UI: add option to remove title/tab bars, extra buttons, resize box

[eugenesvk]

(short) Description of the new feature/enhancement

Problem: Some users don't need/like a window title bar with min/max/close buttons and view these default UI elements as a minor design flaw/waste of screen real estate. Same for an empty tab bar with e.g. add-tab button. Likewise for the window resizing borders (these take to space, but needlessly change the mouse cursor)
Proposed solution: Please add an user configuration option to completely remove all of thse elements:
1-2) the title bar itself AND min/max/close buttons (currently I can only remove the title bar, but leave the buttons with the "showTabsInTitlebar": true
3) window resize borders (so that hovering over the window border would do nothing)
Ideal result: only tabs are visible above the terminal window, nothing extra (no title/tab bars)
User benefit: no unnecessary window elements are visible

(longer) Description

I'm never using the default Window controls as there are way more convenient ways to:

• resize: instead of trying to precision-target the little right window border to make the window wider I just WinRMB in the general right area of the window and then move my mouse left/right to change the window's width (thanks, AltDrag)
• move: Win+Mouse
• minimize/maximize: use mouse gestures, e.g. RMB↑ to maximize (thanks, StrokesPlus)
• close: any convenient keyboard shortcut, e.g. CtrlQ

As a result, I consider the default min/max/close buttons in the title bar as well as the title bar itself as well as the empty tab bar to be a waste of space. Also, moving a mouse pointer over the window borders changes its icon, which is not ideal as that's a useless signal to me

While I'm able to partially fix it with a script to remove the WS_Caption (0x00C00000) and WS_SizeBox (0x00040000) window properties (thanks, AutoHotkey), I thought that you could support such visual no title/tab bar/no borders modifications natively given the advanced features you plan for it

[zadjii-msft]

Thanks for the detailed write-up! It looks to me like you're looking for #2238, so I'll direct conversation to that thread instead.

/dup #2238

[ghost]

Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists on this Issue Tracker. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread. Thanks for your report!

[eugenesvk]

@zadjii-msft would you then please reopen this request as it's still currently not implemented despite the fact the both this and the supposedly duplicate request are closed: I'd still like to be able to have options to remove the useless window elements listed above:

• window resize box/border
• window title bar with the min/max/close buttons
• 'open a new tab' plus button
• 'open a new tab' drop-down button
• window tab bar (but NOT the tabs themselves)

Thanks!

[DHowett]

@eugenesvk it sounds like what you're asking for is just focus mode? we hide the tab bar (but you can still use tabs) and all those other things too. What specifically are you looking for that isn't focus mode?

[eugenesvk]

Not really, focus mode is actually worse vs what I can achieve on my own with the aforementioned Autohotkey tricks:

Focus mode:

• resize border is still there
• 😱 my tabs are gone! I don't need to remove the tabs themselves, they contain valuable information about my sessions!
• (title bar is also not removed properly, there is still a thick grey bar on top, although showTabsInTitlebar=true fixes this)

Autohotkey tricks:

1. title bar is completelyand cleanly gone (with showTabsInTitlebar=false) — there is no gap between tabs and window border
2. border is also completely and cleanly gone
3. single tab can be hidden with alwaysShowTabs

😢 however, the other elements are still there:

4. 'open a new tab' plus button (with multiple tabs shown)
5. 'open a new tab' drop-down button (with multiple tabs shown)
6. window tab bar (but NOT the tabs themselves, I need the tags, they're useful)

And that's what I ultimately want❗:

• (1,2,3 from the list above) what I can already achieve with AHK (BUT on launch instead of post-launch as it's a bit annoying)
• + (4, 5, 6) options to remove of the other three tab bar elements that I can't remove on my own even with AHK
• While retaining the tabs themselves!

[DHowett]

The resize border is a single pixel on each edge -- I'm not gonna compromise on its existence. Sorry. 😄

I'm still struggling to understand how you envision having tabs but no tab bar. Mind putting together a quick mock-up? They have to take up space, overlap the terminal (which is just going to be more annoying) or be completely invisible but accessible via keyboard shortcuts.

[eugenesvk]

The resize border is a single pixel on each edge -- I'm not gonna compromise on its existence. Sorry. 😄

But you don't need to compromise, you just need to add a very simple option to remove one of the window element/styles I mentioned in the original description (and that pixel will be gone as a bonus)! And no, it's not really about "a single pixel on each edge", as I mentioned in the original description the key issue is that this useless resize border affects mouse cursor when it's hovering over the borders:

Also, moving a mouse pointer over the window borders changes its icon, which is not ideal as that's a useless signal to me

— check out the mouse cursor in my screenshot below, it's not ←→ despite being on the window border (think it might be a pixel or two off), but of a regular form because I've removed the resize/border box with AHK)

I just don't get how a pro tool can be customized via a script in a better way rather than via a native config!

I'm still struggling to understand how you envision having tabs but no tab bar.

Like so — by removing all the area within the red boxes, so the first tab would start from the topmost-leftmost corner and to the right from the second tab there would be nothing, just the desktop/other windows
So I'd still have tabs (two tabs in this screenshot), but I'd have to tab bar (all the grey area within the red boxes) — or you could say that the width of the tab bar = the sum of the width of the tabs

upd: I might've included a bit extra in the right red box as it includes second tab's close button (in additon to the tab bar), and although I don't need the tab close buttons, there is already a separate feature request for that

overlap the terminal...

That's not what I'm looking for, I'm fine with tabs being on top of a terminal window and being there permanently except for when there is a single one (that's why I don't like the focus mode as it hides all the tabs), though a less annoying implementation of this alternative might be to show the overlapping tabs only during some actions (e.g. during tab switching or alt press or mouse movements or something else) — not sure how annoying this would be in practice given that I've never used terminal with such an interesting implementation of tabs