DESCRIPTION I often use the meta + left-click functionality to drag windows around (very convenient as you can click anywhere on the window). But if I do that with windows that are unfocused they do stay unfocused even while I drag them around. This can result in the moving window being obscured by the active window. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Open two apps/windows (e.g. dolphin, firefox) 2. Click into one of them (e.g. firefox) to make sure it is focused 3. Press the meta key, left click the unfocused window (e.g. dolphin) and drag it around. OBSERVED RESULT The window being dragged is unfocused (assumption made based on the theming and behavior) causing it to stay behind the currently focused one. Window needs to be explicitly left-clicked before or after dragging for it to gain focus. EXPECTED RESULT The meta + left-click drag feature should behave the same way as left-clicking the title bar (as in it should give the window focus and keep it in the front). SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Operating System: CachyOS Linux KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.90 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.26.0 Qt Version: 6.11.1 Kernel Version: 7.0.9-1-cachyos (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core Processor Memory: 64 GiB of RAM (62.4 GiB usable) Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ADDITIONAL INFORMATION This issue occurs in both 6.6.5 and 6.6.90 (6.7.0 beta 1). This is my first bug report and I wasn't sure which component is responsible for this.
This is configurable; you can change "move" to "Activate, raise and move" to mostly match what a left-click-and-drag on an inactive window does. As such, it would appear as though this is intentional, though I agree it might not be ideal. This code should be fairly easy to change, though. Would you be interested in submitting a merge request to do so? At least one of the thing you;d need to change is here: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/blob/master/src/kcms/options/kwinoptions_settings.kcfg?ref_type=heads#L300. There may be others too; search for "ActivateRaiseAndMove". Good luck!
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #1) > This is configurable; you can change "move" to "Activate, raise and move" to > mostly match what a left-click-and-drag on an inactive window does. > > As such, it would appear as though this is intentional, though I agree it > might not be ideal. > > This code should be fairly easy to change, though. Would you be interested > in submitting a merge request to do so? At least one of the thing you;d need > to change is here: > https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/blob/master/src/kcms/options/ > kwinoptions_settings.kcfg?ref_type=heads#L300. There may be others too; > search for "ActivateRaiseAndMove". > > Good luck! Thank you for the help! With your input I looked again and found that those options are indeed exposed in the system settings under Window Behavior (guess I wasn't looking good enough the first time around). The option Activate, raise and move does just what I wanted. Curious why this is not the default. Perhaps there is a reason I don't see. Should I resolve this as not a bug or should I keep it open (for potential discussions about the default setting)?
It's not a bug, but rather an opportunity for a better default UX. I'll rephrase the title to indicate that this is a proposal to change the default setting.
A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/9390
Git commit 8a5a9290a9cae2eb3f914d4199838bb4e2019d30 by Vlad Zahorodnii. Committed on 17/06/2026 at 06:29. Pushed by vladz into branch 'master'. Change default Meta+LMB action to "activate, raise, and move" This prevents the moved window getting obstructed by another window. M +1 -1 src/kcms/options/kwinoptions_settings.kcfg M +1 -1 src/kwin.kcfg M +1 -1 src/options.cpp https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/commit/8a5a9290a9cae2eb3f914d4199838bb4e2019d30
Git commit 288dd8c2b3043b8277536816fef7c2605cf7ab4f by Vlad Zahorodnii. Committed on 17/06/2026 at 06:29. Pushed by vladz into branch 'master'. Change default Meta+RMB action to "activate, raise, and resize" This prevents the resized window from getting obstructed by another window. M +1 -1 src/kcms/options/kwinoptions_settings.kcfg M +1 -1 src/kwin.kcfg M +1 -1 src/options.cpp https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/commit/288dd8c2b3043b8277536816fef7c2605cf7ab4f
Git commit 6dd60edde63800d743e6a101d61b53e600f34d2e by Vlad Zahorodnii. Committed on 17/06/2026 at 06:29. Pushed by vladz into branch 'master'. Add "activate, raise and resize" action M +15 -0 src/kcms/options/actions.ui M +3 -0 src/kcms/options/kwinoptions_settings.kcfg M +3 -0 src/options.cpp M +2 -0 src/options.h M +8 -0 src/window.cpp https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/commit/6dd60edde63800d743e6a101d61b53e600f34d2e