The programs in Warpstead’s nodes are the real ones, running in Windows. Warpstead shows their window inside the node and passes your mouse and keyboard to them. Nothing is emulated, and the program saves its files where it always does.
Bringing a program in
- From the list. Double-click the canvas → App…, or the App chip in the QuickDock. You get the list of installed programs, with search and categories. The node waits for you: click Launch when you want the program to start. If the program asks you something in a window of its own while it starts, like its license or restoring the last session, that window stays in front of Warpstead. If you lose sight of it, the node tells you the app is waiting for an answer, and Show brings it back.
- A window that’s already open. Node picker → Open window… opens Mission Control: click a window and it moves into the node. If you bring in Chrome, Edge or another browser built the same way, or an app made with Electron, while it’s already open, it stops as soon as you look away. Its node then offers Restart inside Warpstead: the program closes and reopens inside Warpstead, and from then on it stays live on the canvas. It asks first, because your open work needs saving. If you don’t want it, Don’t ask again for this app in that prompt turns the offer off for that program. Browser tabs come back only if the browser is set to continue where you left off.
- An empty display. Empty display makes a node with no program yet; pick one later from its menu.
- By dragging a program or a shortcut (.exe, .lnk) from File Explorer.
- From a folder. Double-click a document in a Folder node and it opens in its usual program, in a new App node next to the folder.
Using it
Click the program in the node and you’re in: from there every click, scroll and key goes to the program. Move the pointer out of the node and you’re back on the canvas.
The node’s header shows the program’s name. Drag the header to move the node, drag the edges to resize it.
Full screen
To give a program the whole screen, double-click the node’s header, choose Open fullscreen from its menu, or hold Shift and scroll up over the node. The canvas flies into the node.
To come back, hold Shift and scroll down (without Ctrl).
With two screens you can keep a program full screen on each one at the same time. The keyboard goes to the one you clicked last: a click on the other screen takes you there, and neither of them leaves full screen. Shift and scroll down brings back only the program on the screen under the cursor, while Win Esc (Mission Control) brings back both. If you put another program full screen on the same screen, the one that was there goes back into its node.
Ctrl Shift S takes a screenshot even while a program is full screen.
Snapping programs together
Drag an App node close to another one: when they’re near enough a seam appears, and when you let go the node takes the size of that side. Snapped programs move together when you drag the header. Alt + drag pulls one away.
Align and Arrange treat a snapped block as one node. Snapping works for App nodes on the canvas, not inside groups.
When a program is full screen and another one is snapped to its side, push the pointer past the edge of the screen on that side: the view flies from the first program to the second.
Mission Control
Win Esc, from any program, or the Mission Control button in the left column. It lists every window open in Windows, split into Unassigned and Projects.
- Click a window to bring it into the current workspace (or into the node that opened Mission Control).
- Drag a window onto a project to assign it there.
- Drag a node onto another project to move it, with all its windows.
There’s a search box and a Refresh button. Esc closes.
The App node’s menu
Launch (or Retry if the launch failed), Attach open window…, Attach another window…, Show executable, Open fullscreen, Close application (closes the program, keeps the node) and Remove node.
While a program starts, the node shows a timer. If it doesn’t start, the node says so, with Retry and Copy for the details.
Things to know
- Some programs only allow one copy of themselves. If it’s already in another node, the node says it’s in use elsewhere, and a click brings it here.
- The program keeps its own resolution: zooming the canvas makes it bigger or smaller on screen, it doesn’t change what the program draws.
- Programs running as administrator can’t be controlled from a node: Warpstead runs as a normal user, and Windows doesn’t let it send input to them.
- When you exit Warpstead, the programs keep running, and they’re back in their nodes when you return.