window-manager interview questions
Top window-manager frequently asked interview questions
I have a dual monitor setup, and I recently played around with the positioning settings, and some of my single window applications do the favour of preserving where they were last closed, and opening in the same position later. Unfortuanately, that now places them out of the viewable area of my screens!
Is there some way to force a particular window into the viewable area? If it matters at all, this is on Windows XP 32b.
Source: (StackOverflow)
What is the best tiling window manager for Windows?
I'm looking for something like awesome.
It would be nice if it removes the title bar and has "comfortable" shortcut keys (for me that's vi keys, but feel free to use your own reference). Open source would be a plus.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Is it possible to have just a browser (for example, just a canvas that renders with webkit) running on top of X11 (or any other way in Linux) as my window manager, as if I'm viewing my normal web browser in fullscreen?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm confused as to what these terms actually mean AND as to what they do/how they contribute to the system as a whole. In particular, back when I was running Ubuntu, there were several keywords like:
Gnome
X11
Xorg
Metacity
GTK+
What exactly is the difference between all of these? Which can be changed? Do the same things apply when we're talking about KDE or LXDE?
EDIT: Also, do things like Compiz work in every window manager/window system/desktop environment?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I know how to Hide (Cmd+H) or Minimize (Cmd+M) a focused window in OS X, but I can't find a keyboard shortcut or even a menu item to restore, unhide, unminimize, or otherwise show a window that I've hidden or minimized.
Anyone have a suggestion?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I've been looking into tiling window managers because I'm tired of manually positioning and resizing all my windows whenever I want to see some information side by side. However, the tiling window managers I've investigated so far seem rather minimalist and seem mainly for rearranging terminal windows with clumsy keyboard navigation.
I'm more or less looking for a way to partition my screen and maximize a program on each partition. Bonus points if it works on Gnome.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Occasionally, I get part of an application lingering behind on my desktop:
This is part of a context menu for an application. It is always top-most, meaning that it is always on the screen, and I cannot click on it (it just clicks through it). It has happened before, sometimes with whole windows. It remains on screen even if the application it originated from is no longer running.
How do I get rid of it without rebooting?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I really do like the Grid plugin in Compiz, but at work I cannot use Compiz on my workstation (Fedora 12). Is there anything similar for plain X or Metacity?
The Grid-plugin gives you a few keyboard shortcuts for tiling active window. For example Ctrl+Alt+Numpad_4 would tile window to half screen.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Development of the free application Putty Connection Manager that can display more than one Putty sessions stopped in 2009, and it sometimes triggers this error when I double-click on any host in the right hand-side list:
PuTTY Connection Manager/An unexpected error occured :
Object reference not set to an instance of an object..
When that happens, I have to reboot :-/
Does someone know of an alternative?
Source: (StackOverflow)
It seems to me that there should be a generic name for the close, restore, and minimize buttons on the title bar in window managers. It's been getting hard to search for answers associated with them. I am also a developer, and I'll be working with low-level window manager stuff on Linux, so this would be a good thing to know.
Is there some kind of generic term for this?
Title Bar Buttons is the best term that I've come up with, but this is in no way official. If it's different for each window manager, then that would also be good to know. I couldn't find much searching around...
Note:
It would be nice to know the terms used by all platforms: Windows, Mac OS, GNOME, KDE, XFCE, etc.
Source: (StackOverflow)
I like the idea and concept of xmonad, however I still keep going back to gnome after an hour or so. This feels like when I first tried to learn vim, but I've gotten past the learning curve point and can't live without vim nowadays.
I'm sure the time will come for xmonad too, but I was wondering if current xmonad users can provide transitional tips?
FYI, I'm on dual monitors ( 19 inch and 17 inch ). Example of an issue I'm having while in this "transitional" stage:
How do you manage keeping the browser and other programs that are most commonly used in full screen mode, since by default I think it opens up in a small tile that takes up a portion of the screen? Do you just shortcut it to make it open full screen, or do you actually not maximize it? Or are there advanced methods through preferences in the conf file, making certain programs take up X space?
Source: (StackOverflow)
This question already has an answer here:
In Ubuntu when you right click on a window, you get the option to keep it 'Always on Top'. This is incredibly useful sometimes when I want a window to take up the whole desktop (e.g. Internet Browser) but still want to see the information from another smaller window (e.g. A video/film). Using the Windows 7 snap to edge feature is very useful and I use it a lot but its not always what you want.
I find it annoying how some programs in Windows such as Media Player and Task Manager for example have Always on Top options and everything else doesnt. There must be some software to fix this.
An example of the feature in Ubuntu:
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm using Windows 7 on a 8.9' monitor with 1280x768 screen resolution. Using the might of arithmetics, I'm able to determine that my dpi (actually ppi) should be 167. Win7 is really helpful in that it doesn't have to restart to apply new dpi settings, unlike its predecessors (though I'd rather it applies straight away).
The problem with small monitors in Windows is that when you come across windows too big to fit the screen, you can't move the title bar far above it. In X window managers I used in the past, you could alt-drag the window to anywhere you want, but in Windows, even if you alt-space and select move, it will automatically push the window back until the title bar is visible.
I'm looking for a solution that either:
- allows me to move window freely without regard to titlebar visibility, or
- attach a scrollbar to existing window, or
- create virtual desktops that allow me to span windows over 2 desktops, or
- allow me to set larger virtual resolution, then pan & scan.
EDIT:
I found some progs that might do some of the above:
AltDrag
Allows me to drag, resize using alt and left/right mouse button. Neat! Best solution so far.
GiMeSpace Desktop Extender
Is supposed to allow me to scroll desktop. Didn't work. The other new version, GiMeSpace Ultimate Taskbar worked, but it destroys my Superbar, replacing it with its map.
Source: (StackOverflow)
This question already has an answer here:
As many people already know, there are several ways to trigger Windows 7 Aero Snap feature.
A user can either press Win+{Left,Right,Up,Down} to snap the window to the left or right or maximize or restore. One can also drag the title bar to all the corner except bottom one.
However, is there any keyboard or mouse shortcut to place one window on top half the screen, and another window on bottom half the screen? Please do not tell me to use "Show Windows Stacked" because if I have more than two windows, it will place ALL the windows horizontally, which is not what I want. I want to be able to select the window I want and place it automatically either on top or bottom half the screen.
Thanks!
Edit:
Thanks for Moab's suggestion, both on recommend WinSplit and updating my question.
I should make it more clear that I'm looking for a software that will do the functions WinSplit provided, but with on screen input, such as touch screen or pen.
Source: (StackOverflow)