Astur — Tiling Window Manager for Windows

Astur is a fast, free, open-source tiling window manager for Windows — Alt-drag window movement, nearest-corner resize, five tiling layouts, a per-monitor status bar, up to 10 virtual workspaces, and silky composited animations. Full edition adds a configurable app launcher + file search (Alt+Space), system menu (Alt+Shift+Space), desktop tools, settings GUI, and tray icon. A keyboard-driven, i3-style alternative to komorebi, GlazeWM, and PowerToys FancyZones on Windows 10 and 11.

Keywords: tiling window manager Windows · komorebi alternative · GlazeWM alternative · FancyZones alternative · i3 for Windows · Alt-drag windows · app launcher · file search · master-stack layout · Rust window manager

See it in motion: watch the demo clip on the website.

Editions

Astur comes in two editions from the same project:

	Astur Lite	Astur
Format	single portable .exe, no install	installer + tray app; WM-only portable option
Stop / control	console window (Ctrl+C)	tray icon — Settings / Quit
Configuration	hand-edit .conf files	settings GUI + .conf
RAM	~1 MB, minimal	higher (launcher, search)
Tiling · Alt-drag · bar · workspaces · animations	✓	✓
App launcher + file search + calculator (Alt+Space)	—	✓
Power menu (Alt+Shift+Space)	—	✓
Bar widgets (volume · network · app buttons) + light/dark theme	—	✓
Optional switcher · scratchpad · clipboard · emoji · wallpapers · media · IPC	—	✓

Astur Lite is the lean ~1 MB keyboard/console WM for power users who want text config. Astur is the friendlier, installable app — launcher, file search, power menu, tray, and a settings GUI — with the same motion polish and core tiling.

Install

• Astur — download Astur-Setup-2.1.2.exe from the latest stable release and run it (per-user install, no admin, optional start-on-login), or grab the portable astur-windows-x64.exe from the same release. The portable asset contains the full window manager but not the separate astur-settings.exe companion; use the installer for the Settings GUI.
• Astur Lite — the minimal portable build from the lite branch or pinned v1.0.1 release. One .exe, no install, console window.

No admin required. Running as admin lets it manage elevated windows (e.g. Task Manager) too.

What it does

• Alt + left-drag — move any window by clicking anywhere on it, no title bar needed
• Alt + right-drag — resize from the nearest corner (red bracket shows which corner)
• Tiling mode — dwindle (spiral), master, equal columns, balanced grid, or stacked monocle across up to 10 named/icon-labelled virtual workspaces
• Status bar — a per-monitor bar with three fully configurable widget zones (left / center / right): workspace pills, focused title, app buttons (click to focus), clock, date, CPU, RAM, battery, network speed, and volume (scroll over it to adjust, click to mute). Scroll anywhere else on the bar to cycle workspaces, click a pill to switch. Optional floating rounded bar (margins + corner radius) and auto-hide (reveals on edge hover). Widget gaps, app labels/tooltips, stat labels, formats, icon-font glyphs, and media text are configurable.
• Animations — workspace switches animate with a composited overlay: slide, spring (overshoot-and-settle, Hyprland-style), fade, or off. Windows also glide to their tile slot on open / move / resize / re-tile, composited so the real windows land instantly underneath — smooth even with heavy apps.
• App launcher + file search (Astur) — Alt+Space opens a fuzzy, MRU-ranked picker over installed apps (Start Menu and Store/UWP), custom commands/URLs, open windows, and indexed files. Optional prefix providers expose in-memory clipboard history and a curated emoji catalog. Inline calculator, configurable web fallback, file scope/excludes, result limit, placement, size, rows, font, colours, opacity, radius, icons, and mouse navigation are configurable. Tab shows Modified / Size / Path columns; Shift+Enter reveals a file; F5 refreshes app/custom entries.
• System menu (Astur) — Alt+Shift+Space opens configurable Power and Setup categories with lock/sleep/hibernate/sign-out/restart/shutdown, settings, config, reload, restart-Astur, screenshot, and wallpaper actions. Order, width, icons, confirmation, custom categories, commands, URLs, and scripts are data-driven.
• Desktop tools (Astur, opt-in) — workspace-aware Alt+Tab picker, Alt+Grave scratchpad, clipboard/emoji launcher providers, workspace-triggered wallpaper, media title widget, active-workspace/MRU persistence, and local named-pipe IPC.
• Settings GUI (Astur) — native editor for launcher, menus, desktop tools, layouts, appearance, navbar, widgets, rules, and key bindings. Saving applies live — window manager hot-reloads, no restart.
• Tray icon (Astur) — no console window; left-click for Settings, right-click for Settings / Quit.
• Light / dark theme (Astur) — the launcher and menus follow theme = dark | light | auto (auto tracks the Windows app theme); optional experimental acrylic blur behind the popups.
• Extras — coloured borders, unfocused dimming, focus-follows-mouse, rich exe/class/title window rules with workspace/monitor routing, arbitrary Alt chords, and live config hot-reload.

Left Alt is fully reserved as Astur modifier — apps never see it. Right Alt is untouched. Alt+Tab passes through by default; optional replacement uses Astur's workspace-aware picker.

