Unmanaged

Unmanaged is a special flag which tells the window manager that the window is not to be managed by the window manager.

This is used for utility programs that are not expected to be tiled or moved throughout the lifetime of the program.

Example programs would be external bars, a conky, or programs that run on the "desktop".

Windows that indicate the window type of "desktop" or "dock" are not managed as per the default configuration.

Example programs that this applies to:

• pcmanfm --desktop
• nautilus -n (legacy)
• nemo-desktop
• caja --force-desktop --no-default-window

Note that these applications have a tendency of managing the background wallpaper as well, the exception being nemo-desktop where it appears to just be transparent if a compositor is used.

Screenshot showing dusk running with nemo-desktop:

Whether the unmanaged window is to be place above or below other windows can be controlled using the Lower or Raise flag.

Back to Features > Flags.