Open Source C Window Managers

Project has been moved to https://github.com/marchaesen/vcxsrv Windows X-server based on the xorg git sources (like xming or cygwin's xwin), but compiled with Visual C++ 2012 Express Edition. Source code can also be compiled with VS2008, VS2008 Express Edition and VS2010 Express Edition, although current project and makefile are not fully compatible anymore. Versions starting from 1.14.3.0 are not compatible with Windows XP anymore.

Enlightenment is a window manager for the X11 windowing system. Its design goal is to be as configurable as possible - in look AND in feel.

Xming is the leading X Window System Server for Microsoft Windows 8/7/Vista/XP (+ server 2012/2008/2003). It is fully featured, small and fast, simple to install and because it is standalone native Microsoft Windows, easily made portable (not needing a machine-specific installation).

The Common Desktop Environment was created by a collaboration of Sun, HP, IBM, DEC, SCO, Fujitsu and Hitachi. Used on a selection of commercial UNIXs, it is now available as open-source software for the first time. For support, see: https://sourceforge.net/p/cdesktopenv/wiki/Home/

VirtuaWin is an application for the Windows user community that misses the wonderful multiple desktop functionality often used on Unix systems. It is simple, reliable and highly configurable, supporting up to 20 virtual desktops.

FlickOS 2.x is a lightweight Linux desktop based on Debian 13 (trixie) with a labwc Wayland session. It ships as a live ISO with the Calamares installer. One hybrid ISO boots BIOS and UEFI and can be written to USB. 64-bit only. Three layouts switch live: Redmond (default, one bottom panel), Cupertino (top bar and dock), and Traditional (top panel and window list). Arc-Dark by default, with a Light desktop style. Optional tiling is off by default (Super+T). Installed systems get a graphical login; the live session logs in automatically. Includes Firefox ESR, LibreOffice, VLC, Bluetooth, printing, Flatpak, PipeWire and NetworkManager. Firewall on (incoming blocked), automatic security updates, and FlickOS desktop updates via apt. No in-place upgrade from FlickOS 1.x (Ubuntu 20.04 / LXLE). Back up and install 2.2 fresh. Source: https://github.com/Flick-OS/flickos Discord: https://discord.gg/xmpqbdfep Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/flickos/ License: GPL-3

ZacOS 9 is a complete Mac OS 8/9-style desktop for Debian Linux, drawn pixel by pixel from scratch. The window manager, Sniffer file browser, menu bar and every control panel were written for it, so everything looks and behaves alike, down to the scroll arrows. Run Firefox, LibreOffice, GIMP and the rest of Debian (plus Flathub) in the Platinum look, start classic Mac OS in the built-in SheepShaver emulator with your own ROM, and share files with old Macs over AppleTalk and AFP. Try it live from a USB stick, then install it from the desktop. I built ZacOS for myself, wanting Mac OS 9's calm, simple desktop on a modern Linux system. Once it was good enough to live in, I decided to share it. It's free and open source (GPL), with no catch. Bug reports and ideas are welcome. An independent project, not affiliated with Apple Inc. No Apple code, ROMs, fonts or icons are included.

yabai is a tiling window manager for macOS that extends the native windowing system with fully scriptable command-line control. It uses a binary space partitioning algorithm to auto-tile windows, supports extensive keyboard shortcut mapping (via skhd), and enhances productivity for power users.

GUI Windows (OS) program that allows you to strip the window borders from most programs and align the program at 0, 0. Created specifically so that one can play half life/counter strike in 'windowed mode' but full screen with no blue border.

icewm is a window manager for the X Window System. The features of icewm are speed, simplicity, and not getting in the user's way.

AltSnap is a free, open-source window management utility for Windows, developed as a maintained continuation of AltDrag. It allows users to move and resize application windows by holding the Alt key and clicking anywhere inside them. This approach eliminates the need to precisely target title bars or window borders. The software provides window snapping, transparent dragging, and customizable mouse actions for efficient desktop organization. Users can configure keyboard shortcuts, window behavior, and application-specific exclusions. AltSnap also includes options for maximizing windows and adjusting process behavior. Designed for a wide range of Windows versions, it operates without injecting DLLs into other applications, providing lightweight and flexible window management.

The project tries to create a free, fast and feature-full virtual desktop manager for Microsoft Windows. This application enhances the Microsoft "Window Manager" up to the level of usual Unix Window Manager, by providing virtual desktops, as well as some additional features, like always on top, window shading...

A Linux operating system, designed and developed to be beautiful, simple, fast, and stable on many computer hardware.

Star Trek 24/7: LCARS (Starfleet) GUI, full-screen alarm clock & calendar, games, utilities, sims, maps, graphical LCARS library, file manager, viewers, players, animation. Requires a HighColor/TrueColor DOS-based laptop w/ std. graphics & sound cards.

dwl is a compact, hackable compositor for Wayland based on wlroots. It is intended to fill the same space in the Wayland world that dwm does in X11, primarily in terms of philosophy, and secondarily in terms of functionality. dwl is not meant to provide every feature under the sun. Instead, like dwm, it sticks to features that are necessary, simple, and straightforward to implement given the base on which it is built. Simple window borders, tags, keybindings, client rules, mouse move/resize. Providing a built-in status bar is an exception to this goal, to avoid dependencies on font rendering and/or drawing libraries when an external bar could work well.

Mount.app is a Window Maker compatible dock app which makes it convenient to manage all of your mountable devices.

Enhanced Motif Window Manager (MWM fork). Supports Xinerama, Xrandr, UTF-8/Xft, multiple workspaces and relevant Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) . A simple session manager and a /toolchest/ like launcher are available in the separate utilities package. Documentation and more on the project homepage: https://fastestcode.org/emwm.html

Xfce is an easy-to-use and easy-to-configure desktop environment using the popular GTK+ toolkit.

Wind is a window manager for the X Window System. It supports virtual desktops, optional Xft font rendering, and is fairly standards compliant.

Wmping is a simple usefull program that allows to check host status in your network environment. It can be used for monitoring servers in the network.

Virtue is a virtual desktop manager for MacOS 10.4. It is based upon the work done by Rich Wareham on DesktopManager (http://desktopmanager.berlios.de/).

The UDE-Project is creating a new Desktop Environment for X11. The entirely original look & feel is mainly optimized for efficient shell usage (as for programming, sysadministration etc). Offers max. screen space, stability and very low resource usage.

We moved to github https://github.com/aanatoly/fbpanel fbpanel is a lightweight X11 desktop panel. It requires only GTK-2 and X11 to compile and works with any ICCCM / NETWM compliant window manager (eg sawfish, metacity, , xfwm4, kvm) It features tasklist, pager, launcbar, clock, menu and sytray

The Virtual Tab Window Manager. vtwm is a descendant of the reference X11 window manager, twm, enhanced to provide virtual desktops plus many other features, whilst remaining small and efficient.

AfterStep is a window manager for the Unix X Window System. Originally based on the look and feel of the NeXTStep interface, it has evolved into its own creature with interest expressed by GNUstep, to make AfterStep the window manager of choice for X