ExquisiteW <!-- omit from toc -->

ExquisiteW is a customizable GUI driven window manager utility for Windows 10 that lets you create custom window layouts and then quickly move and resize windows to zones using a GUI or keyboard shortcuts.

After layouts have been configured, and ExquisiteW is running, you can use ExquisiteW to move and resize the window under the mouse to a specific zones in one of 2 ways:

1. Activate the ExquisiteW GUI (using your configured trigger) and then either:
   • Click on the zone you want
   • Press the zone's activator key
2. Press the global keyboard shortcut you have defined for the zone

ExquisiteW was inspired by Exquisite and the beta version was written in AutoHotKey by Malcev.

Table of Contents <!-- omit from toc -->

• Features
• How It Works
• Getting It
  • Requirements
  • Installation
• Using It
  • Configuration File Specification
    • settings.ini
      • Section General
      • Section Layout Selector
    • layouts.json
      • windowPaddingInPixels
      • padAtMonitorEdges
      • layouts[].zones[].hotkey
  • AutoHotKey Hotkeys
• Limitations And Known Bugs
• Support / Help
• Inspiration
• Credits

Features

• Custom layouts (currently through a JSON configuration file)
• GUI for moving + resizing the window under the mouse
• Customizable keyboard shortcuts
• Multi-monitor support to move + resize a window to another monitor from the GUI

How It Works

• ExquisiteW uses layouts to define a set of zones
• You can have multiple layouts
  • A layout represents the usable area of a monitor (the taskbar is automatically excluded)
  • A layout is a 12 row by 12 column representation of a a monitor (for the same reason as the inspiration for ExquisiteW)
• Each layout can have multiple zones
  • A zone represents the location and area of the monitor where you want a window to be moved and resized to

Getting It

Requirements

• Windows 10 *
• AutoHotKey 2.0

* I only have Windows 10 machines. I do not have access to Windows 11 (nor do I really want it). If you have Windows 11 and are willing to help me test ExquisiteW, please contact me.

Installation

1. Go to https://github.com/imthenachoman/ExquisiteW/releases
2. Download the latest release ZIP file
3. Extract the ZIP file to wherever you like/want
4. Edit settings.ini and layouts.json to your liking
5. Run/execute ExquisiteW.ahk

You'll get a notification letting you know it's running, along with what ExquisiteW's GUI activation trigger is.

Using It

• You can customize the global shortcut/trigger used to show ExquisiteW's GUI
• ExquisiteW's GUI will show you all of your configured layouts
  • Each layout will have 1+ buttons to represent each zone in that layout
  • Each button/zone will be visually placed in the layout to represent the area of the monitor the window will be moved and resized to
  • Clicking on a zone, or pressing the zone's activator key, will move and resize the window that was under the mouse when you activated the GUI
  • If you have multiple monitors, ExquisiteW's GUI will let you select the monitor you want to move and resize the window to
• You can configure a global shortcut/trigger for a specific zone
  • This will let you move and resize the window under the mouse without opening ExquisiteW's GUI

Configuration File Specification

There are two configuration files used by ExquisiteW:

• settings.ini
• layouts.json

settings.ini

This is a standard INI file with some global, non-layout specific settings.

Section General

| Setting | Valid Options | Default | Description | | ------------------------ | ---------------------------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Update Check Frequency | whole number greater than -1 | 24 | How often to check for updates, in hours: <ul><li>-1 = check once at start up</li><li>0 = do not check for updates</li><li>X = check every X hours</li></ul> |

Section Layout Selector

| Setting | Valid Options | Default | Description | | ----------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Close After Selection | 1 or 0 | 1 | <ul><li>0 = leave ExquisiteW's GUI open after you select a zone</li><li>1 = close it</li></ul> | | Opacity | whole number from 0 to 100 | 100 | <ul><li>0 = make ExquisiteW's GUI completely transparent</li><li>... = percent transparent</li><li>100 = completely opaque</li></ul> | | Trigger | AHK HotKey | ^!d (ctrl + alt + d) | The global keyboard shortcut to show ExquisiteW's GUI when the mouse is over a window/application that can be resized | | Number Of Layouts In A Row | whole number greater than 3 | 4 | Number of layouts per row in ExquisiteW's GUI; 3 is the minimum | | Layout Box Width In Pixels | whole number greater than 50 | 200 | Width of each layout (in pixels) in ExquisiteW's GUI; 50 is the minimum | | Layout Box Height In Pixels | whole number greater than 50 | 125 | Height of each layout (in pixels) in ExquisiteW's GUI; 50 is the minimum |

layouts.json

layouts.json is a JSON formatted configuration file where layouts are defined. The structure of layouts.json is below. See layouts.json for a real example.

{
    "windowPaddingInPixels" : number,    //optional
    "padAtMonitorEdges"     : bool,      //optional
    "layouts"               : [
        {
            "name"                  : string,
            "windowPaddingInPixels" : number,    //optional
            "padAtMonitorEdges"     : bool,      //optional
            "zones" : [
                {
                    "topLeftRowNumber"      : 0-12,
                    "topLeftColumnNumber"   : 0-12,
                    "numberOfRows"          : 1-12,
                    "numberOfColumns"       : 1-12,
                    "activator"             : single letter,                 //optional
                    "hotkey"                : AutoHotKey HotKey,             //optional
                    "windowPaddingInPixels" : whole number greater than 1,   //optional
                    "padAtMonitorEdges"     : bool                           //optional
                },
                {...}
            ]
        },
        {...}
    ]
}

| Property | Valid Options | Description | | ----------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | windowPaddingInPixels | number | Global window padding for all zones in all layouts (see windowPaddingInPixels) | | padAtMonitorEdges | true or false | Global setting for if padding should be added when a window is at the edge of the monitor (see padAtMonitorEdges) | | layouts * | array of layouts | All of the layouts | |