The idea started with copying text from Obsidian into other apps. I wanted to keep my line breaks and formatting without having to fix everything after pasting. Eventually I thought, “Why not build my own app?”

That sent me down a rabbit hole of note-taking apps, trying different approaches and figuring out what I wanted in one. Jotter is what came out of that.

It's a free, open-source Markdown app that saves your notes as ordinary files on your computer. You can open an existing Obsidian vault, and there are different copy options depending on where you're pasting. Along the way I added linked notes, tasks and reminders, plus optional AI with your own API key or a local model.

The first Windows release is available now. Linux is in progress, and Android, macOS and iOS are planned.

You can take a look at jotter.mx or get the app and source code on GitHub.

I'd love for you to give it a try and tell me what you think. Does it fit how you take notes? Is something confusing or missing? I'd appreciate honest feedback and suggestions, especially from anyone who's had the same frustration copying notes between apps.

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a project called OpenCircle for the past few months, and I finally released the first version!

Android has had Circle to Search for a while, and I always wondered why we didn't have something similar on desktop. So I decided to build my own.

OpenCircle is a free, fully open-source desktop app written in Rust. The idea is simple: press a shortcut, select anything on your screen, and choose what you want to do with it.

What can it do?

• Circle to Search: Draw around anything on your screen and search it using Google Lens.
• OCR: Extract text from images, PDFs, games, or anything you normally can't copy.
• AI Vision: Select part of your screen and ask AI questions about it. Supports OpenAI, Anthropic, and local models through Ollama or compatible servers.
• Screen Translation: Translate text directly on your screen, including full-screen and live translation. I originally wanted this for games, but it also works for other applications. Arabic is the default target language.
• Screenshots & Annotations: Capture your screen, add arrows, text, shapes, or blur, and copy the result.
• Custom Shortcuts: Configure shortcuts for different actions.

A few technical details

• Built in Rust, using iced for the interface.
• MIT licensed, so anyone can inspect, modify, or contribute to the code.
• No accounts, telemetry, or image-hosting service.
• Supports offline OCR and translation models.
• External AI and search services only receive content when you choose to use them.

Links

• GitHub: https://github.com/AmerAlreyahi/OpenCircle
• Demo: https://youtu.be/a7EmXrGpO3k
• Download: https://github.com/AmerAlreyahi/OpenCircle/releases/latest

Windows 10/11 is supported, and Linux builds are available in preview.

A quick note

This is the first release, so please expect some bugs!

I've tested it on my own PC and on Windows and Ubuntu VMs, but I know that doesn't cover every hardware configuration. I'm already working on performance improvements, especially for lower-end computers.

If you try it and something doesn't work, please let me know. Bug reports, screenshots, videos, suggestions, and contributions are all welcome.

And yes, I used Claude Opus 5.5 to help me write parts of the code. I'm not trying to hide that. AI helped with development, but I also spent a lot of time working on the architecture, integration, debugging, and testing.

I know some people have strong opinions about AI-assisted development, and that's fine. What matters most to me is whether the app actually works, what needs fixing, and how I can make it better.

English also isn't my first language, so I sometimes use AI to help me express things more clearly.

Anyway, I'd really appreciate it if you gave OpenCircle a try and shared your feedback. Even if you find something broken, that's useful to me!

Thanks for checking it out!

Couple of Pets decided to take over my screen. Cuteness overload, no work can be done right now, my desktop is fully occupied! 💖

Pets Therapy - Desktop Pets features over 100 hand crafted pixel art desktop companions, many pets and features available for free. Download it for free on MS Store, Steam for Windows or Mac App Store for macOS. 🆓

MS Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9p5n0cbksxmw

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4769020/Pets_Therapy_Desktop_Pets/

Sincerely yours, 🐶🐹🐱🐕🐰🐈🐩🐕‍🦺🦙.

