Never lose a window again.
Active Window Manager is the taskbar macOS never had – a native strip that lists every window of the app you're in, always visible on every display. One glance to see everything, one click to get anywhere.
Free while in 1.xv1.0.0 • notarized by Apple • Free while in 1.x • macOS 14+ • Apple Silicon & Intel • no account
Homebrew & first launch
Homebrew
brew install --cask active-window-managercoming soon
First launch, in two lines:
- Unzip and open – AWM offers to move itself to Applications.
- Follow the guided setup to grant the Accessibility permission (that's how macOS lets AWM see and manage other apps' windows).
Stays current: AWM updates itself through a built-in updater that cryptographically verifies every download before installing it.
Where did that window go?
The Dock shows apps. So does Cmd-Tab.
Ten windows open in Safari – the Dock shows one icon. Cmd-Tab flips you to the app, then drops you on whichever window happens to be on top. The one you wanted is somewhere behind it.
Minimized windows just… vanish
You minimized a window an hour ago. Now it's hiding in a corner of the Dock – or tucked away behind an app icon – and out of sight quietly became out of mind.
Stacks bury windows
The window you need is under three others from the same app. So you drag windows aside like papers on a desk, or open Mission Control and squint at thumbnails.
Coming from Windows, you notice all of this on day one. After ten years on a Mac, you've just learned to live with it. You don't have to.
Meet the window strip
The window strip is a native panel pinned to one edge of your screen – bottom, top, left or right – listing every window of the app you're in. Real titles, not guesswork from icons. It updates the instant you switch apps, shows tab counts on browser windows and keeps minimized windows in the minimized section at the end of the strip: still visible, still one click away. Even windows on other desktops stay listed.
- 1
Glance – every window, by name.
- 2
Click – it's front and center.
- 3
Done – no cycling, no hunting.
macOS shows you apps. AWM shows you windows.
Two kinds of people download this
Coming from Windows?
If the missing taskbar is the thing you can't get over, this is that – done the Mac way. Your taskbar muscle memory works on day one: your windows sit in a strip along the edge of the screen, you click the one you want, and the ✕ closes it right from the strip. There's nothing to configure – the defaults are ready the moment it appears – and minimized windows stay listed instead of vanishing. It just works, from the first minute.
Download for freeLive in 30 windows?
Thirty windows across three displays is a filing problem, and the strip is the index. You get density and control: compact buttons, a strip on every display, per-monitor and per-desktop filters so each screen lists only what lives there. Select five windows and close them in one bulk action – or drag the whole bundle to another display or desktop.
See why it's instantInstant is the whole point
You hit a window switcher hundreds of times a day, so the milliseconds add up. That's the engineering brief:
- Engineered to feel instant – native Swift, no animations to sit through.
- Nothing to summon, nothing to wait for – the strip is already there.
- Optimistic UI: the strip reacts the moment you click, not after macOS catches up.
And the stress test?
100 minimized windows? Not a problem.
Every window. Every display. Instantly.
A strip on every display
Every monitor gets its own strip, listing the active app's windows right where you're looking. Per-monitor and per-desktop filters keep each screen honest – only the windows that live there, nothing else. And minimized windows always keep their own section, so nothing slips away.
Dock Mirror – a Dock for your second monitor
Dock Mirror puts a live 1:1 copy of your real macOS Dock on secondary displays – running indicators, click to launch, right-click menus, spring-loaded file drops. The native Dock stays exactly as it is. You just stop mousing back to the main screen to reach it.
Act on windows, not just switch them
Close a window with the hover ✕, a middle-click or a multi-finger trackpad tap. Pin the important ones so they always sort first, rename any window to what it actually means – "Invoices", "Client A" – and mark windows with color markers: by hand, by keyword rule, or automatically by Chrome profile. AI title shortening turns "(3) Inbox – Gmail – Google Chrome" into "Inbox": it runs on-device with Apple Intelligence – window titles never leave your Mac. Requires macOS 26 (Tahoe).
Clean up in bulk. Move whole projects.
Cmd-click a few windows – or Shift-click a range – and act on all of them at once: close, minimize, pin, color or send them to another desktop. Drag the selection off the strip and the whole bundle moves together, onto another display or onto a desktop chip. And when one window is simply in the way, Stash Space parks it on an automatically created desktop – one click brings it back.
Peek before you switch
Hover a window button and a live preview appears – life-size, at the window's real position, even for minimized windows and windows on other desktops. Look first, switch second. Screen Recording permission is requested only if you turn on live previews. Everything else works without it.
Looks born on macOS
Pick from four native materials: Solid, Frosted and the two newest – Liquid Glass and Clear Glass, which require macOS 26 (Tahoe). Add an Auto, Light or Dark theme, dial in transparency with a slider, and the strip honors the system Reduce Transparency setting out of the box.
Solid
Frosted
Liquid Glass macOS 26
Clear Glass macOS 26
Plays fair with your Mac
Native and out of the way. A native Swift menu-bar app – no Dock icon, no window clutter, launch at login if you want it.
Notarized, verified – and not on the App Store. AWM isn't on the Mac App Store because the App Store sandbox forbids controlling other apps' windows – the very thing a window manager does. It's the same reason tools like Rectangle and BetterTouchTool distribute directly. Instead, every build is notarized by Apple, and updates install only after the app cryptographically verifies them.
Honest about permissions. AWM needs the macOS Accessibility permission – it's the system API for listing, raising, moving and closing other apps' windows, which is the whole job. A guided setup walks you through granting it. Screen Recording permission is requested only if you turn on live previews. Everything else works without it.
A good neighbor. The strip auto-detects the Dock, the menu bar, the notch and even third-party bars, and places itself around them – nothing overlaps, nothing fights.
Runs on your Mac, whichever it is. Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later. Runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
Speaks your language. The app speaks 32 languages, including right-to-left Arabic and Hebrew – switchable in-app, independently of your system language.
Private by construction. No account, no analytics. Window titles and positions are read through macOS Accessibility and processed entirely on your Mac. The app's only routine network request is a cryptographically signed update check. The full story is on the privacy page.
Quick answers
Why isn't AWM on the Mac App Store?
The App Store sandbox forbids controlling other apps' windows – the very thing a window manager does. The full story is in the FAQ.
Why does it need the Accessibility permission?
It's the system API for listing, raising, moving and closing other apps' windows, which is the whole job. A guided setup walks you through granting it.
Will it slow down my Mac?
No – it's one small native Swift menu-bar app. 100 minimized windows? Not a problem.
Does it replace the Dock?
No – it coexists with it. The strip finds its place around the Dock, the menu bar, the notch and even third-party bars.
Give your windows a home
Stop hunting windows. Start clicking them.
v1.0.0 • notarized by Apple • Free while in 1.x • macOS 14+ • Apple Silicon & Intel • no account
Homebrew
brew install --cask active-window-managercoming soon
First launch, in two lines:
- Unzip and open – AWM offers to move itself to Applications.
- Follow the guided setup to grant the Accessibility permission (that's how macOS lets AWM see and manage other apps' windows).
Stays current: AWM updates itself through a built-in updater that cryptographically verifies every download before installing it.