These 5 Ubuntu Extensions Made Me a God of Multi-Window Workflows

Are you tired of hunting through multiple windows buried across your Ubuntu desktop? Fed up with dragging apps from one workspace to another, trying to keep everything organized? Well, here are my five favorite Ubuntu Extensions (GNOME Extensions) that’ll transform how you manage windows on your Ubuntu PC.

Ubuntu uses a customized version of the GNOME desktop environment that believes in offering a minimal and more focused user experience. It heavily leans into the use of virtual desktops, called Workspaces, and wants you to limit yourself to one or at most two windows per workspace. Unfortunately, this feels very limiting to me, which is why I always install these five GNOME extensions to enable window tiling and take full control over window management.

5

Advanced Alt-Tab Windows Switcher

If you’re an Alt+Tab user like me, you’re going to fall in love with Advanced Alt Tab Windows Switcher (AATWS). This extension transforms the basic Alt+Tab functionality into something much more powerful and personalized! Once enabled, pressing Alt+Tab works like you’d expect—it shows all applications open in your current workspace and lets you switch between them. However, press Tab multiple times, and it expands to show applications across all your workspaces, letting you cycle through everything you have open.

Now, here’s where it gets really cool. Imagine you’re in a workflow and hit Alt+Tab looking for an app, only to discover it’s not actually open. With AATWS, that’s not a problem because you can keep holding Alt and start typing to search for that app you want and launch it directly. How convenient is that? The customization options are extensive too! You can completely tweak how Alt+Tab works, its design, and appearance. Honestly, covering every feature this extension offers could be an article in itself.

That said, this is definitely more niche, though. If you’re someone who naturally switches applications with Alt+Tab, you’ll find this incredibly useful—but if you prefer using the Overview to navigate through your open apps, then some of the other options discussed below might suit you better. For me, I love having it enabled!

4

Auto Move Windows

Auto Move Windows is a really cool extension with a beautifully simple concept. After installation, you open the extension settings and define which workspace a specific application should open in. You can define as many rules as you want, and that’s it—every time you launch that specific app, it automatically opens in your designated workspace.

This perfectly complements GNOME’s workflow. Normally, you’d have to open the Overview, launch the app you want to use, and then drag it to the workspace you want it in. Auto Move Windows completely automates that placement process. You just launch your apps in any order, and they’ll instantly appear exactly where you want them. It’s one of those set-it-and-forget-it productivity wins that saves tons of time in the long run.

For example, I like having two browser windows open side by side on my desktop—one for writing and the other for research. Then I have Slack tucked away in the workspace right beside this one for quick communication with my editors, and Discord in the farthest workspace since I rarely use it—but keep it running to get updates on the various projects I’m interested in. So with Auto Move Windows, I can just define those preferences once in the extension settings, and it’ll automatically place the apps in my desired workspaces.

3

Window on Top

Window On Top is another simple but useful extension that solves a common multi-window frustration. When you’re working with multiple floating windows—maybe you haven’t tiled them, and you’re just sifting through different data—previously opened windows can easily get buried as you bring new ones into focus. This extension is designed to address that specific problem.

Once enabled, you’ll see a small button on your Ubuntu panel. Select any window and click that button, and that window gets configured to always stay on top. No matter what other windows you open or focus on, that pinned window remains visible above everything else. I find this really convenient when dealing with lots of floating windows that I don’t want to tile permanently. These are usually temporary reference windows like terminal sessions, file managers, or PDFs I’m briefly consulting. Instead of constantly hunting for buried windows or setting up formal tiling layouts, I can just pin the reference material and focus on working.

2

Tiling Shell

GNOME has plenty of useful extensions for tiling functionality, but Tiling Shell is my personal favorite. It’s one of those productivity boosters that really shines when you’re using an ultrawide monitor with multiple windows that need clean organization. The extension allows you to tile windows in three different ways. By default, it adds a small indicator to your panel where you can click to access different layout options—your focused window gets automatically organized into the selected zones. It’s somewhat similar to Windows 11’s Snap Layout functionality—but better!

Alternatively, you can drag any window to the top edge of your screen to trigger the same layout selection, then pick the zone where you want your window to be, and voilà—it’s tiled for you. There’s also my preferred method of holding Ctrl while dragging a window to trigger the default tiling overlay and then placing the window into a specified zone. It’s a quick, convenient way to get that clean, organized desktop.

I should mention that you can create entirely custom layouts based on your specific needs and requirements. The extension gives you granular control over zone sizes, positioning, and how many zones you want your desktop divided into. The extension settings also offer tons of customization options, though I personally stick with the defaults.

1

Workspace Indicator

Workspace Indicator is by far one of the most useful extensions I’ve used on Ubuntu. It’s a huge productivity boost and a quality-of-life feature that I can’t imagine working without. It essentially visualizes all your current workspaces right on the panel. So, instead of pressing the Super key to open the Overview and then seeing your workspaces, you can just directly see them on the panel—ever present! You can also see the outlines of the windows inside each workspace, giving you an immediate sense of how many windows are in each workspace and how they are positioned.

But that’s not all—the real convenience comes from the drag-and-drop functionality. You can move windows between workspaces directly from the panel indicator, streamlining your entire workflow. No more opening the Overview, dragging windows from one workspace to another. You can seamlessly move them right from the panel.

Now, I do know some people, especially power users, prefer to use keyboard shortcuts to organize their windows and navigate between their workspaces. You can still do that if you want. What this extension does is enable an additional mouse-based approach for quickly sorting through your workspaces, which I find super powerful!

There you have it—my favorite GNOME Extensions that I always install on Ubuntu (or any GNOME-based distro for that matter) to help me with window tiling and routine window management. I’m sure you’ll find these a massive productivity booster, especially if you’re on an ultrawide monitor and want to properly utilize all your screen real estate.