What Astur does better
Astur ships useful defaults, then exposes the same behavior through text config and a native Settings GUI. Its clearest differences are:
- Alt-drag move anywhere. Hold Left Alt and drag from any point in a window — no title-bar targeting. GlazeWM, komorebi, and FancyZones don't do this.
- Nearest-corner resize. Left Alt + right-drag anchors the corner closest to your cursor and shows a red bracket. Unique to Astur.
- Broad composited motion. Windows glide through private overlays; workspace switches support slide, spring, fade, or off. GlazeWM and komorebi also offer movement animation, but with different scope and implementation.
- Zero-config start. Tiling and Alt-drag work with generated defaults. Full installer, portable Full, and minimal Lite distributions are available.
- Native runtime. Rust and Win32/DWM, no Electron shell or background service.
- In-process status bar. Per-monitor, three configurable zones, app buttons, volume, network, media, stats, floating mode, and auto-hide. GlazeWM uses Zebar; komorebi bundles a separate
komorebi-barexecutable.
Feature matrix
| Feature | Astur | GlazeWM | komorebi | FancyZones |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Master-stack / dwindle tiling | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (static zones) |
| Alt-drag move anywhere | Yes | No | No | No |
| Nearest-corner Alt-resize | Yes | No | No | No |
| Animation scope | Window glide + workspace slide/spring/fade | Window movement | Movement (experimental) | No tiling animation |
| Single portable exe, no install | Yes (Lite; Full WM option) | No (installer) | No (multiple binaries) | Part of PowerToys |
| Useful generated/bundled defaults | Yes | Yes | Quickstart required | Yes |
| Status bar | Built into WM | First-party Zebar companion | Bundled komorebi-bar | No |
| Settings GUI | Yes | Tray controls + config file | komorebi-gui companion | Yes |
| App launcher + indexed file search | Yes | No | No | No (separate PowerToys Run) |
| Virtual workspaces | Yes | Yes | Yes | Via Windows |
| Live config hot-reload | Yes | Yes | Partial | n/a |
| Language | Rust | Rust | Rust | C++ core / C# editor |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 | Komorebi 2.0 (personal-use source licence) | MIT |
Astur keeps zero-setup behavior without giving up configurability: run it immediately, then use the Settings GUI or hot-reloaded config files when needed.
Astur vs GlazeWM
GlazeWM is an i3-inspired, highly configurable keyboard window manager. Great if you want to live in a config file. Pick Astur if you want modifier-drag move/resize from anywhere, built-in file search, an in-process bar, and workspace transition modes, with installer and portable choices.
Astur vs komorebi
komorebi is a powerful tiling engine with a CLI, companion GUI, bundled bar, and extensive config. Astur differs through integrated hotkeys and bar, zero-config startup, Apache-2.0 licensing, pointer-driven Alt-drag movement, and launcher/file-search features.
Astur vs FancyZones
FancyZones snaps windows into pre-drawn static zones. Astur does real automatic tiling that reflows as you open and close windows, adds keyboard focus/swap, virtual workspaces, and Alt-drag — without launching all of PowerToys.
Astur as a GlazeWM, komorebi & FancyZones alternative
Searching for a GlazeWM alternative, a komorebi alternative, or a FancyZones alternative for Windows? Astur is a free, open-source tiling window manager for Windows 10 and 11 built as a lightweight replacement for all three. Whether you call it a substitute, a replacement, a competitor, or simply something like GlazeWM but easier to set up, Astur covers the same job: automatic tiling, virtual workspaces, and keyboard-driven window control.
- GlazeWM alternative — the same i3-style tiling and workspaces, no config file required to start, plus Alt-drag move and resize.
- komorebi alternative — master-stack tiling with generated config, integrated hotkeys and bar, plus Apache-2.0 commercial-use rights.
- FancyZones alternative / replacement — real automatic tiling instead of static drag-into zones, and no need to run all of PowerToys.
- i3 / sway / Hyprland for Windows — the Linux tiling-WM workflow brought to Windows in a single native exe.
- AquaSnap, bug.n, MaxTo, Workspacer alternative — a modern, actively built option with smooth animations and Alt-drag.
In short: if you want the best lightweight tiling window manager, window tiler, or window snapping / window management tool for Windows — and an alternative to GlazeWM, komorebi, FancyZones, PowerToys, Workspacer, or bug.n — Astur provides installer, portable Full, and minimal Lite options you can try in under a minute.
Affiliation
Astur is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GlazeWM, komorebi, or Microsoft PowerToys. It is a clean-room Rust implementation for Windows. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.