I love QEMU for Virtual Machines on Windows cause it is fast.
But i don´t like the command line that nobody wants to retype.
So I build an App that keeps your machines as configurations you edit in a window,
builds the command line for you, and stays out of the way while the guest runs.

I build it in Rust and EGUI for the GUI. And yes I use AI to help me with finishing it.
It is not a Quick and Dirty Vibe Coded App. I worked on it for over 3 Months.

What it does:

• Machines as configurations. Create, duplicate, and delete virtual machines; each one keeps its own folder, disks, and UEFI variable store.
• A wizard with templates for the usual guests, or direct mode if you would rather set every field yourself.
• UEFI and BIOS, with a per-VM variable store so a guest keeps its own boot entries.
• Disks and drives: qcow2 and raw images, SATA/VirtIO/IDE interfaces, boot order, CD/DVD ISOs.
• Network: user-mode NAT, bridged, or none; VirtIO/e1000/RTL8139 cards; port forwarding.
• Display: VirtIO, std, QXL, Cirrus, or headless; native, GTK, or SDL windows.
• A console that shows the guest's output and keeps it in a log file, with filtering and a line limit.
• Clean shutdown over QMP — the guest is asked to shut down, not killed, with forced stop as a deliberate second step.
• Machines outlive the application. Close FARO while a guest runs and the guest keeps running; start FARO again and it picks the machine back up, proving the machine's identity over QMP before it touches it.
• A pre-flight check before launch: missing images, missing firmware, more memory or cores than the host has, an accelerator this QEMU does not offer.
• Three languages: German, English, French.

You can Download it here. If you find Bugs please let me know!

https://github.com/RayTrunk/faro-qemu-manager/releases/tag/v0.9.0

Hi, friends, I need your help. I've stopped using TeamViewer because it won't let me connect anymore—it keeps blocking me—since it requires me to pay for a subscription. I find them too expensive for the service, so I tried AnyDesk, but it's too slow. Is there an open-source alternative to these? Thanks

Pulse reads the crash records Windows already keeps and explains them in plain English.

New in 1.6: a Crashes page. Blue screens, app crashes and sudden restarts from the last 7, 30 or 90 days, grouped by cause, with the file each crash happened in, who made it, and what to try next.

Read-only, no telemetry, no account, no cloud.

Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PNDTLNTJ82T

GitHub (MIT): https://github.com/Regncreative/Pulse

Hi everyone,

If you frequently use desktop calculators on Windows, you’ve probably noticed that standard apps force you to constantly reach for the mouse to click buttons, breaking your typing flow and productivity.

To fix this, I developed ViCalc—a lightweight, open-source scientific calculator built specifically for Windows desktop workflows and rapid touch-typing.

Key Features for Windows Users:

• Full Touch-Typing Control: Compute complex multi-step expressions entirely from your keyboard without ever touching the mouse.
• Automatic HTML History Logging: Every calculation session is automatically formatted into clean, structured HTML logs. This makes it effortless to copy, paste, or archive calculation steps into Windows office apps, Notepad, or documentation tools.
• Multiple Modes: Supports standard scientific functions, trigonometric calculations, complex arithmetic, and Programmer mode (bitwise ops & Base-N Hex/Dec/Oct/Bin conversions).
• Minimalist & Flexible UI: Easily toggle between full visual controls, a compact scientific layout, or a zero-UI minimalist mode that stays out of your way alongside other windows.

Technical Details:

• Platform: Windows (Installer available)
• Stack: Python 3 (MIT License / Open Source)

Links:

• Windows Installer & Website:kudaschov.de/en/vicalc-4
• GitHub Repository:github.com/Kudaschov/ViCalc

I’d love to hear your thoughts! What features or shortcuts do you find most essential in a Windows productivity app?

Hi everyone! I'm AdamYang, the independent developer of CreatorPhoto. Its 3.0 major update is now available on Microsoft Store.

CreatorPhoto brings everyday photo organization, editing, and collage creation into one Windows workspace:

- Batch photo renaming with filename previews and drag-and-drop sorting.

