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microsoft / PowerToys

Windows system utilities to maximize productivity
MIT License
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[FancyZones] New Windows Fill Empty Zones #5226

Open mathematically opened 4 years ago

mathematically commented 4 years ago

Add an option to make new windows automatically fill the first empty zone.

If the option is selected, than on window creation the new window will automatically move to and fill the first empty zone.

Compelling Example

The canonical example is I have my desktop split into two zones with a browser open in the LHS. If I press the new window shortcut (typically ctrl-n), the new window will open offset from the current one. With this requested feature enabled, the new window would instead fill the RHS zone.

This automates the common key sequence of ctrl-n win-right arrrow. It also allows for very efficient filling of the desktop with multiple instances of an application. E.g. if your browser is in position 1 on the task bar, repeated shift-win-1 keypresses will tile instances across your monitors in a very efficient manner.

The intention here is to makes the experience and utility much more like a traditional tiling window manager as windows will tend to efficiently consume maximum desktop space and it gives a keyboard driven workflow typical of Power Toys and Users.

Notes

  1. It might be easier to offer this as an alternative to "Move newly created windows to their last know zone" as the two options are perhaps slightly incompatible. Possibly one could think of this as allowing the user to select from a set of "window creation" behaviour / policy options either explicitly in the UI and/or as abstractions/interfaces in the code.

  2. Behaviour should also apply to new windows opened from taskbar, start menu, etc.

  3. This feature should apply to main, application level windows. Child windows and modal windows, notification popups, etc. should not be affected by this. On top windows might also need to be handled differently.

  4. "first empty zone" is defined by the order traversed by win right arrow shortcuts starting from the current window.

jaewooklee93 commented 3 years ago

This would be the most awesome feature, I hope this would be implemented soon.

KevinHake commented 2 years ago

The open question is what to do when no zones are empty. One option is in that case, to not interrupt the behavior of the OS and let the window open where it would if FancyZones was disabled.

jorbig commented 2 months ago

+1