Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Window management
Raised as a usability problem by 82 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 80 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Moving windows requires dragging a small title bar, wasting focusUnreviewed
20092026- Moving windows requires dragging a small title bar, wasting user focus and effort2026-09-20
- No clear spot to grab a window to move it without hitting a button2026-05-12
- Can't tell which parts of the title bar are draggable versus buttons, forcing guessing2023-10-13
Tiling window managers need many scripts to match built-in featuresUnreviewed
20092026- Most window managers and toolkits require so much fiddling to get working2024-04-13
- Mac tiling window managers feel like fighting the OS rather than working with it2023-03-31
- Tiling window managers need heavy manual setup of bars, notifications and wallpaper2022-10-12
Resize border is too tiny to grab when resizing windowsUnreviewed
20092026- Window borders are so thin on high-density screens that resizing a window is nearly impossible2025-03-30
- Resizing one tiled window doesn't adjust its neighbour, so uneven splits need manual resizing2025-02-02
- Resize border is so tiny that users struggle to grab it to resize windows2023-10-15
Many windows on one monitor are cumbersome and distracting to manageUnreviewed
20092026- Managing many windows on one monitor becomes cumbersome and distracting2026-04-03
- Window and app management gets worse with multiple displays, forcing constant head turning2024-05-08
- Switching windows across two monitors needs awkward hand-twisting shortcuts or the mouse2020-06-06
Tabs keep piling up because tab-management tools are hard to useUnreviewed
20092026- Open windows and tabs become distracting clutter, and arranging them is a long-standing mess2026-08-05
- Cannot see or scroll thousands of tabs, or even read their titles2026-01-08
- No easy way to organize lots of windows; page width can't be adjusted per tab2022-09-25
Hard to find the right window in the list when sharingUnreviewed
20092026- Can't tell which application a window belongs to, or where to grab it2025-07-06
- Hard to locate the right window in the list of windows to share2024-10-11
- Hard to find windows; must remember which workspace each window is on2022-06-12
Switching among many windows needs repeated alt-tab and alt-tilde pressesUnreviewed
20092026- Picking the wrong window would make switching less reliable than the system Alt-Tab2025-07-08
- Alt+Tab cycles through utility windows like toolbars, not just image windows2022-01-16
- Switching among many app windows requires repeated alt-tab and alt-tilde presses2019-04-05
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Jumping between spaces loses context, making users feel lost in the interface2026-10-15
- Colleagues waste hours fumbling with window management and alt-tab switching during screenshares2026-10-03
- Window switching via super plus app name is undiscoverable to the user2026-09-24
- Animation delay slows power users who want fast window minimizing2026-09-24
- Moving windows requires dragging a small title bar, wasting user focus and effort2026-09-20
- Can't scroll back up to reach the tabs button; must switch apps and reopen2026-08-28
- Window dragging is laggy at high resolutions and 32bpp2026-08-24
- Open windows and tabs become distracting clutter, and arranging them is a long-standing mess2026-08-05
- Close buttons are tiny at the top edge, making them hard to hit quickly with a mouse or touchpad2026-05-13
- No clear spot to grab a window to move it without hitting a button2026-05-12
- Managing many windows on one monitor becomes cumbersome and distracting2026-04-03
- Each app implements split panes differently, with inconsistent keyboard controls for creating and switching2026-03-25
- Cannot see or scroll thousands of tabs, or even read their titles2026-01-08
- Breaks after every macOS update, requiring repeated fixes2025-10-12
- Opening a folder from another app does nothing; the desktop doesn't switch to Finder2025-08-08
- Dock gets messed up when screen resolution is smaller than dock height, hiding dockapps2025-07-24
- Resolution changes duplicate dock configurations and discard dock items that don't fit2025-07-21
- Picking the wrong window would make switching less reliable than the system Alt-Tab2025-07-08
- Can't tell which application a window belongs to, or where to grab it2025-07-06
- Labels hide the close buttons and tab feedback, so clicks close tabs by accident2025-05-21
- Window borders are so thin on high-density screens that resizing a window is nearly impossible2025-03-30
- Snap shortcut results vary unpredictably between half, quarter, three-quarter, or other screen2025-02-03
- Resizing one tiled window doesn't adjust its neighbour, so uneven splits need manual resizing2025-02-02
- Hard to locate the right window in the list of windows to share2024-10-11
- Dock icons take too much screen space and distract, and shrinking them makes them useless2024-08-29
- Window and app management gets worse with multiple displays, forcing constant head turning2024-05-08
- Most window managers and toolkits require so much fiddling to get working2024-04-13
- Dark tinted windows make pedestrians nearly impossible to see when turning at night2023-12-11
- Resize border is so tiny that users struggle to grab it to resize windows2023-10-15
- Hard to grab window edges to resize, since they are one pixel wide and overlap scrollbars2023-10-13
- Can't tell which parts of the title bar are draggable versus buttons, forcing guessing2023-10-13
- Switching contexts between maximized apps still feels cumbersome to the commenter2023-09-10
- With more than about five windows, finding the desired one becomes very hard to navigate2023-09-09
- Screens on the inside mean opening the window requires opening the screen, letting bugs in2023-08-27
- Too many overlapping windows and containers overwhelm working memory, causing confusion about where things are2023-04-29
- Too slow, and fails 5-10% of the time, forcing mouse use2023-04-05
- Mac tiling window managers feel like fighting the OS rather than working with it2023-03-31
- Newly installed apps don't appear automatically, so icons must be added manually2023-03-22
- Newly installed apps don't appear automatically; user must manually add icons or menu entries2023-03-21
- Some apps' windows can't be dragged by titlebar, only resized, with no easy fix2023-03-21
- Commenter says the show-all-windows view makes people slow to find the right window2023-03-04
- Using a mouse and keyboard from the couch on a TV is a pain point2023-02-25
- Window being worked in jumps to top, hiding the reference window2023-02-02
- Keystrokes go to unexpected window, causing confusion when switching from game to browser2022-11-18
- Tiling window managers need heavy manual setup of bars, notifications and wallpaper2022-10-12
- Tiling window managers need many manual components and scripts to match built-in desktop features2022-10-11
- No visible control to move or resize windows; users must pause and figure out how2022-09-28
- No easy way to organize lots of windows; page width can't be adjusted per tab2022-09-25
- Keypresses go to the wrong window; users must remember to click or get confused2022-08-05
- Window manager grabbed the X11 server, locking the window system for minutes; menus flickered and moved2022-06-21