Looking for a Portable MaxTo Replacement

[EnigmaSolved]

Greetings!

I've been a longtime user of MaxTo which has been great, but I'm looking for a replacement that supports Portable use (MaxTo has a bug that prevents portable mode from fully working, and the app sadly seems to no longer be developed). I'd like to be able to install my window manager on my OneDrive so I can use the same settings across multiple computers. I am on Windows 11.

It seems from my searching that most window managers are oriented toward automatic tiling, which is actually not my personal interest -- I prefer to manually arrange windows to regions using hotkeys.

Komorebi looks to be Portable out of the box (I think), which is awesome. Can anyone chime in regarding the following additional criteria?

1. As I said, I prefer to manually arrange windows via hotkeys, so is it possible to disable any automatic tiling?
2. I use the following layouts/zones (each with their own hotkey):
   70/30 & 30/70
80/20 & 20/80
   For example, Windows+Alt+Left will send the active window to the 70% region/size (on the Left side of the screen), whereas Windows+Alt+Right will send the active window to the 30% region/size (on the Right side of the screen). Conversely, Windows+Alt+Control+Left will send the active window to the 30% region/size on the Left side of the screen. And so on.
   Are these configurations possible (recognizing I'll have to handle the key bindings via something else, such as AHK or AutoIt)?
3. Is it possible to define the above as proportions/percentages so that they would scale appropriately across different sized screens?

Or if this software is not suitable for my goals, I would welcome recommendations for other software to check out.

Thanks in advance for any guidance, clarity, etc! :)

[CtByte]

Hi @EnigmaSolved,

1, It is possible to disable tiling, but it does not work like FancyZones or how window's "tiling" (sending a window to the sides). You can have tiling and floating at the same time, but you can only move floating windows around, not sending them to zones/containers using key bindings.

2, There is a brand new feature that allows you to set window ratios on layouts. I think this is what you might be looking for. Or at least can give it a try.

There are plans to add these settings to the cli commands, so that you can change these on the fly by using key bindings.

I did not have time to add the cli commands yet but what you can experiment with is to perhaps define different workspaces with different ratios.

As this is very new, you can wait for the next release, or install a version from the actions

3, The ratios are defined by using decimals such as 0.7 which will be 70% of the space of the screen.

In short, if you can live with automatic tiling then you can use ratios, else if you only want floating window manager with zones, then perhaps something like FancyZones (never used it myself) would fit your usecase better.

Edit: As for how portable it is, I am thinking that you can compile it and run it from your one drive, but you might need to set a few evnironment variables first, which you can probably do with a powershell script also saved on your one drive. I have not tested this, but I think it is possible.

Feel free to ask more questions

[EnigmaSolved]

Thank you so much, @CtByte, for the detailed reply!

A few thoughts and questions (I'll probably have more 😆)...

Regarding portable mode: Ah, I was interpreting (for some reason) there was a portable version, or it could be installed wherever (and thus functionally is always portable), but I may have been confusing it with another software (as I've looked at several). I will have to dig further into this aspect.

The main reason I'm not going with FanzyZones is there is no portable version. If I'm not using portable I can still keep using MaxTo (as it still works for the installer version I have).

2. Regarding window ratios, that is really intriguing! It sounds like, though, from the Progressive Ratio Behavior section that if I did something like "column_ratios": [0.7, 0.3] and have more than two windows that subsequent windows will get split into smaller and smaller slices (which is not what I want). I want to have any number of windows (I have 11 open at the moment), but assign them each (via hotkey) to either the .7 or .3 (or the inverse versions of each I mentioned previously). Pardon my ignorance (since auto-tiling is very new to me), but is there a way to easily do that or am I trying to get Komorebi to function in ways it is not designed for?

[CtByte]

@EnigmaSolved, My pleasure, my hope is I can convert you to start using an automatic tiling manager :) (there is no way back once you do)

Anyway, there is a way to make it portable, but there is no "portable" version so to speak.

I've asked on discord, and LGUG2Z said:

Hmm, I think everything is pretty much portable now because the example configs are included in the komorebic binary
Should be a case of downloading the zip, putting it wherever you want, making sure that you launch it with whatever env vars you want for the config set

If you are interested, it could be fun to make a page on this in the docs. It could list what env vars you need to set. I can think of 3-4.

MaxTo seemed like it behaves like komorebi, in term of window placement, only manual. From what I understand you are stacking windows on top of each other, so you can have 5 windows on the left, taking up 70% of the screen, while you have other stacks on the right.
Stacking is a feature in komorebi so you can end up with a layout that has 2 "containers" at 70-30%. Each container then can contain multiple windows. You can also make good use of workspaces, which are for the lack of a better example are a like virtual desktops, but much better.

stacking is like this (4 open terminal windows)

If you use workspaces, you can assign key bindings to them, so can have a workspace for "work", "music", "personal" and so on.

The most tricky part to me seems to be the initial setup for the portable version. Of course there is a learning curve, as it is different to what you've been using.

[EnigmaSolved]

You are awesome, @CtByte!

A clarification: So I use multiple ratios at once. I'll have some windows in the 70/30 arrangement (ie, some on the 70 side and some on 30 side), some in 80/20, and some in 30/70. All of these are open at the same time. Can that kind of complexity work with an automatic tiling manager?

I'm open to becoming a convert! 😁😂

[CtByte]

@EnigmaSolved As I see it, those ratios could be set on different workspaces and you can even assign the windows to be open on those workspaces. For example, you can tell Komorebi to open firefox on workspace 2 that has a 70/30 ratio set up (while workspace 1 has an 80/20 ratio setup).

No matter what, you need to decide whether or not you can adjust your workflow to what Komorebi can offer. It could take some time, but automatic tiling managers are popular for a reason.

I think we can agree that you can see the benefit of neatly organized windows, especially when you have 11 of them open. It sounds like a nightmare to have them floating around, not having control and hunting for that titlebar or icon on the windows taskbar (oh, I've been there). MaxTo looks like a step up in that regard, and I know the pain of having to replace something like that.

If I were you, I would at least play around with Komorebi and try to see if it "clicks" for you. You can just start with the youtube videos/guides/feature updates and the discord server can offer you a lot of help, if you get stuck. And if you make the switch, please consider supporting the developer 😉

[EnigmaSolved]

Ah, that is clarifying, regarding the workspaces. I'll have to experiment and see how this works for me and my workflow. Thank you so much for all of your help -- very appreciative! 😊

[CtByte]

My pleasure, @EnigmaSolved.

There is a pr for cli commands (which should be merged at some point) that allows you adjust the ratios without changing the config (though it will not update the config). It will "live" until komorebi restarts.

I am also working on a built-in portable mode that sets you up with one command, but it needs some testing.

I hope you find what you are looking for!