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Window Manager Helper Programs

These are applications you can use to make your Window Manager experience better - application launchers, pagers, menu systems, screen savers, screen lockers, and stranger things. I will for the most part list only applications that work well in multiple WMs (ie. a pager meant specifically for KDE won't be listed). See also the list of X terminals.

adesklets - 'is an interactive Imlib2 console for the X Window System. It provides to scripted languages a clean and simple way to write great looking, mildly interactive desktop integrated graphic applets (aka "desklets").'
AWN - Avant Window Navigator "is a dock-like bar which sits at the bottom of the screen (in all its composited-goodness) tracking open windows." Similar to the Mac OSX Dock.
Backstep - "draws icons for minimized windows on your desktop"
BarPanel - "a powerful desktop panel that enables you to have all you want just one-click-far. It is extensible through plugins and is fully themeable."
bbrb - Blackbox background manager
bbrun - a Blackbox application launcher
Conky - "a light-weight system monitor."

dmenu - you'll need something like this in your fluxbox keys file (or equivalent):

Mod4 P :ExecCommand $(ls -lL `echo $PATH | tr : ' '` 2>/dev/null | awk 'NF>2 &&  $1 ~ /^[^d].*x/ {print $NF}' | sort -u | dmenu -fn 10x20 -nb black -nf white )

- a type-until-you-match application launcher, and my personal favourite.

dzen - "Dzen is a general purpose messaging, notification and menuing program for X11. It was desigend to be scriptable in any language and integrate well with window managers like dwm, wmii and xmonad though it will work with any windowmanager." It is generally displayed as a very narrow strip at the top or bottom of the screen with system or menu information. It works well.
edx - sounds really good, but I can't read the Italian website (manages your .xinitrc and WMs)
Fluxspace - "blends Fluxbox's window management with new desktop management capabilities. It leverages existing components and the power of Python to help build a flexible desktop environment around Fluxbox and other lightweight window managers."
Foopanel - desktop panel written and modifiable in Python - development has ceased, continued by BarPanel.
fbpanel - "fbpanel is a lightweight, NETWM compliant desktop panel"
fspanel - desktop panel - development has ceased, but it had a major effect: ltpanel and hpanel are directly based on it, and taskbar was heavily influenced by it
FvwmPartition - it's FVWM-specific, but it's interesting ... partition the screen
Genmenu - menu generator for several WMs
GKrellM - stack of system monitor boxes.
gmrun - a Gnome application launcher
GOULD - "GTK+ Objects Ultra Light Desktop." Not a WM, provides a set of apps.
Hotwire - Hotwire is "[a]n intelligent hybrid text/graphical shell for developers and system administrators."
hpanel - lists windows, lets you change workspaces, requires NETWM, based on fspanel
iDesk - icons on the desktop for minimalist WMs.
IPager - Pager developed for Fluxbox, but works with (some) other WMs.
KoolDock - a Mac OSX-like Dock for KDE. Since it's recommended by the OpenBox people, I assume it works with other WMs.
ltpanel - panel and tasklist, low memory usage, based on fspanel
LXDE - LX Desktop Environment. Includes LXPanel, originally based on fbpanel.
menushki - menu editor for several WMs
oboinus - X background image previewer and setter. Requires feh (image viewer).
OBPager - "OBPager is a lightweight pager designed to be used with NetWM-compliant window managers like OpenBox"
OSD Monitors - "... transparently display various textual monitors on a fixed position of the screen."
ppager - a pager for GNOME-compliant WMs
PyPanel - panel/taskbar
PyTyle - Adds tiling to EWMH-compliant WMs
qcon - make any terminal emulator a Quake-style console. (Points to freshmeat because the website was broken.)
Qingy - DirectFB graphical replacement for getty that runs on text terminals. I love this, but it can be a bit of a challenge to get started with. Odd monitor setups will cause problems.
root-tail - displays log files in different colours on your root window.
screenpager - "a screenwise pager for X workstations running Xinerama. It works like a desktop pager, but acts at the level of screens."
selectwm - allows you to choose your WM when you start X
Skippy - full screen task switcher reminiscent of Apple's Exposé. Requires NETWM or GNOME WM compliance. Available in two versions: skippy (memory usage: 248 636 1956) and skippy-xd (which uses XComposite and XDamage to update the window images live).
SLiM - "SLiM is a Desktop-independent graphical login manager for X11, derived from Login.app. It aims to be light and simple, although completely configurable through themes and an option file; is suitable for machines on which remote login functionalities are not needed."
Stalonetray - stand-alone freedesktop.org and KDE system tray/notification area.
Synergy2 - "Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s)."
tabble - tabbed application launcher.
taskbar - panel that shows open windows and other information
Tilda - a pull down terminal in the likeness of Quake, Doom, and Halflife.
Tint2 - taskbar/systray meant for Openbox, works with other WMs as well
TkPanel - panel written in Tcl/Tk that looks quite CDE-like
Torsmo - a system monitor on your desktop
VNC - "vnc is a program that allows one to remotely view and interact with real X displays." "Virtual Network Computing" was originally written at AT&T Labs in Britain? Since then it's fragmented terribly, and there are a dozens of clients and servers. I think I used "TightVNC" last time, but I would look into the encrypted ones now, or ensure Tight could be encrypted easily. The link is to a Freshmeat search.
wbar - "is a quick launch bar. It's developed with speed in mind and is highly tweakable."
whaw - "window manager independent window layout tool," brings window tiling to non-tiling WMs.
Wmconfig - menu generator for several WMs
wmcontrol - allows command line control of windows in EWMH/NetWM compatible WMs. A better man page.
wmtheme - manages themes for several WMs and XMMS
Workrave - reminds you to take RSI-preventitive breaks
wumwum - "A window manager manager," which uses ewmh and wmctrl to make a standard WM such as fluxbox or e17 behave like a tiling WM.
x2vnc - allows one keyboard to control not only its own computer, but any other computer that can run VNC. I used it for years to control both a Linux and a Windows box, with the mouse sliding off one screen onto the other. "Synergy" seems to be considered the better solution these days.
x2x - "x2x allows the keyboard, mouse on one X display to be used to control another X display. It also shares X clipboards between the displays." I used this extensively for years, but synergy (above) is probably preferable now.
xclose - list or close all windows matching a particular pattern
Xephyr - Xnest replacement with extensions.
xlayout - control window and mouse positioning from the console
xlockmore - screen locker and screen saver
Xpra - 'Xpra gives you "persistent remote applications" for X. That is, unlike normal X applications, applications run with xpra are "persistent" -- you can run them remotely, and they don't die if your connection does.'
xrun - an X application launcher
XScreenSaver - do I need to tell you?
XStickWin - move or resize the focused window from the command line
xwrits - great little app I've used for years to remind me to take wrist breaks to prevent carpal tunnel. (Memory usage: 504 1244 3244)