How to hide window borders?

Question

I recently saw that on Manjaro (with XFCE4) it is possible to hide the top border of windows. So the title bar together with the minimize, maximize, close etc. buttons were not visible anymore.

Is that possible on Xubuntu as well? I only managed to do find an option in the terminal app.

Solution 1

Yes, you just install maximus...

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install maximus

Then, open a run dialog Ctrl + F2 and type:

maximus

(you may have to log out and then back in) .

Some windows like firefox will open with the window showing and all you have to do is use the mouse to tug down and then slam back up against the top panel to get it to go away. Otherwise, just click the maximize button once or twice.

Also, see this related article on how to put the close, maximize, etc buttons in the top panel: http://www.webupd8.org/2014/07/xubuntu-how-to-put-maximized-windows.html

---

If you are talking about this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-2KPrzIwao , the guy is using compiz to remove the window borders.

To install compiz, open a terminal and execute the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install compiz compiz-plugins compizconfig-settings-manager metacity dconf-tools
ccsm

Now, make sure the following plugins are enabled Composite, Gnome Compatibility, OpenGL, Move Window, Resize Window, Place Windows. Also, make sure the Window Decoration plugin is not disabled.

After enabling those plugins, run the following command:

compiz --replace

To enable window borders, open ccsm and enable the Window Decoration plugin.

see here on how to make compiz the permanent window manager

Solution 2

Here's a simple python script from XRunHProf's blog which can do this without changing window managers. Just put the script somewhere and add a keyboard shortcut to invoke it.

#!/usr/bin/env python
from gtk.gdk import *

w = window_foreign_new((get_default_root_window().property_get("_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW")[2][0]))
state = w.property_get("_NET_WM_STATE")[2]
maximized = '_NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_HORZ' in state and '_NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_VERT' in state
if maximized: w.unmaximize()
if w.get_decorations() == 0:
    w.set_decorations(DECOR_ALL)
else:
    w.set_decorations(0)

if maximized: w.maximize()
window_process_all_updates()

Comments

[TomTom]

Is this supposed to remove border only when maximized or also when not?

[mchid]

@TomTom maximus is supposed to remove the border only when the window is maximized. Do you have a link to the manjaro example you saw?

[mchid]

@TomTom I've updated the answer and if you also want emerald window themes like in the video, just install emerald as well sudo apt-get install emerald

[Stéphane Gourichon]

Didn't work for me. Just did nothing, no warning or anything.

[phil294]

very nice. @StéphaneGourichon you need to have the desired window active.

[phil294]

to simply remove borders from ALL windows, it would look like this pastebin.com/crRaG5N8