PyleWM

PyleWM is a utility for doing tiled window management on the Windows OS. It is inspired heavily by the linux window managers i3 and awesomewm.

Functionality includes:

• Windows are automatically tiled into a column-grid layout. Hotkeys can be used to move or swap windows in the grid.
• Hotkeys for switching which window is focused based on a direction.
• Double-sided workspaces per monitor, allowing for easy flipping back and forth.
• Binding arbitrary global hotkeys to various builtins or any python function.
• Any number of temporary workspaces per monitor, created as needed.
• Drag & Drop windows into automatically tiled slots.

Installation

Either:

• Download a self-contained binary package from the Releases Page
• OR: Use pip install pylewm and run python -m pylewm
• OR: Clone the repository and execute PyleWM.py (see Dependencies section below)

Getting Started

When you start PyleWM you will find all your windows tiled into a grid automatically.

Holding Control+Alt and pressing one of the HJKL keys will automatically change your focused window in the direction of the pressed key. Holding Control+Alt+Shift and pressing one of the HJKL keys will move the window in that direction in the grid.

Grabbing a window with the mouse and moving it around pops it out of the tiled grid automatically. You can then drop it back into the grid by dropping it with the mouse hovered near one of the vertical splits in the grid layout. An empty space will be shown indicating where the window will be dropped.

Pressing Control+Alt+Space will swap the monitor's workspace between the 'back' and 'front', allowing you to have two separate tiling layouts.

For a list of hotkeys available by default see the example config file.

PyleWM adds a windows tray icon that can be used to quit the application.

Temporary Workspaces

In addition to the two 'back' and 'front' workspaces per monitor, an unlimited amount of temporary workspaces can be used.

Temporary workspaces only exist as long as there are windows assigned to them. As soon as all windows in a temporary workspace are closed or moved away, it is destroyed.

The default Control+Alt+S shortcut will switch to the most recently used temporary workspace. When there are no temporary workspaces on this monitor, or if the current visible workspace is already a temporary workspace, it switches to a new empty temporary workspace instead.

The Control+Alt+N (Next Temporary Workspace) and Control+Alt+M (Previous Temporary Workspace) shortcuts can switch between temporary workspaces if the current monitor has more than one.

Pressing Control+Alt+Shift+S will move the currently focused window into its own new temporary workspace.

Application Selector

PyleWM has a builtin fuzzy search window. By default this can be used in two modes:

Pressing Control+Alt+Enter shows a list of all application shortcuts (taken from the start menu and the desktop), and lets you type a fuzzy search to start any application.

Pressing Control+Alt+W lists the titles of all currently open windows, and lets you type a fuzzy search to focus one of them.

Configuration

PyleWM automatically sets up an example configuration file in %APPDATA%\PyleWM\PyleWM_Config.py. Change the configuration and restart PyleWM (default hotkey Control+Alt+Shift+R) to load the updated configuration.

Dependencies

Written for minimum Python version 3.6. Requires pywin32, pystray, pygame, fuzzywuzzy, and pylnk3.

Permissions

Unfortunately, PyleWM will have to run as administrator (it prompts UAC when ran as user). Windows does not allow window management on system windows such as Task Manager unless administrator permissions are active, and PyleWM would stop working.

Focus Stealing

Since PyleWM has a lot of features to set the focused window using keyboard control, we have to work around Windows' limitations that prevent focus from changing in certain situations. One such limitation is a timeout in the rate that focus can be switched.

To make switching focus using PyleWM more consistent, running PyleWM automatically sets the HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\ForegroundLockTimeout registry value to 0 to allow windows to be unfocused.

You may need to sign out of your user account and sign back in before this takes effect.