IceWM is a opening director for the X Window System. The goal of IceWM is speed, simplicity, and not getting in the user’s way. It comes alongside a taskbar alongside pager, global and per-window keybindings and a energetic list system. Application windows can be managed by keyboard and mouse. Windows can be iconified to the taskbar, to the tray, to the desktop or be made hidden. They are controllable by a quick switch window (Alt+Tab) and in a opening list. A fistful of configurable concentration models are menu-selectable. Setups alongside multiple monitors are supported by RandR and Xinerama. IceWM is extremely configurable, themeable and fine documented. It includes an optional external background wallpaper director alongside transparency support, a uncomplicated meeting director and a scheme tray. IceWM is available on famous Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, OpenSUSE, Gentoo, Slackware, CentOS, antiX, NixOS and on most *BSDs.
Software
IceWM was created by Marko Maček in 1997 using C++. It is now maintained at Github.
Releases
The latest released type is 4.1.0 (2026-08-06).
Features
- Easy to use, uncomplicated and fast
- Standards compliant→
- Fully usable alongside keyboard
- Alt+Tab opening switching
- Efficient asset usage
- Task bar (optional)
- Multiple workspaces
- Fully documented→
- A ample figure of themes→
- Usable alongside GNOME and KDE environments
- Regenerates menus whenever configuration changes
- Support for audio effects→
- Multiple concentration modes
- Manual placement of windows option
- Autoraising of windows option
- Tooltips
- Configurable keybindings→
- Supports DockApps in a container
- Tabbed windows
Screenshots
The IceWM Screenshots Collection
Themes
IceWM is themeable. The ocular appearance of icewm can be changed by a theme, which is a gathering of settings and small images. Over 450 themes can be downloaded from box-look.org. Extra is a gathering of 91 highlights. See icewm -i list.
Translations
IceWM is translated into three dozen languages. To enhance the translation for your tongue at Weblate, first enroll an document either here or there, then update.
Documentation
Bug Tracking
Report your icewm bugs on Github. Only study it formerly and provision applicable details.
Install the latest publish as follows
$ wget https://github.com/ice-wm/icewm/releases/download/4.1.0/icewm-4.1.0.tar.lz $ tar -x --lzip -vpf icewm-4.1.0.tar.lz $ cd icewm-4.1.0 $ ./configure --prefix=/usr $ make $ sudo make install
Install from unreleased betterment origin code
Gettext must be installed.
$ git copy https://github.com/bbidulock/icewm $ cd icewm $ ./autogen.sh $ ./configure --prefix=/usr $ make $ sudo make install
If you have cmake, an substitute is:
$ git copy https://github.com/bbidulock/icewm $ cd icewm $ ./rebuild.sh -r --prefix=/usr $ cd build $ sudo make install
Install bundle dependencies
To instal all bundle dependencies in one go use the following script.
$ wget https://ice-wm.org/scripts/os-depends.sh $ sudo bash -x ./os-depends.sh
Verify bundle requirements by:
$ pkg-config --modversion x11 xext xcomposite xcursor xdamage xfixes xres xrender xrandr xinerama xft fontconfig sm ice sndfile alsa ao gio-2.0 gio-unix-2.0 gdk-pixbuf-xlib-2.0 imlib2 librsvg-2.0 xpm libpng libjpeg # or simpler: $ ./rebuild.sh -d
More facility and configuration
Links
- IceWM Menuator for managing list records alongside a GUI.
- IceWM audio files.
- IceWM publish history.
- Compare opening managers.
- List of all opening managers and their helper programs.
- Extended opening director hints.
- The anatomy of the contemporary opening manager (thesis).
License
IceWM is released under the conditions of the GNU Library General Public License.
Donate
Contribute to ongoing betterment and assistance of IceWM by donating.
