The All Windows functionality is a port by lyonel of his Cinnamon applet (now included in Cinnamon 1.6+).
It displays a menu listing all open windows on all workspaces on the right-hand side of the GNOME top bar and allows quickly switching between them.
Additionally, it exposes save/restore window positions as D-Bus methods.
At the top of the menu, preceding the listing of open windows, are two buttons: Save window positions and Restore window positions.
The buttons are used to remember and restore the positions of the open windows in the display. The set of window positions is associated with the current display size, which can change when monitors are added or removed. Each display size has its own set of window positions.
In addition, window positions are automatically saved when the computer is suspended and restored when it is resumed. This provides a workaround for Bug #1778983 “Resume from suspend on Wayland breaks window positioning” : Bugs : mutter package : Ubuntu. The problem remains in Ubuntu 22.04.
This extension exposes two D-Bus methods: org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.AllWindows.SavePositions and org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.AllWindows.RestorePositions. You can call them in scripts using
gdbus call --session \
--dest org.gnome.Shell \
--object-path /org/gnome/Shell/Extensions/AllWindows \
--method org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.AllWindows.METHOD
Where METHOD is one of SavePositions or RestorePositions.
- Restore does not manage which windows are on top. However, in testing to date the correct windows have always been shown on top.
- When a password is required after a suspend, enough time typically passes for the restore to happen automatically. If not, Restore window positions must manually be pressed.
- Save/restore does not work across reboots.
There is one configuration key, called log-level, which sets the lowest
severity level of messages logged to /var/log/syslog.
Unless changed, log-level is set to error. The other suggested settings
are info and debug.
Use the gsettings get command to show the current log level:
gsettings --schemadir \
~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/[email protected]/schemas/ \
get org.gnome.shell.extensions.all-windows-srwp log-level
Use gsettings set to set a log level. The setting persists, across logouts,
installs, etc. For instance, this sets it to info:
gsettings --schemadir \
~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/[email protected]/schemas/ \
set org.gnome.shell.extensions.all-windows-srwp log-level info
To install this extension you can either
- use the GNOME Extensions hub (caution: it doesn't always contain the most recent versions)
- copy it under
~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/[email protected]/in your home directory
Note: you may have to explicitly enable the extension after installation.
This extension has been tested on GNOME 49 and 50.
These are @thisisrandy's notes about testing the addition of method calls. The way to
test extensions on Wayland is to make a nested gnome-shell and interact with
the extension via gdbus:
First, install the development extension:
- Run
maketo compile schemas - Find the extension directory under
~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/ - Delete it and create a soft link to your development repository with
ln -sf ~/git/all-windows ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/[email protected]
Then, set up a nested shell and test:
# 1. Enter the subshell container
dbus-run-session -- zsh
# 2. Start the headless engine in the background
gnome-shell --devkit --wayland --headless --virtual-monitor 1024x768 &
# 3. Make sure the extension is enabled
gnome-extensions enable [email protected]
# 4. Trigger a method call. We can use console.log in the method to confirm
gdbus call --session \
--dest org.gnome.Shell \
--object-path /org/gnome/Shell/Extensions/AllWindows \
--method org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.AllWindows.SavePositions
We can also tail the journal to see log messages with
journalctl --user -f -o cat /usr/bin/gnome-shell
This extension is released under the GNU Public License version 2.