GlazeWM is a tiny open-source app that manages windows better than Windows does

Snap Assist on Windows is decent. You can drag windows to the edges of your screen, and they snap into halves or quarters. If you need more control, PowerToys FancyZones lets you create custom snap layouts to fit your workflow better. However, Windows doesn't have a tiling window manager that automatically arranges new windows alongside existing ones, so you have to manually arrange them every time.

Linux has had a solution for this for years. Tiling window managers like i3 automatically arrange every window you open, let you switch between workspaces with keyboard shortcuts, and give you a minimal status bar showing only what's important. GlazeWM brings this experience to Windows. It's a lightweight, keyboard-driven tiling window manager that handles window arrangement better than Windows ever has.

What's GlazeWM

A keyboard-driven tiling window manager for Windows

Windows 11's built-in window management is serviceable if you work with one or two apps open most of the time. You can snap your Windows into half or make it take a quarter of the screen using the Win + Arrow keys combo. The default virtual desktops are also fine, and you can access them with Win + Right/Left arrow keys.

However, when you open a new app, it opens in full window mode and closing an app doesn't affect other open apps or their window size. Similarly, to move your current window to another workspace, you need to manually drag and drop it.

GlazeWM makes the default app window setup in Windows more dynamic. Once installed, it automatically tiles every new window instead of stacking them on top of each other. Open your browser, and it takes up the whole screen. Open a second app, and GlazeWM splits the screen between them. Now, if you open a third, and it adjusts again. You never have to drag or resize anything manually. The app figures out the best arrangement on its own, but you can also manually arrange them with a simple drag and drop.

However, it's the keyboard shortcuts-powered flexibility that turns it into an exceptional window tiling manager. You can move focus between windows, resize them, move them to different workspaces, or precisely adjust the size and position using the keyboard shortcuts. For example, press Alt + Shift + 2 to move your active window to the second workspace seamlessly or Alt + Shift + H / J / K / L to move in any direction.

GlazeWM also comes bundled with Zebar, a minimal status bar that replaces the Windows taskbar. It shows your workspaces at a glance and lets you switch between them with hotkeys like Alt+1, Alt+2, and so on. If you've ever used i3 on Linux, this will feel immediately familiar.

Installing GlazeWM

Download the installer or use winget

To get GlazeWM up and running is easy. Head to the GlazeWM GitHub releases page and download the latest release. If you prefer using the command line, you can install it with Winget:

winget install glzr-io.glazewm

Once installed, GlazeWM runs in the background and starts tiling new windows automatically. The default setup works out of the box, but you'll most likely want to tweak a few things to match your preferences. I suggest keeping the official documentation handy, which includes a keyboard shortcut cheatsheet to help you learn the basic shortcuts quickly.

Basic layout management

Configure gaps, borders, and keybindings through a single YAML file

The first thing I noticed after installing GlazeWM was the default 20-pixel gaps between windows. On a 1080p display, this feels excessive and wastes valuable screen space. But you can configure almost everything about the app and how it works through the YAML file.

The configuration file lives at ~/.glzr/glazewm/config.yaml. Open it in any text editor, and you can adjust gaps, window borders, keybindings, and workspace settings. To reduce those gaps, find the gaps section and lower the values. I dropped mine to 8 pixels, which gives just enough visual separation without eating into usable space.

The active window border color is another setting worth changing. By default, it's subtle enough that you might lose track of which window has focus. Switching to a brighter color makes it much easier to see where your cursor will land when you start typing.

Keybindings will take some getting used to. The default resize shortcuts (U, P, N, I) aren't very intuitive, so you might want to remap them to something more ergonomic, such as H/J/K/L, for more natural placement. To make the changes, open the configuration file, find the keybinding section and edit the values.

Not everything works as smoothly

Some apps don't work well with GlazeWM

GlazeWM has some quirks. You'll occasionally see windows that don't tile correctly, especially with multi-monitor setups or elevated system windows. The tray integration feels basic, and some features you'd expect from a polished app just aren't there yet. It also takes over some of your existing keyboard shortcuts, like Alt + Space (focus tiling), which I use to launch the Raycast launcher, so you'll need to remap them.

Some apps don't play nicely with tiling window managers, including certain dialogs and pop-up windows that can cause glitches if they get tiled when they shouldn't. GlazeWM handles this through window rules, where you can tell it to ignore specific windows based on their title, class, or process name.

I've added rules to keep things like PowerToys Command Palette and system dialogs floating instead of tiled. But you'll likely need to add a few rules of your own as you discover apps that don't play well.

GlazeWM elevates Windows' built-in Snap Assist for power users

If you're the kind of person who lives on the keyboard and doesn't mind editing a config file, GlazeWM is genuinely worth the steep learning curve it comes with. It brings the much-touted tiling window manager feature finally to Windows.

GlazeWM has an active development community and planned features like animation support suggest it's only going to get better. For a free, open-source utility, GlazeWM delivers a tiling experience that I expected Windows to offer, even if as an optional extra. But for now, GlazeWM fills the gap and does it exceptionally well.