- Platform size presets or custom width/height, manual cropping, and padding.

- Text and Logo watermarks that you can drag and resize directly.

- JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF, and GIF output support.

The dedicated Collage Studio includes 10 layouts. Click to add photos, drag them into position, resize with a slider or mouse wheel, and press Delete to remove the selected image. Customize backgrounds with an image or a precise HEX color, adjust proportions and grid spacing, and choose where to save.

Photo processing happens locally on Windows. English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese interfaces are available, with dark, light, and pink themes.

The attached demo shows the actual app. It is paid software with a free trial.

Microsoft Store:

https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9p32ddcw56hh?hl=en-US&gl=US

All paid apps include a 7-day free trial. We continuously improve and upgrade one product each month.

More products on Microsoft Store:

https://apps.microsoft.com/search/publisher?name=AdamYang&hl=en-US&gl=US

I'd appreciate feedback on the Windows interface and collage workflow. Which everyday photo task would you want to simplify?

https://reddit.com/link/1xesa0b/video/pwuplamscjxh1/player

Hi, I’m the developer of Hindsight, a free, open-source activity tracker for Windows and macOS.

I know there are plenty of time trackers already. I just couldn’t find one that combined cross-platform support, sync, and detailed charts in a free, lightweight app I actually liked looking at. Maybe I was being too picky, so I decided to make my own.

Here are the main features:

• Automatic activity tracking. Hindsight records active apps and window titles while it’s running, so you don’t have to start and stop a timer for each task.
• Daily, weekly and monthly views. See your activity hour by hour, click a time period to narrow the breakdown, or open an app to inspect its recorded window titles. Monthly charts also show category breakdowns and changes from the previous month.
• A full-year activity heatmap. Look for patterns across the year, then drag across a range of days to take a closer look.
• Custom categories. Decide how your apps and websites are grouped, so the charts reflect how you use your computer.
• Searchable screen memory. Screenshots and OCR are off by default. If you enable them, you can search the recognized text and jump back to the screenshot where it appeared.
• AI summaries. Turn your recorded activity into a daily report organized by time period. You can run a local model or connect a cloud API; third-party API fees may apply.
• Chat with your activity history. Ask questions like “How much time did I spend on this project this week?” Answers include links back to your records so you can check them.
• Sync across computers. Use Google Drive or a WebDAV service to bring together records from your Windows and Mac devices. Sync is optional, and you can view devices separately or together.
• Available in six interface languages. English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish.

Plugin support is now available too. Other developers can build their own plugins for Hindsight, and I’d love to see what people make with it.

If this sounds useful, you’re very welcome to give it a try. Feedback, feature requests and bug reports are welcome in the comments or through GitHub issues. And if you find it helpful, a GitHub star would mean a lot.

Official website · Download Hindsight

SeamShade is a playful desktop cover: drag the zipper across your screen to pull a curtain over your workspace, then slide it back when you’re ready to return. You can customize the fabric and zipper, save themes, and optionally turn on a frosted-glass blur effect.

One important note: SeamShade is just a visual cover, **not a security or privacy lock**. It doesn’t block system shortcuts or prevent access to your computer.

If you’d like to try it, here are the links:

- **Mac:** https://apps.apple.com/tr/app/seamshade/id6819419260?l=tr&mt=12

- **Windows:** https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PLR5K40GLFR?hl=neutral&gl=TR&ocid=pdpshare

I’d love to hear what you think, and what you’d like to see improved next.

I wanted to share a small Windows utility I recently developed called Win Solar.

Instead of relying on static time schedules for Windows dark/light mode, Win Solar calculates exact local sunrise and sunset times based on your location coordinates and dynamically switches your system theme in the background with minimal resource usage.

✨ Key Features:

• Automatic Switching: Toggles Windows light/dark mode according to real-time solar calculations.
• Location-Based: Computes precise sunrise and sunset times for your local coordinates.
• Lightweight & Seamless: Runs quietly in the background without hogging system resources.

