I used to think Windows Snap had solved most of my window-management problems. I mean, it was tidy enough, fast enough, and a clear improvement over dragging windows around. Then I tried Komorebi, a proper tiling window manager for Windows, and I began to look at Snap as unfinished.

Not useless, to be clear. Snap Layouts are still one of the better everyday features in modern Windows. The problem is that they still expect me to manage the mess. Komorebi changes the premise. Instead of treating every new window like a small interior design project, it drops apps into structured layouts, moves them across workspaces, and lets me steer the whole desktop from the keyboard. After a few days, the old drag-resize-squint-repeat routine was primitive.

Windows Snap is a party trick, not a system

Snap is useful, but it still makes me do the work

To be fair to Microsoft, Snap has come a long way, just as I mentioned earlier. Windows 11 introduced Snap Layouts, which let you hover over a maximize button and choose from a small grid of preset arrangements. However, the core problem with Snap is its reactivity. You drag, you hover, you choose, and then Windows places your windows according to its own understanding of how your screen should look. It does not remember anything about your workflow. If you open three windows, snap them into a layout, close one, and reopen it, you are back to dragging from scratch.

There is also the issue of limited layouts. Unless you install PowerToys and use FancyZones — a Windows feature every ultrawide monitor owner needs to enable but still has its own configuration rabbit hole — you are largely stuck with halves and thirds. Anyone running a wide monitor or a multi-monitor setup quickly hits the ceiling of what Snap can express.

Getting Komorebi running

The setup told me this was not Snap

Komorebi is not a regular Windows app that you install, tick two preferences, and get a friendly “you’re all set” screen with rounded buttons and a cheerful animation. The official setup routes are to get the pre-built via Scoop and WinGet or build it from source. However, before installing anything, there are two things I’d advise that you do. First, enable long path support in Windows — Komorebi’s documentation strongly recommends it, and skipping it can cause subtle issues later. Run this in an Administrator terminal:

Set-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem' -Name 'LongPathsEnabled' -Value 1

Second, turn off all unnecessary animations (when possible) via Control Panel -> Ease of Access -> Ease of Access Center -> Make the computer easier to see. It makes a noticeable difference to how cleanly Komorebi retiles windows.

Then install Komorebi itself. I used WinGet, which is the simplest route on Windows 11:

winget install LGUG2Z.komorebi
winget install LGUG2Z.whkd

Or via Scoop:

scoop bucket add extras
scoop install komorebi whkd

Komorebi comprises two main binaries: komorebi.exe, the window manager itself, and komorebic.exe, which is used to send commands to it. Whkd is a separate hotkey daemon that bridges the two — you write keyboard shortcuts that fire Komorebic commands. Neither komorebi.exe nor komorebic.exe handles key bindings on their own, because Komorebi is a tiling window manager and not a hotkey daemon.

One thing I hit early: whkd is a simple daemon and does not include workarounds for Microsoft’s restrictions on hotkey combinations that use the Windows key. If you want Windows key combinations, the recommendation is to switch to AutoHotkey once you are familiar with the main komorebic commands. I made that switch after about a week and have not looked back.

Once installed, run komorebic quickstart to pull down example configuration files. That drops komorebi.json and whkdrc into your user profile directory, providing a working starting point rather than a blank slate. From there, start everything with:

komorebic start --whkd --bar

The --bar flag loads komorebi-bar, a status bar deeply integrated with the tiling window manager, customizable with various widgets and themes. It is optional, but it makes navigating between workspaces much easier while you are still learning the shortcuts.

Komorebi thinks in Workspaces, not Snapshots

Snap is fine until you see what Windows could be

Komorebi describes itself as an open-source extension to Microsoft’s Desktop Window Manager (DWM) rather than a replacement for it. In other words, it does not gut Windows or hijack its core rendering pipeline, which ensures system stability and compatibility with standard Windows updates. Instead, it sits directly on top of the native OS layer, maintaining complex tiling logic that Windows itself refuses to provide natively.

That changes the way the windows behave. Komorebi manages windows as part of a persistent layout rather than as individually placed objects. It achieves this by tracking window states in real time and organizing them into a binary space partitioning (BSP) tree, so your screen is mathematically divided into predictable, structured segments. So, when you open a new application, it automatically joins the tiling grid without requiring you to click and drag. Resize one window using your keyboard or mouse, and the adjacent windows dynamically adjust to fill the remaining space. If you close one, the remaining windows instantly redistribute themselves to prevent dead screen space. The screen is always full, always intentional, and the layout never forgets itself between sessions because Komorebi actively tracks your state and can restore your exact setup even after the system reboots. However, it is nuanced enough to recognize exceptions; you can configure float rules for specific dialogue boxes, installers, or games that would otherwise break if forced into a rigid grid.

Komorebi also gives you named, highly configurable workspaces that can behave with far more discipline than Windows’ built-in virtual desktops. You can create rules based on executable names, window titles, or file classes, so your terminal can open in one workspace, your browser in another, and your writing setup somewhere else entirely. After a while, you stop digging through the taskbar and start moving through a desktop with a reliable layout. The available layouts include BSP, Vertical Stack, RightMainVerticalStack, Horizontal Stack, Columns, Rows, Ultrawide Vertical Stack, and Grid. BSP works well for general multitasking, especially as it keeps splitting available space as new windows arrive, so nothing gets pushed out of frame. A vertical stack makes more sense when one main window needs most of the screen, and a few supporting apps sit beside it at a narrower width. Columns earns its place when you are comparing several things side by side.

Most of this is controlled through keyboard shortcuts and configuration files. Komorebi’s CLI handles actions such as focusing windows, moving them between workspaces, resizing layouts, and shifting windows across multiple monitors. Under the hood, it uses a client-server architecture that talks to a background daemon. When paired alongside a tool like AutoHotKey or the bundled whkd (Windows Hotkey Daemon), these shortcuts become instant. Once your hands learn the bindings, reaching for the mouse to drag a window feels almost quaint.

Snap is fine until you see what Windows could be

Snap has not become useless. It still works, and for many people it remains a perfectly sane default. The problem is that Komorebi changes your expectations. After using it, I do not just want better Snap Layouts. I want Windows to think bigger about what window management should be — something that works with you throughout the day, rather than helping you place the first two windows and then standing aside. The desktop deserves more than that. Komorebi already delivers it if you are willing to set it up.

OS

Windows 10 and Windows 11

Developer

LGUG2Z

Price model

Free and open-source

Komorebi is a tiling window manager for Windows that automatically organizes application windows into efficient, keyboard-driven layouts. It brings the workflow of advanced Linux tiling managers to Windows, making multitasking faster and far more deliberate.