FancyZones
Shares rank 19 of 30 window managers by recommenders
Free PowerToys module that lets people snap windows into custom zones; several say no alternative on Windows or macOS comes close.
Free PowerToys module that lets people snap windows into custom zones; several say no alternative on Windows or macOS comes close.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Better than built-in window management
“the window management w/ FancyZones beats the pants off whatever the hell macOS is doing”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “You need to stop using Windows 11 [video][14 mins]” “Windows has the best solution with a utility called Fancyzones”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “The TV industry concedes that the future may not be in 8K” “none feel like they’re nearly as good as FancyZones”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe – the saga continues” Works well as part of PowerToys
“FancyZones (part of PowerToys) is pretty good. Maybe not exactly what you're used to (I don't know), but I'm happy with it.”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop” “having this in combination with PowerToys FancyZones has been fantastic”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “Dell UltraSharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor” “especially with PowerToys and FancyZones in particular”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop” Custom zones for multi-app layouts
“with Fancyzones, I can set up Unreal Engine Editor, Rider, discord/teams”
Comment from 17 Jan 2026 in “Dell UltraSharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor” “use Fancy Zones you can customize the zones”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Was Windows 1.0's lack of overlapping windows a legal or a technical matter?”
Other window managers people recommend
The four most recommended other window managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyprland | 82 | 33 | 71% | 12 | 1 mo4 owners | Approved |
| Rectangle for macOS | 67 | 3 | 96% | 11 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| Enlightenment window manager | 51 | 19 | 73% | 8 | — | Approved |
| FVWM | 28 | 4 | 88% | 8 | 25 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| FancyZonesThis page | 8 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
9 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“FancyZones (part of PowerToys) is pretty good. Maybe not exactly what you're used to (I don't know), but I'm happy with it.”
“the window management w/ FancyZones beats the pants off whatever the hell macOS is doing”
“use Fancy Zones you can customize the zones”
“none feel like they’re nearly as good as FancyZones”
“Windows has the best solution with a utility called Fancyzones”
“with Fancyzones, I can set up Unreal Engine Editor, Rider, discord/teams”
“having this in combination with PowerToys FancyZones has been fantastic”
“with things like WSL, winget, terminal, storage spaces, fancyzones”
“especially with PowerToys and FancyZones in particular”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.