OpenWM

A Hyprland-inspired tiling window manager for Windows, written in C#.

Features

• Dwindle tiling — the first window takes the left half; each subsequent window splits the remaining space alternately (mirrors Hyprland's default layout).
• Master-Stack layout — one master window on the left, remaining windows stacked on the right.
• Floating layout — windows are not repositioned automatically.
• 9 virtual workspaces — switch between them or move windows across workspaces.
• Global hotkeys — keyboard-driven workflow, no mouse required.
• Window rules — automatically float windows by class name.
• Auto-detect new windows — WinEvent hooks keep the layout up-to-date without polling.
• JSON configuration — stored in %APPDATA%\OpenWM\openwm.json.

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Requirements

• Windows 10 / 11 (x64)
• .NET 8 Runtime

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Getting Started

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/Daweidie/OpenWM.git
cd OpenWM

# Build
dotnet build

# Run (from project root)
dotnet run --project src/OpenWM

Tip: Add the built OpenWM.exe to your Windows startup folder so it launches automatically.

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Hotkeys

All hotkeys use Win + Ctrl as the default modifier (configurable).

Hotkey	Action
Win+Ctrl+Q	Quit OpenWM
Win+Ctrl+F	Toggle floating for focused window
Win+Ctrl+Space	Toggle fullscreen for focused window
Win+Ctrl+T	Retile the active workspace
Win+Ctrl+L	Cycle layout: dwindle → master → floating
Win+Ctrl+W	Close the focused window
Win+Ctrl+M	Promote focused window to master
Win+Ctrl+←	Focus previous window
Win+Ctrl+→	Focus next window
Win+Ctrl+1…9	Switch to workspace 1–9
Win+Ctrl+Shift+1…9	Move focused window to workspace 1–9

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Configuration

On first launch, OpenWM uses built-in defaults. To customise, create:

%APPDATA%\OpenWM\openwm.json

Example configuration:

{
  "DefaultLayout": "dwindle",
  "Gaps": 8,
  "WorkspaceCount": 9,
  "MasterRatio": 0.55,
  "Autostart": [
    "C:\\Users\\you\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\alacritty\\alacritty.exe"
  ],
  "FloatClasses": [
    "notepad",
    "#32770"
  ]
}

Key	Default	Description
DefaultLayout	"dwindle"	Starting layout: "dwindle", "master", or "floating"
Gaps	8	Gap (px) between windows and screen edges
WorkspaceCount	9	Number of virtual workspaces
MasterRatio	0.55	Width fraction for master window (master layout)
Autostart	[]	Programs launched when OpenWM starts
FloatClasses	["notepad","#32770"]	Window classes that are always floating

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Project Structure

OpenWM.sln
src/
  OpenWM/
    App.cs                    # Top-level orchestrator
    Program.cs                # Entry point
    Config/
      Configuration.cs        # JSON config
    Core/
      WindowInfo.cs           # Window data model
      WindowManager.cs        # Win32 window management
    Hooks/
      WindowEventHook.cs      # WinEvent accessibility hooks
    Hotkeys/
      HotkeyManager.cs        # Global hotkey registration
    Layout/
      ILayout.cs              # Layout interface
      DwindleLayout.cs        # Hyprland-style dwindle layout
      MasterLayout.cs         # Master-stack layout
      FloatingLayout.cs       # Floating (unmanaged) layout
    Native/
      NativeMethods.cs        # P/Invoke declarations
      NativeStructures.cs     # Win32 structs
    Workspaces/
      Workspace.cs            # Virtual desktop
      WorkspaceManager.cs     # Workspace switching & management
tests/
  OpenWM.Tests/
    Layout/
      DwindleLayoutTests.cs
      MasterLayoutTests.cs
    Workspaces/
      WorkspaceTests.cs
    Config/
      ConfigurationTests.cs

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Running Tests

dotnet test

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License

MIT