Getting Started

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/CommanderPho/WindowScatter.git
cd WindowScatter
dotnet build -c Release
dotnet run

Or open WindowScatter.csproj in Visual Studio 2022+ and hit Run.

Or just download the zip folder on releases and run WindowScatter.exe.

Run

The app runs silently in the background with no visible window. Once running:

1. Press Win+W (default) to trigger the scatter view
2. Click a thumbnail to switch to that window
3. Press Escape to dismiss without switching

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Configuration

Settings are stored in settings.json next to the executable. The file is created automatically on first run with defaults.

{
  "Hotkey": "Win+W",
  "EnableHotCorners": true,
  "HotCornerPosition": "TopLeft",
  "HotCornerDelay": 500,
  "AnimationSpeed": 0.25
}

Setting	Type	Default	Description
Hotkey	string	"Win+W"	Keyboard shortcut to trigger scatter. Supports modifiers: Win, Ctrl, Alt, Shift
EnableHotCorners	bool	true	Whether moving the cursor to a screen corner triggers scatter
HotCornerPosition	string	"TopLeft"	Which corner activates scatter. Options: TopLeft, TopRight, BottomLeft, BottomRight
HotCornerDelay	int	500	Milliseconds the cursor must stay in the corner before triggering
AnimationSpeed	double	0.25	Duration of scatter/return animation in seconds

Hotkey format

Modifiers and key separated by +. Examples:

Win+W
Ctrl+Alt+Tab
Win+Shift+E

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Keyboard Controls (while scatter is active)

Key	Action
Tab / Shift+Tab	Cycle through windows forward / backward
Arrow keys	Navigate to the nearest window in that direction
Enter	Switch to the selected window
Escape	Dismiss scatter without switching

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Project Structure

WindowScatter/
├── MainWindow.xaml / .cs          # App entry point, orchestrates all managers
├── WindowLayoutCalculator.cs      # Scatter layout algorithm (placement & sizing)
├── WindowAnimationManager.cs      # Timer-based animation loop (scatter & return)
├── ThumbnailManager.cs            # DWM thumbnail registration and canvas elements
├── WindowSwitcher.cs              # Handles restoring a window after selection
├── WindowEnumerator.cs            # Enumerates visible, scatter-eligible windows
├── DesktopCaptureManager.cs       # Live desktop background capture via DWM
├── HotCornerManager.cs            # Cursor polling for hot corner activation
├── MonitorHelper.cs               # Monitor detection and bounds from cursor position
├── WallpaperManager.cs            # Wallpaper fallback for background image
├── HotkeyParser.cs                # Parses hotkey strings into virtual key codes
├── AppSettings.cs                 # Settings model with JSON load/save
├── WindowInfo.cs                  # Data model for an enumerated window
├── Win32Interop.cs                # P/Invoke declarations (DWM, User32, etc.)
└── App.xaml / .cs                 # WPF application bootstrap

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How It Works

1. A low-level keyboard hook intercepts the configured hotkey system-wide
2. On trigger, WindowEnumerator lists all visible windows on the active monitor
3. WindowLayoutCalculator computes scatter positions, scaling windows down to ~15–50% of original size and distributing them across the screen without overlap, biased toward preserving each window's original screen region
4. DesktopCaptureManager captures a live DWM thumbnail of the desktop as the blurred background
5. ThumbnailManager registers a DWM thumbnail for each window and places transparent click-capture borders over them on a WPF Canvas
6. WindowAnimationManager runs an animation loop interpolating each thumbnail from its real position to its scatter position
7. On click or keyboard Enter, WindowSwitcher runs the reverse animation and calls SetForegroundWindow on the chosen handle

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Known Limitations

• Windows only — relies heavily on DWM and Win32 APIs
• Hot corner detection only tracks the primary monitor's dimensions (secondary monitor corners don't trigger)
• No settings UI — configuration requires manually editing settings.json
• No much visual

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License

MIT