Hotkeys

Shortcut	Action
Alt + left-drag	Move window
Alt + right-drag	Resize from nearest corner
Alt + Space	App launcher + file search (Astur)
Alt + Shift + Space	Power / system menu (Astur)
Alt + T	Toggle tiling mode on/off
Alt + J / K	Focus next / previous window
Alt + Shift+J / Shift+K	Swap window with next / previous
Alt + arrows	Focus window by direction (cursor follows)
Alt + Shift + arrows	Move window by direction (across monitors)
Alt + H / L	Shrink / grow master column (master layout)
Alt + M	Promote focused window to master
Alt + F	Toggle float for focused window
Alt + W	Close focused window
Alt + Enter	Launch terminal
Alt + Shift+Enter	Launch browser
Alt + 1–9, 0	Switch to workspace 1–10
Alt + Shift + 1–9, 0	Move focused window to workspace
Alt + Tab	Windows switcher by default; optional Astur workspace-aware switcher

Letter binds (J K H L M T F W) plus extra Alt/Shift/Ctrl chords are configurable in %USERPROFILE%\.astur\astur.conf, along with workspace keys, gaps, layout, borders, rules, launcher, menus, and desktop tools. Status bar uses navbar.conf in same folder. Both files hot-reload on save.

Configuration

Two files are created in %USERPROFILE%\.astur\ on first run, both fully commented and hot-reloaded on save:

• astur.conf — workspaces/names/icons/wallpapers, five layouts, gaps, borders, focus, animations/easing, popup theme/geometry, launcher providers/custom entries, system actions, desktop tools, rich rules, persistence, IPC, and hotkeys.
• navbar.conf — bar placement/style, three widget zones, labels/formats/icons, app buttons/tooltips, stats, volume, network, media, floating mode, and auto-hide.

Full Astur ships astur-settings.exe to edit both files. .conf remains source of truth; comments/layout survive saves. Structured records use ;; between rows and | between fields. Prefix literal separators with backslash. Built-in icon names: app browser calculator clipboard command file folder grid lock media power reload power-circle restart screenshot search settings setup signout sleep terminal wallpaper web window.

Build from source

Requires Rust stable. The repo is a Cargo workspace.

git clone https://github.com/Page011/Astur
cd Astur
cargo build --release
# binaries: target/release/astur.exe + target/release/astur-settings.exe

cargo build --release -p astur builds core WM only. Settings menu then reports missing companion instead of failing silently.

crates/astur is window manager, crates/astur-config shared config parser, crates/astur-settings settings GUI. Minimal Astur Lite lives on the lite branch (a single crate, no workspace).

How it works

Astur installs two low-level Windows hooks (WH_MOUSE_LL, WH_KEYBOARD_LL) that intercept input before it reaches any application. Left Alt is swallowed so it never triggers app menus or Alt shortcuts — only Astur sees it. Drag commands are queued to the manager; a DWM-thumbnail overlay (outline fallback) previews movement while the real window is committed once on release. Slow application repainting stays out of the per-frame input path. File search queries the Windows Search index off the input path, so typing stays responsive.

Quit

• Astur — right-click the tray icon → Quit (restores all windows, then exits).
• Astur Lite — Ctrl+C in the console window.

How Astur compares

	Astur	komorebi	GlazeWM	FancyZones
Master-stack tiling	Yes	Yes	Yes	No (zones only)
Alt-drag move/resize anywhere	Yes	No	No	No
Animation scope	Window glide + workspace slide/spring/fade	Movement (experimental)	Window movement	No tiling animation
App launcher + file search built in	Yes	No	No	No
Settings GUI	Yes	komorebi-gui companion	Tray controls + config file	Yes
Single portable exe option	Yes (Lite; Full WM-only option)	No (multiple binaries)	No (installer)	Part of PowerToys
Virtual workspaces	Yes	Yes	Yes	Via Windows
Config file required to start	No	Yes	Yes	No
Language	Rust	Rust	Rust	C++ core / C# editor
Licence	Apache-2.0	Komorebi 2.0 personal-use source licence	GPL-3.0	MIT

See the full comparison: Astur vs GlazeWM, komorebi & FancyZones.

FAQ

Is Astur a komorebi or GlazeWM alternative? Yes — same master-stack tiling and workspace idea, plus Alt-drag move/resize, an app launcher with file search, and a power menu, with a single-exe (Lite) option and no required config file.

Does it work on Windows 11? Yes, on Windows 10 and 11, x64.

Do I need admin rights? No. Running as admin lets it manage elevated windows too.

What's the difference between Astur and Astur Lite? See Editions — Lite is minimal ~1 MB console exe; Astur adds configurable launcher/search, system menu, tray, desktop tools, rich widgets/themes/rules, IPC, persistence, and settings GUI.

Current desktop-tool limits

• Workspace wallpaper changes Windows global wallpaper through SystemParametersInfoW; not independent per-monitor wallpaper.
• Media widget reads titles from known player windows; no play/pause/skip controls or Windows media-session API yet.
• Persisted state stores active workspace indexes and launcher MRU, not window-to- workspace assignments across process restarts.
• Astur Alt+Tab replacement shows title/app-icon rows; live DWM thumbnails remain future work.
• Clipboard history is text-only, memory-only, and cleared when Astur exits.

Author

Astur is created and maintained by Nigel.

Disclaimer

Astur is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by any other window manager. It is a clean-room Rust implementation for Windows. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Licence

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE.