Enhanced Motif Window Manager

EMWM is a fork of the Motif Window Manager with fixes and enhancements. The idea behind this is to provide compatibility with current xorg extensions and applications, without changing the way the window manager looks and behaves. This includes support for multi-monitor setups through Xinerama/Xrandr, UFT-8 support with Xft fonts, and overall better compatibility with software that requires "Extended Window Manager Hints".

Additionally a couple of goodies are available in the separate utilities package: XmToolbox, a toolchest like application launcher, which reads it's multi-level menu structure from a simple plain-text file ~/.toolboxrc, and XmSm, a simple session manager that provides session configuration, locking and shutdown/suspend options.

Downloads

EMWM and Utilities - 1.3 Stable

Image Window Manager emwm-src-1.3.1.tar.xz Release 1.3.1 (Aug 02 2025)

Image Utilities emwm-utils-src-1.3.3.tar.xz Release 1.3.3 (Mar 12 2026)

Revision history: emwm-changes.txt • utils-changes.txt

EMWM and Utilities - 2.0 Beta 2 (a.k.a WSM Branch)

Version 2.0 introduces back support for multiple desktops/workspaces. Utilities were adjusted to work with the workspace manager, the toolbox now has an optional workspace switcher widget. The new command line tool tellmwm, may be used to control the workspace manager (setting backdrop, adding and removing workspaces etc.) at runtime. Make sure to adjust any custom ~/.emwmrc for WSM bindings. Read the README for instructions.

Image Window Manager emwm-src-2.0-beta2.tar.xz v2.0 - Beta 2(Mar 22 2026)

Notable changes since Beta 1:
• Fixed icon placement inconsistencies (including occupied places being erroneously shared across workspaces).
• Window size feedback widget now displays inner (client area) size for windows that have size increment specified.
• StaticGravity for programmatically set initial window position is now handled as specified in the ICCCM.

Image CLI Control Tool tellmwm-src.tar.xz (Mar 15 2026)

Image Utilities emwm-utils-src-2.0-beta1.tar.xz v2.0 - Beta 1(Mar 14 2026)

See the included README file for build instructions. On Linuxen, make sure to review and adjust the installation prefix and X resources (app-defaults) location, since defaults may not be suitable for all distros. Everything is usually tested on FreeBSD and some GNU/Linux. If you have a question that isn't answered in the FAQ or manpages, feel free to contact me (Alex) via e-mail: mail@fastestcode.org. There is also a public mailing list at emwm-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net

Additional Resources

Image FAQ/Guide on setting up EMWM and Motif based applications in general.

Image Xresources configuration sample (as seen in some of the screenshots below) is also available here. Additionally, GTK 2/3 (~/.gtkrc-2.0 and ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css) config files that go along with it (well... as much as possible anyway).

Image app-icons.tar.xz (Updated Jul 10 2025)
Generic 48x48 application icons. Authentic pixelart. Intended for applications, which don't specify their own icon, or as replacement (see emwm(1) iconImage resource).

Image xc-core-hr.tar.xz (Updated Dec 26 2024)
Sharp-edged (as in non-blurry) X11 cursor theme. Based on original core cursors appearance, in two sizes (24 and 32 px) which work well for screens around 100 to 150 DPI. See the included README for details.

Image xmdlgicons.tar.xz (Updated Jul 17 2025)
Higher resolution icon sets for standard Motif dialog boxes. These are styled differently than built in ones. Includes two sets of pixmaps, which should work for around 100 to 150 DPI screens. See included README file for information on where to install these.

Image If looking for actively maintained Motif sources (because the official ICS repo doesn't seem to be cared for anymore), check out Tim's fork, whose plan is a long-term maintainership. He is accepting bug reports and patches. There is also CDE maintainer Jon's quasi-fork, whose short term focus seems to be on fixing compilation issues, and Dmitri's repository, which appears to get more general development work done to it.

Screenshots

Click for a larger picture.

EMWM With Xft Fonts EMWM V2.0 Workspace Manager EMWM on HiDPI Display

Links

Git repositories and distfiles archived/mirrored on SourceForge and Github.

See also XFile • XImaging • Misc. X Stuff • Homepage About