IdeaSift

People lose their workspace when apps restart or tabs change

Developers and power users lose their place when apps restart, workspaces change, or a tab closes: windows return to the wrong desktop, navigation history disappears, or focus moves to an unexpected tab. They often have to drag windows back, hunt through tabs, or rely on incomplete app-specific workarounds. The problem spans operating-system layouts and app-level state, so a useful product would need targeted integrations rather than one universal restore mechanism.

For developers and power users who work across many windows and tabs. Mentioned from May 2020 to Sep 2026 on Bluesky, product forums, GitHub, Hacker News and Stack Exchange.

28 different people described this problem in 18 separate discussions.

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1 mention in the last 12 weeks
Indie fit
4.0/10
Pain
5.2/10
Frequency
10.0/10
Willingness to pay
0.0/10
Momentum
4.7/10
Who pays
Professionals
Competition
Medium
Build difficulty
High

What people said

Quoted word for word. Follow a link to read the whole discussion.

  1. Dealing with this daily — manually dragging windows back to their Spaces after every restart is really frustrating
    tnayuki on GitHub (microsoft/vscode)Apr 2026Has a workaround
  2. My company has now reinstated auto shutdown every night so every morning it means placing all my open vs code projects back into their proper desktops
Build brief

See what to build and who will buy it

  • 2 product ideas with the smallest useful version and pricing
  • 5 places to find your first customers
  • 26 more quotes from people who have this problem
  • Current workarounds, existing solutions and risks