Whim is a pluggable and modern window manager for Windows 10 and 11, built using WinUI 3 and .NET. It is currently in active development, but feel free to try it out and report any issues you find. Breaking API changes are possible.
Alpha builds are available on the releases page. Download the latest installer and run it to install Whim.
When you run Whim for the first time, it will create a .whim directory in your user profile - for example, C:\Users\Isaac\.whim.
This directory will contain a whim.config.csx file which you can edit to customize Whim. This file is a C# script file, and is reloaded every time Whim starts. To have the best development experience, you should have dotnet tooling installed (Visual Studio Code will prompt you when you open .whim).
The config contains a pre-filled example which you can use as a starting point. You can also find the config here.
Whim is build around plugins. Plugins are referenced using #r and using statements at the top of the config file. Each plugin generally has a Config class, and a Plugin class. For example:
BarConfig barConfig = new(leftComponents, centerComponents, rightComponents);
BarPlugin barPlugin = new(context, barConfig);
context.PluginManager.AddPlugin(barPlugin);Each plugin needs to be added to the context object.
Whim is heavily inspired by the workspacer project, to which I've contributed to in the past. However, there are a few key differences:
- Whim is built using WinUI 3 instead of Windows Forms. This makes it easier to have a more modern UI.
- Whim has a more powerful command palette, which supports fuzzy search.
- Whim stores windows internally in a more flexible way. This facilitates more complex window management. For more, see Layouts.
- Whim has a command system with common functionality, which makes it easier to interact with at a higher level.
- Creating subclasses of internal classes is not encouraged in Whim - instead, plugins should suffice to add new functionality.
Whim was not built to be a drop-in replacement for workspacer, but it does have a similar feel and many of the same features. It is not a fork of workspacer, and is built from the ground up.
I am grateful to the workspacer project for the inspiration and ideas it has provided.
In progress...
This is one of the key areas where Whim differs from workspacer.
| Concept | workspacer | Whim |
|---|---|---|
| Data structure for storing windows | IEnumerable<IWindow> |
Any |
| Primary area support | Yes | Not built in but possible in a custom ILayoutEngine |
| Directional support | No | Yes |
ILayoutEngine mutability |
Mutable | Immutable |
Currently, workspacer stores all windows in an IEnumerable<IWindow> stack which is passed to each ILayout implementation. Relying so heavily on a stack prevents workspacer from supporting more complex window layouts. For example, Whim's TreeLayoutEngine uses a n-ary tree structure to store windows in arbitrary grid layouts.
Whim does not have a core concept of a "primary area", as it's an idea which lends itself to a stack-based data structure. However, it is possible to implement this functionality in a custom ILayoutEngine and plugin.
As Whim supports more novel layouts, it also has functionality to account for directions, like FocusWindowInDirection, SwapWindowInDirection, and MoveWindowEdgesInDirection. For example, it's possible to drag a corner of a window diagonally to resize it (provided the underlying ILayoutEngine supports it).
Implementations of Whim's ILayoutEngine should be immutable. This was done to support future functionality like previewing changes to layouts before committing them (see #425). In comparison, workspacer's ILayoutEngine implementations are mutable.
Please file an issue if you find any bugs or have any feature requests. Pull requests are welcome, but please file an issue first to discuss the change you'd like to make.
Work is currently being tracked in the project board.