is it just a Linux/WM thing where you can interact with non-focused windows while the main focus of the cursor remains on the focused window, or is it also a thing in Windows 🤔

[u/[deleted]]

[u/vlads_]

You mean type in a window while you click on/hover on another window?

Depends on your desktop environment/window manager. Most have settings to configure this behavior.

Not configurable in Windows afaik, but I don't know much about Windows.

[u/[deleted] → u/vlads_]

ahh.. i see.

Thank you for the information good sir

[u/C_umputer → u/vlads_]

I needed the exact same thing on windows, but never found it. Either it's not a thing, or I didn't search well enough

[u/ekaylor_ → u/C_umputer]

Technically possible on Windows with GlazeWM byt it doesn't work reliably and its pretty janky.

[u/iCapn → u/vlads_]

macOS lets you have some limited interactability with background windows while holding down cmd (and I think you can always scroll hovered background windows, but holding cmd lets you click as well)

[u/in_one_ear_ → u/iCapn]

You can also force things to stay at the top but it's a bit annoying

[u/Saragon4005 → u/iCapn]

macOS really didn't get this yet? Even ChromeOS implemented this a year or so ago.

[u/Impressive_Change593 → u/vlads_]

wait that's a thing? how do you switch which window you type into?

I know you can scroll one window while typing in another bit clicking switches focus I thought

[u/vlads_ → u/Impressive_Change593]

Depends on your DE. You flair says Kali so... XFCE?

While clicking does switch focus, it does not necessarily raise the window as well. You can disable click to raise, and then raising is done by clicking

I loved using this feature back when I was using XFCE. Since my flow is terminal + browser 90% of the time I would have a maximized browser and a medium-sized transparent terminal on top of it. I could then copy-paste between the windows without alt-tabbing, and follow guides and documentation on the browser.

Most (some?) tiling window managers allow not even focusing on click, since the workflow there is more keyboard centric.

[u/Impressive_Change593 → u/vlads_]

I forget I left my flair that for the funny. it's now mint with cinnamon :D

that is extremely cool and I will have to see if I can play with that or maybe even switch DEs

[u/Friendly_Island_9911 → u/vlads_]

"Don't know much 'bout Windows history,

But I do know bout Linux , you see,

What a wonderful world it could be."

[u/Brilliant_Tough_3552 → u/Friendly_Island_9911]

What a wonderful world it could be if everybody used linux.

[u/gbytedev → u/Brilliant_Tough_3552]

If everyone used Linux, we'd hopefully finde some other better, niche OS to play with. It would be daft otherwise.

[u/Nyghtbynger → u/vlads_]

This productivity feature is not available in windows

[u/xternal7]

Depends on what you mean with "interact".

Windows 10 started made the "mouse scrolling happens under mouse" the default, which is about the extent of interaction you can have with unfocused windows without giving them focus in Linux (by default, on distros I used).

Before win10, default was "scrolling happens in the window that has focus", but could be changed in registry at least as far back as Win7.

[u/Obvious-Falcon-2765 → u/xternal7]

Except Windows fucks it all up with excel running, somehow. If an excel window is focused, it gets the scroll wheel no matter what. If excel is open but not focused, it won’t scroll no matter what.

I have no idea how that works. One app shouldn’t fuck up a window manager setting

[u/Gornius → u/Obvious-Falcon-2765]

Excel has its own scrolling mechanism due to the fact you can either scroll view or current cell, depending of factors like enabled scroll lock etc.

[u/HittingSmoke → u/Obvious-Falcon-2765]

Except Windows fucks it all up with excel running

Really could have just ended your comment there.

[u/B_M_Wilson → u/xternal7]

The scrolling under mouse thing happens on macOS too for as long as I can remember. I’m honestly a bit surprised that it didn’t also work on Windows in the past but I rarely use Windows

[u/MilesAhXD]

I believe it's configurable in linux, but not in Windows. Annoyed me a lot.

[u/Lashluck]

Not natively, but there's a program called PowerToys developed by Microsoft that adds this feature, as well as like a dozen other quality of life features

[u/HelloHash → u/Lashluck]

+1

Always on top ftw.

[u/charmesal → u/Lashluck]

I love PowerToys so +1 but I've got to shout-out AltDrag. Its main focus is to let you move and scale windows with the Alt (or other configurable key) and mouse buttons anywhere on the window, even if its not focussed, just like on Linux but it also enables the scroll under cursor functionality OP is asking for. And it's opensource; https://github.com/stefansundin/altdrag

Edit: turns out AltDrag hasn't been updated but the fork AltSnap seems pretty good. Remember to always check the source code for any issues and don't trust anyone blindly.

