Originally located here: https://github.com/workturnedplay/winbollocks
(unless you got it from a fork, try git remote -v to check)
winbollocks is a small Windows utility that I use on win11, it adds a couple of Win-key mouse gestures for window movement and z-order control, independent of where the mouse cursor is inside the window.
It is designed to replicate common X11 / Wayland window-manager behaviors on Windows such as, for now only:
winkey+LMB drag to move a window and winkey+MMB to send window to back behind all others.
It was built with the help of AI (chatgpt 5.2 and 5.1Mini, Grok 4 and 4.1, Gemini 3 and 3.1 Pro). It works right now as stated below, but the code is a mess(for now) on purpose.
winbollocks installs low-level mouse and keyboard hooks and reacts only to a small, fixed set of input combinations.
The following behaviors are implemented:
1. Win + Left Mouse Button (drag anywhere) While the Windows key(it's between Ctrl key and Alt key) is held down:
- Pressing and holding LMB over any point inside a window starts a manual move of that window.
- The window follows the mouse until LMB is released.
- The click does not need to be on the title bar.
- The click is not passed through to the target window.
This allows moving/repositioning a window by dragging it from any point inside its bounds, not just from the title bar.
2. Win + Middle Mouse Button (send to back) While the Windows key is held:
- Pressing MMB over a window sends that window to the bottom of the z-order.
- The window is not activated.
- Focus is preserved.
This is a pure z-order operation.
3. Win + Shift + Middle Mouse Button (bring focused window to front) While the Windows key and Shift are held:
- Pressing MMB brings the currently focused window to the top of the z-order.
- This applies only to the focused window; non-focused windows are not affected(windows wouldn't allow it anyway, it'd just blink their taskbar buttons instead).
- This is intended for windows that were previously sent to the back using Win + MMB and remain focused but partially obscured and you want it back to the front again without clicking on another window first to then be able to click on the original window to bring it to front.
- The operation happens without requiring refocusing or clicking another window.
4. Start menu suppression for these gestures If any of the above Win-key mouse gestures occur:
- Releasing the Windows key does not open the Start menu.
If no gesture occurs:
- Releasing the Windows key behaves normally.
This suppression applies only to gestures handled by winbollocks.
Interaction with elevated (Administrator) windows
When winbollocks is run without administrative privileges, it cannot reliably interact with windows that are running elevated (as Administrator). This is a Windows security boundary.
If a Win-key gesture is initiated while the cursor is over an elevated window:
- Keyboard and mouse events may stop being delivered to WinBollocks mid-gesture.
- The program may not receive the corresponding Win-key release event.
- As a result, WinBollocks may temporarily believe the Win key is still held down.
Recovery: Pressing and releasing the Win key once more resets the internal state.
This occurs because Windows does not forward low-level input events from elevated windows to non-elevated global hooks. There is currently no reliable way for a non-admin process to detect that input delivery has been cut off or to infer the missing key-up event.
Workaround: Running WinBollocks with administrative privileges avoids this limitation.
- Bringing a window to the front(winkey+shift+MMB) only works on the currently focused window.
- It does not modify system keyboard mappings.
- It does not require administrator privileges.
The keyboard hook exists solely to:
- Track modifier key state (Win / Shift / Ctrl / Alt)
- Suppress Start menu activation(which Win key release triggers) after handled gestures (by swallowing the winkey_UP(ie. released) event then injecting/queueing a right_shift_DOWN(ie. right side Shift key pressed) then right_Shift_UP (ie. released) key sequence and that winkey_UP)
No other key combinations are acted upon.
Window movement gestures are triggered only when:
- The Windows key is down
- No other modifiers are active (unless explicitly part of the gesture)
Specifically:
- Win + LMB works only if Shift, Ctrl, and Alt are not pressed.
- Win + Shift + MMB (that's Midle Mouse Button) is explicitly allowed and handled.
- Other modifier combinations are ignored.
This avoids accidental activation during unrelated shortcuts.
- Manual window moves do not require prior activation.
- Z-order changes(ie. send window to back) do not steal focus.
- Bringing a window to the front does not forcibly activate any windows and only works on the currently focused window.
- No foreground-window bypass tricks are used.
All behavior respects standard Windows focus rules.
- Uses
WH_MOUSE_LLandWH_KEYBOARD_LL. - Window movement is performed via explicit position updates.
- Z-order changes are performed with
SetWindowPos. - No shell extensions or DLL injection are used.
- Input suppression relies on documented hook return semantics.
- Start menu suppression is achieved without registry changes.
- This utility relies on Windows’ global input model.
- Some behavior is constrained by Windows focus-stealing prevention.
- It does not attempt to emulate a full window manager.
- Behavior is tested on modern Windows 10/11 desktops.
You need go.exe of Go language to compile this code into a standalone exe.
No internet required to compile, if you have Go already installed.
Standard Go build (if you want console messages visible):
go build
GUI-subsystem build (no console window, recommended):
go build -ldflags="-H=windowsgui"
Or try build.bat(no console) or .\devbuild.bat(yes console).
That gives you an .exe, you can run it and it has a systray icon, RMB->Exit to stop it.
Or, you can try run.bat which does the same thing(but Ctrl+C works too, to stop it), wrapped.
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
See LICENSE for details.
This repository includes vendored third-party Go modules under the vendor/ directory so it can be built without internet access.
Those components are licensed under their respective licenses. Individual license texts and notices are preserved alongside the vendored code.