IceWM FAQ and Howto: Control The Look and Behavior Of Applications

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## 6. Control The Look and Behavior Of Applications

This section is about how you can make windows appear on a certain workspace, have them displayed without a border or titlebar, or put them above or under other windows. All this can be accomplished using the `winoptions` preferences file, some of it even interactively.

## 6.1 Assign an option to a given application

Assigning a particular option (icon, default layer, default workspace, etc.) to a given application or application window can be done as follows:

First, you should acquire the `"WM_CLASS"` descriptor using `xprop.` Simply run

> `

>         xprop |grep WM_CLASS

> `

in an XTerm. The first item is the window name and the second item it the window class. You can then add the desired options to your `winoptions` file. Entries in that file have one of the following formats:

> `

>         name.class.option: value
>         class.option:      value
>         name.option:       value

> `

The `"WM_CLASS"` for a Netscape Navigator window is

> `

>         "Navigator", "Netscape"

> `

To assign the icons `"navigator_*.xpm"` to the Netscape Navigator window, use this option:

> `

>         Navigator.Netscape.icon: navigator

> `

The other options work according to roughly the same pattern. The list of winoptions you can find in IceWM manual chapter about Window Options.

## 6.2 How do I make a window stay on top?

There are two slightly different ways to do this. Use whatever suits your need. Option one: the window always stays on top of any other windows. Set the following option `name.class.layer: onTop`. Option two: the window sits in a rectangular zone of the desktop where no other windows can be placed: Use the doNotCover option: `name.class.doNotCover: 1`. By the way: this is how the taskbar or the GNOME panel work. It's a good idea to use this on gkrellm, your icq client, or other monitoring tools you'd always like to have in view.

## 6.3 Have windows iconified/maximized as soon they are mapped

There may be programs that you either want to start up iconified or maximized. Until now, there is no possible entry in your `winoptions` file that iconifies or maximizes a windows of a given name or class as it is mapped.

Fortunately some programs (like Netscape) have a command line option to be started iconic and most X program support `"-geometry"` to specify a default window size.

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