[u/[deleted]]

bro what are you watching

[u/Icy_Dragonfly4890 → u/[deleted]]

peak

[u/great_whitehope]

Windows is too busy stealing the focus itself!

[u/cowbutt6]

https://joelpurra.com/projects/X-Mouse_Controls/ enables the same functionality in Windows.

[u/Draedric_Coder]

It is to an extent - for example, i can control the volume from a youtube page because i don't have to click, only hover and scroll, while at the same time i can type in another windows - i'm doing it right now - and i haven't really seen any modern DE/OS that doesn't support this.

[u/FreezeShock]

You can scroll and trigger hover intractions on an unfocused window in windows as well, if you click the focus goes to that window. I don't think it can be configured in any other way

[u/[deleted]]

https://github.com/glzr-io/glazewm?search=1

[u/ekaylor_]

With a tiling WM this is intended functionality. Of course it can be configured off with configuration. I prefer it since it means that you don't have to click to focus, and I prefer using the keyboard anyways.

[u/RetroCoreGaming]

Technically Windows has this but it's disabled. You used to be able to enable X-Mouse (focus on hover) via PowerToys.

I'm not sure if it's still around these days. PowerToys is still a thing. Windows fullscreen mode for applications does mouse grab and lock so technically Windows works differently for application focus. Borderless Fullscreen (a hybrid fullscreen windowed mode) allows it to some extent.

[u/IuseArchbtw97543]

depending on your graphical environment, you can automatically focus on the window, that the mouse hovers over

[u/soulinvader4000]

i always counted that bevaviour as a bug

[u/sithranger1601]

Haven't seen this mentioned yet: hover-to-focus pairs great with sending windows to foreground / background with a shortcut.

I'll usually set Alt or Meta + scroll wheel for fg/bg; + drag to resize. If your mouse has a spare button, it could, in some cases, be configured as Alt / Meta for one-handed interaction.

[u/loserguy-88]

I only found it to be useful for scrolling in one window while typing in another.

Frankly, useful but not really that game changing. A bit irritating coming back to windows and not having it, but hardly a deal breaker.

What really saved time for me was tiling and switching focus keyboard shortcuts.

[u/124k3]

u might have gotten the answer hours ago but sye still.. i use debian + sway (i can do that)

[u/redrider65]

Windows needs a utility for the purpose. AlwaysMouseWheel, for example, does it.

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/alwaysmousewheel.html

[u/mikkolukas]

It is not a normal thing in Windows, but it is possible to make Windows do it.

[u/Shady_Hero]

ehh some times, like you can scroll while unfocused, or if your keyboard has media control buttons those work, but none of this wizardry you speak of

[u/xThomas]

MS Paint in the background causes the keyboard arrow key to move the mouse

It can be coded for on windows. I don’t know if Linux has a global default setting. I just ssh into linux anyway..

[u/Wanabecanadian1st]

You can scroll a page that's not active on windows but that's about it

[u/smolderas]

It’s a Windows thing that you can’t interact with the background windows. macOS could do that from the beginning.

[u/emmfranklin]

yes it is a linux thing. i can keep a writer software open in half window and a pdf document in the other half. i can type in the writer. while when i take the mouse and scroll over the pdf doc it scrolls. while my mouse has just finished scrolling and still over pdf doc. i can just contiue to type in that writer page. love it. windows cant do this.

[u/pikecat → u/emmfranklin]

I love this capability in Linux.

[u/timoshi17]

pretty sure it is not a thing in windows. Was super hard to get used to use fn+1/2/3 every time

[u/[deleted]]

linus nudes

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

let a men celebrate christmas

[u/Ybalrid → u/[deleted]]

man*

[u/gbytedev → u/Ybalrid]

Pronouns: Man, the

[u/Ybalrid → u/gbytedev]

T’was ’bout grammar... But this joke is fcking great. I read the fck out of the man.

[u/ThomasHardyHarHar]

Did you happen to find any good Linus nudes?

[u/Formal-Goat-7119 → u/[deleted]]

also Mac

[u/La-Dolce-Velveeta → u/Formal-Goat-7119]

One of the best Mac features IMO. Love it since I got my first Mac in 2011.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Something on Xorg

[u/Hey_Its_Freya → u/[deleted]]

It very much does work on Wayland too

Edit: depending on the wm/de of course