This weekend I built a small tool to solve a very real (and annoying) problem…
I’ve been working with 4 monitors for a while now. My setup includes an ultrawide monitor as primary when I work, but, when I want play videogames I preffer use a 24" monitor (when isn't a simrace game), so, here are two cases were I need change my screens layout.
Every time I move between those setups, I have to manually rearrange monitors in Windows.
Doing that repeatedly? Not fun 😅, some times I do that 3 times peer day 🫠.
🤔 Looking for a solution
I tried to find an existing tool to automate monitor layouts, but nothing quite matched what I needed.
So I decided to build a simple CLI:
👉 wsm — Windows Screen Manager
A lightweight tool to save and restore monitor configurations as profiles.
⚡ What it does
The idea is simple:
- Save your current monitor layout
- Store it as a profile (YAML or JSON)
- Restore it instantly with a command
wsm save work -- save current layout
wsm load game -- load saved layout
If you frequently change your screen layout, this can save you a lot of time.
wsm list
Saved profiles in ~/.wsm-profiles:
game — 4 monitor(s)
Display 1: GBT340A 3440x1440 @ 60Hz pos (-1515, -1440) primary: false
Display 2: BNQ78E7 1920x1080 @ 60Hz pos ( 0, 0) primary: true
Display 3: BNQ78E7 1920x1080 @ 60Hz pos (-1928, 0) primary: false
Display 5: ACI1643 1080x1920 @ 60Hz pos ( 1925, -916) primary: false
work — 4 monitor(s)
Display 1: GBT340A 3440x1440 @ 60Hz pos ( 0, 0) primary: true
Display 2: BNQ78E7 1080x1920 @ 60Hz pos ( 3440, -562) primary: false
Display 3: BNQ78E7 1920x1080 @ 60Hz pos (-1920, 350) primary: false
Display 5: ACI1643 1080x1920 @ 60Hz pos ( 4520, -552) primary: false
📦 How it works
Under the hood, the CLI:
- Reads all active monitors
- Captures:
- resolution
- refresh rate
- position in virtual desktop
- primary display
- orientation
- Stores everything in ~/.wsm-profiles
Example YAML:
profiles:
office:
monitors:
- device_name: '\\.\DISPLAY1'
friendly_name: 'Display 1: GS34WQCA'
position_x: 0
position_y: 0
width: 3440
height: 1440
refresh_rate: 144
bits_per_pel: 32
orientation: 0
is_primary: true
- device_name: '\\.\DISPLAY2'
friendly_name: 'Display 2: P2419H'
position_x: 3440
position_y: 180
width: 1920
height: 1080
refresh_rate: 60
bits_per_pel: 32
orientation: 0
is_primary: false
🧠 Atomic configuration changes
One important detail: applying layouts is done atomically.
Instead of changing monitors one by one (which can cause flickering or broken states), the tool:
- stages all changes using Windows APIs
- commits them in a single operation
This avoids intermediate invalid configurations.
Also:
- The primary display is always staged first
- Missing/disconnected monitors are handled gracefully
🧪 Built with AI
I built this using Claude, and had a working version in under an hour.
That said, it wasn’t just “generate and done”:
- There were bugs
- Edge cases around Windows APIs
- Iterations to get things stable
The AI helped a lot, but I still had to guide it and understand what was going on.
📈 Iterating on the idea
The first version was pretty basic:
- JSON files
- One file per configuration
Then I improved it:
- YAML as default (more readable)
- Profiles instead of separate files
- Still supports JSON if needed
🎛️ Stream Deck integration
Running commands is fine… but I wanted something faster.
So I built a plugin for the Elgato Stream Deck, this can run anny command on powershell or cmd.
Now I can switch my entire setup with a single button press.
🧠 A reminder about AI
I’ve been in software development for about 10 years.
Back then, the advice was:
“It’s fine to copy from Stack Overflow… but understand what you’re copying.”
That still applies today.
AI is powerful, but:
- It makes mistakes
- It hallucinates
- It doesn’t replace understanding
If something breaks, you still need to know how to fix it.
🚀 Try it out
If you’re on Windows and frequently change your monitor layout, this might be useful:
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