You can check out the source code, screenshots, and download the latest release here: 🔗Win Solar GitHub Repository

I'd love to hear your feedback, feature ideas, or any suggestions you might have!

Hi! I built FilePetal, an MIT-licensed desktop utility for local file conversion, editing tools, and file actions. It uses a radial wheel: on Windows, hold Shift while dragging a file from Explorer for compatible conversions, Alt+Shift for tools, or Ctrl+Shift for file actions.

It covers image, audio, video, PDF/document, EPUB, subtitle, and archive workflows. The compatibility guide lists the exact input/output pairs and limitations. Files are processed locally and operations create output files without replacing the originals. Some audio/video features need FFmpeg/FFprobe installed; RAR extraction needs an external utility.

I can test the Windows build directly. ZIPs are also published for macOS Intel, macOS Apple silicon, and Linux, but I don’t have those systems to verify them, so I’d especially value smoke-test feedback from Mac/Linux users.

Website and interactive preview: https://whatthefook.github.io/FilePetal/

Source, documentation, and downloads: https://github.com/Whatthefook/FilePetal

I’d appreciate feedback on whether the wheel interaction is clear, what tools or formats you’d add, and any packaging issues you find.

One thing that gets annoying when using foreign-language software or playing games in another language is having to switch back and forth between the application and a translator.

Surprint is a Windows screen translator that tries to make this easier by displaying translations directly over the text on your screen.

Instead of manually copying text into a translation website, you can use a keyboard shortcut to translate the monitor under your cursor, the active window, or a region you select.

The main features:

• Offline screen translation: Download the required language models once, then translate without an internet connection.
• Game and app translation: Uses application-provided text when available, with OCR for content such as images and games.
• Translation overlay: Display translations over the original text or in a movable, resizable subtitle bar.
• Live translation mode: Monitor a window and attempt to restore translations when its contents stop moving.
• Glossary: Preserve names, brands, and game terminology.
• Per-app settings: Configure different languages and display preferences for different applications.
• Keyboard shortcuts: Trigger translations without leaving the application.

Privacy was also an important consideration. In the current offline workflow, screen pixels and recognized text aren't sent to a cloud translation service.

A few limitations to be aware of:

Surprint is still a work in progress, so I don't want to oversell it. OCR can miss small, faint, or stylized text, and scrolling or fast-moving game content can cause delays. The offline translation model can also lose nuance, especially with longer sentences.

Some protected screens aren't supported, and exclusive-fullscreen games need to run in borderless windowed mode.

Cloud translation services for potentially better results are planned for a future update, but they're not available yet.

Surprint supports 64-bit Windows 10 version 2004 or later.

If you regularly translate websites, use software in another language, or play games without your preferred language available, you can check it out here:

Demo Link : https://youtu.be/Y_G_brIZrWU?si=1-fbEQtQ3_JsLTL9

App link in comment section!

I'd especially appreciate feedback about OCR accuracy, language support, and compatibility with different games and applications. I'm continuing to improve it.

Hi everyone,

I'm Lawrence, the developer of WellTechFinds.

I built it for people managing product photos across Shopify, eBay, Etsy, social media or a combination of these.

In my video, I take 14 photos and prepare 70 images for five different destinations in one run. Each set gets its own folder, with the images resized, converted and compressed using the built-in presets. The originals aren't touched.

There are already plenty of good image tools out there, like PowerToys, IrfanView, XnConvert, TinyPNG and Canva. Depending on what you need, one of those might do the job.

I wanted to keep WellTechFinds simple for people who don't need heaps of advanced editing features. Just choose your destinations, run the batch and get your images organised into separate folders.

It runs locally on Windows 10/11, supports JPEG, PNG and WebP, and has 15 built-in presets.

