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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/sgm1018/BetterWinTab/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Smart Folders are the organizing principle behind BetterWinTab. Instead of presenting all open windows in a single flat list, the overlay groups them into named folders that fill themselves automatically based on rules you define — or manually based on your own judgment. Open a new VS Code window and it appears in your VS Code folder instantly, without dragging or clicking.

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Folder Types

Every folder has a FolderType that determines how it populates with windows. The full set of types is:
FolderType.All is the single built-in folder that always appears first in the sidebar and always contains every open window, regardless of other folder rules. It cannot be removed or reordered past the top position. When you start a search from any folder, the overlay automatically switches to All Windows scope so that results span the entire desktop.The filter summary for this type is: All open windows.
FolderType.Manual folders are populated by user action — drag a window card from any other folder onto a Manual folder to assign it. Manual assignments are tracked by window handle in ManualWindowHandles (a HashSet<IntPtr>) and survive window refreshes (F5) for the duration of the session, because the same window handle persists as long as the process is running.Use Manual folders when you want full control over which windows belong together — for example, grouping all windows related to a single client project regardless of which apps they come from.
FolderType.SmartProcess folders filter by process executable name. The comparison is case-insensitive. Any window whose ProcessName matches ProcessFilter is included automatically on every refresh.Common examples:
Folder NameProcessFilter value
VS CodeCode
Chromechrome
Explorerexplorer
TerminalWindowsTerminal
Bravebrave
The GetFilterSummary() method returns "Process: {ProcessFilter}" for display in the Settings panel.
FolderType.SmartClass folders filter by window class name — the lpszClassName registered in the Win32 WNDCLASSEX structure. Class names are stable across window instances of the same application and are useful when multiple distinct processes share a single class, or when a process name is ambiguous.The comparison is case-insensitive, matching against WindowInfo.ClassName. The GetFilterSummary() method returns "Class: {ClassNameFilter}".
FolderType.SmartRules folders use a composite rule engine (FolderRuleGroup) that supports multiple conditions combined with AND or OR logic. This is the most expressive folder type and the recommended choice for complex groupings.See How SmartRules Work below for full details and an example.
FolderType.Clipboard is a special singleton folder that hosts the clipboard history panel instead of a window card grid. Selecting it replaces the window list with a scrollable list of recent clipboard text entries. It does not contain WindowInfo items — FolderService.RefreshFolder returns early for this type without calling _windowService.GetAllWindows().See the Clipboard History page for full details.
FolderType.RecycleBin is a special singleton folder that opens the Windows shell Recycle Bin when selected and confirmed with Enter. Like the Clipboard folder, it contains no WindowInfo items and cannot be deleted.See the Window Navigation page for more context.

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How SmartRules Work

A SmartRules folder holds a single FolderRuleGroup on its Rules property. The rule group defines:
  • Operator — RuleOperator.AND (all conditions must match) or RuleOperator.OR (any condition can match)
  • Conditions — a list of FolderRuleCondition objects, each specifying a Field, a Comparison, and a Value

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Fields

RuleFieldWhat it tests
ProcessNameWindowInfo.ProcessName — the executable name
TitleWindowInfo.Title — the window title bar text
ClassNameWindowInfo.ClassName — the Win32 window class name

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Comparisons

RuleComparisonBehavior
EqualsCase-insensitive exact match
ContainsCase-insensitive substring match
StartsWithCase-insensitive prefix match
EndsWithCase-insensitive suffix match
RegexCase-insensitive regular expression match via Regex.IsMatch; invalid patterns return false silently

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Matching Logic

FolderRuleGroup.Matches(window) 
// AND: all conditions must match
return Operator == RuleOperator.AND
    ? Conditions.All(c => c.Matches(window))
    : Conditions.Any(c => c.Matches(window));
An empty Conditions list always returns false — an empty rule group never matches any window. FolderRuleCondition.Matches(window) selects the field value from the WindowInfo, then applies the chosen comparison. All string comparisons use StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase. For Regex, any exception thrown by Regex.IsMatch is caught and returns false — so a malformed pattern degrades gracefully rather than crashing.

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Example Rule Group

The following conceptual structure represents a SmartRules folder that matches any VS Code window or any window whose title contains a .tsx file extension — useful for grouping front-end development work: 
{
  "operator": "OR",
  "conditions": [
    { "field": "ProcessName", "comparison": "Equals", "value": "Code" },
    { "field": "Title", "comparison": "Contains", "value": ".tsx" }
  ]
}
An AND example — match only Chrome windows whose title contains “GitHub”: 
{
  "operator": "AND",
  "conditions": [
    { "field": "ProcessName", "comparison": "Equals", "value": "chrome" },
    { "field": "Title", "comparison": "Contains", "value": "GitHub" }
  ]
}

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Creating Folders

To create a new folder, open the BetterWinTab overlay and click the + button in the sidebar, or press the corresponding keyboard shortcut in the Settings panel. The Add Folder panel lets you:
  1. Set a name and choose an icon glyph and an optional background color for the sidebar entry.
  2. Toggle Smart Folder (process) ON and pick a running process from the dropdown to create a SmartProcess folder.
  3. Toggle Advanced Rules ON to build a SmartRules folder with FolderRuleCondition entries and an AND/OR operator.
  4. Leave both toggles OFF to create a Manual folder.
To edit an existing folder, right-click its name in the sidebar and choose Edit.
The legacy ProcessFilter and ClassNameFilter string properties on WindowFolder are preserved for backward compatibility with settings files created before SmartRules (v2) was introduced. When either field is set on a folder whose Type is SmartProcess or SmartClass, the single-field filter is applied exactly as before. New folders created from the UI always use the current type-based system.

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