Centre

Centre is your window position manager.

Take control of your windows by choosing where they appear, how they’re arranged, and what size they should be.

Consistency is centre's goal.

Preview

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d088a951-8c6b-4731-8228-80b063f1a6e5

What Centre Tries to Achieve

Centre was built for users who want consistent window placement across desktop sessions.

Install

pip install centre

Update

pip install -U centre

Start Centre Automatically

To do that, create a Windows Task Scheduler task.

Run the following command as Administrator in PowerShell/cmd to create a Task in Windows Task Scheduler.

schtasks /Create /TN "centre" /SC ONLOGON /TR "centre -s" /RL LIMITED /F

Usage

After your window configuration is ready, start the listener:

centre -s

The CLI

You can use the centre CLI to inspect open windows and read the active configuration.

Examples:

# List active windows, including their titles, sizes, and positions
centre -l

# Print the loaded configuration
centre -c

# Print the installed Centre version
centre -v

Automatic Configuration Reload

While Centre is running, it watches config.json for changes. Saving the file causes Centre to read the configuration again without restarting the process.

Window Configuration (config.json)

Your config will be created at the first startup in:

CMD

%USERPROFILE%\.centre\config.json

PowerShell

$env:USERPROFILE\.centre\config.json

The default config includes these values:

• The resolution key is based on your display resolution.

{
    "presets": {
        "1920x1080": {}
    },
    "predefined_keybindings": {
        "enabled": true,
        "bindings": {
            "center": "ctrl+alt+d",
            "minimize": "ctrl+alt+m",
            "capture": "ctrl+alt+p",
            "ignore_preset": "ctrl+alt+i",
            "center_all": "ctrl+alt+a"
        }
    },
    "logging": false,
    "ignored_presets": []
}

Logging

File logging is disabled by default. To enable it, set logging to true in config.json:

{
  "logging": true
}

When logging is enabled, Centre creates or appends to:

%USERPROFILE%\.centre\centre.log

While Centre is running, saving a valid configuration change applies the new logging setting without requiring a restart. Changing logging to false closes the file handler and stops new log entries from being written.

Log entries include a timestamp, severity level, and message:

[2026-07-27 12:34:56,789] INFO - Centering NOTEPAD

Centre logs window-management activity and errors. Entries may contain normalized executable names and captured preset details. The log file is append-only and is not automatically rotated or deleted.

Centre validates bindings against the predefined shortcut names. When Centre is updated, missing predefined shortcuts are added to config.json automatically on the next load. Unknown shortcut names are not accepted.

Window presets should be placed inside the "presets" object in config.json.

Capture a Window

Focus the window you want to capture and press ctrl+alt+p. Centre stores its current position and size under the current display resolution.

Captured windows are identified by their executable name without the .exe extension. The name is normalized to uppercase, for example:

• notepad++.exe becomes NOTEPAD++
• WindowsTerminal.exe becomes WINDOWSTERMINAL

Executable names remain stable when an application changes its window title, such as when switching tabs in Notepad++.

Capturing the same application again updates its existing preset.

Ignore a Window Preset

Focus the window you want Centre to ignore and press ctrl+alt+i. Centre adds the active application's executable name to ignored_presets.

Ignored applications are skipped when you press the center shortcut. Centre will not apply the application's custom preset or Default_Position.

To allow Centre to manage the application again, remove its executable name from ignored_presets in config.json.

Center All Configured Windows

Press ctrl+alt+a to apply presets to all currently open windows that have a matching entry under the current display resolution.

Centre skips open windows that do not have a named preset. Default_Position is only used by the regular center shortcut for the active window.

A window preset should look like this:

{
    "NOTEPAD++": {
        "LEFT": 224,
        "TOP": 168,
        "SIZE_X": 1473,
        "SIZE_Y": 697
    },
    "Default_Position": {
        "LEFT": 25,
        "TOP": 34,
        "SIZE_X": 1860,
        "SIZE_Y": 980
    }
}

• Be sure to add Default_Position in your presets under the generated default resolution. When Centre does not find the active window in your presets, it uses Default_Position as the fallback size and position.

• Default_Position is useful when you have a list of apps that you have set a custom position for, but intend to keep all other apps in one specific location.

Default Shortcuts

Your final config should look something like this:

{
    "presets": {
        "1920x1080": {
            "WINDOWSTERMINAL": {
                "LEFT": 224,
                "TOP": 168,
                "SIZE_X": 1473,
                "SIZE_Y": 697
            },
            "Default_Position": {
                "LEFT": 25,
                "TOP": 34,
                "SIZE_X": 1860,
                "SIZE_Y": 980
            }
        }
    },
    "predefined_keybindings": {
        "enabled": true,
        "bindings": {
            "center": "ctrl+alt+d",
            "minimize": "ctrl+alt+m",
            "capture": "ctrl+alt+p",
            "ignore_preset": "ctrl+alt+i",
            "center_all": "ctrl+alt+a"
        }
    },
    "logging": false,
    "ignored_presets": [
        "NOTEPAD++"
    ]
}

Caveats

Some windows may overlap even when they use the same configured position and size.

This is due to some apps having a bigger actual window than the rendered UI.

Window overlapping is now fixed with the Window-Capture implementation.

since version 0.2.0 with Window-Capture, it will not be an issue anymore.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.