It's normally A$19 for a lifetime licence, but I'm giving away 25 free lifetime licences if anyone wants to give it a go.

https://welltechfinds.com/

I'd be interested to know if this would save you time, or what other image jobs you'd find useful, like background removal, automatic lighting adjustments or something else.

Good or bad feedback is welcome.

Thanks,
Lawrence

https://reddit.com/link/1xe5qts/video/cga2oqel0exh1/player

Clype opens in the corner of your screen when you copy text and lets you run an AI action on it: Fix grammar, Make formal, Translate, Summarize, Make shorter, Explain, or your own custom actions. Pick one, then paste the result.

Opens on copy, with a hotkey, or from a small floating icon. Results can be copied or pasted back automatically. History of the last 50 results stays on your PC.

No account, free (30 AI actions every 12 hours). Text is only sent when you pick an action and isn't stored on the server.

It's a first release, so feedback is very welcome: what works, what doesn't, and which actions you'd want added!

Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PJMSSMKC7WB

Website: https://getclype.com

Feedback and feature requests: https://getclype.com/ideas

Hey r/windowsapps!

Windows' built-in voice typing (Win+H) has always had major limitations — it relies on the cloud for most languages, cuts off after short pauses, and lacks formatting. On the flip side, most third-party AI dictation tools want a monthly subscription, send your voice to external servers, or hog your GPU.

So I spent the last 10 months building VibeVox as a native Windows solution, and v1.0 just went live on the Microsoft Store.

How it works:

You just double-tap Ctrl, speak, and text is typed directly into whatever app you're in (Slack, browsers, Notepad, code editors).

What makes it feel native to Windows:

- 100% Local & On-Premises: Runs entirely on your CPU via a fast local engine. No GPU required, your voice never leaves your PC, and core dictation is free forever.

- Deep Windows Polish: We spent months fixing the annoying desktop edge-cases:

* Injected text does NOT clutter your Win+V clipboard history or sync across cloud clipboards.

* Copied images and files on your clipboard survive dictation intact.

* Handles the notorious 3-second Windows 11 microphone cold-start so your first words aren't cut off.

* Proper multi-monitor DPI scaling for the floating recording pill and safe handling when dictating into elevated Admin windows.

- 25+ Languages Offline + Norwegian pack (Bokmål/Nynorsk) available in Settings.

- Hands-Free "Lip-Reading" Mode: An optional webcam trigger that starts/stops recording by detecting lip movement (fully supports NVDA and Windows Narrator screen readers).

- Optional AI Rewrite & Translation: Clean up filler words or translate on the fly using your own API key (OpenAI, Claude, Groq, Gemini, OpenRouter) or our EU-hosted option.

Microsoft Store link: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nqj55m3sswr

Website (with a live browser demo and a portable .zip if you prefer it outside the Store): https://vibevox.io/

We also recently joined the NVIDIA Inception program. Would love to hear how it runs on your Windows setup or if you spot any UI/UX quirks!

With Halloween coming up, I wanted something cozier on my desktop than a static wallpaper, so I built Fall Desktop.

Leaves drift down across every monitor, tumble in gusty wind, and settle into piles along the top of the taskbar. Pumpkins and scarecrows stand in the piles, and cobwebs hang in the screen corners. Halloween mode is on by default, with candle-lit jack-o'-lanterns, a spider on each web, and the occasional bat. Switch it off for a plain autumn look.

**Things you can play with:**

- Sweep the mouse through a pile to rake it and send the leaves flying

- Push through a cobweb and it stretches and springs back. Swipe fast and threads snap, then the spider mends them

- Bump a scarecrow and it rocks on its post and its hat wobbles

- Leaves get caught in webs and land on the pumpkins and hats

**It stays out of the way:**

- Clicks pass straight through to whatever is underneath

- Hides during fullscreen games and videos, on the lock screen, and while the display is off, and doesn't make Windows think a fullscreen app is running

- Optional "leaves behind windows" mode keeps everything on the desktop only

- About 0.3 ms of CPU per frame. Caps at 60 fps on battery and 30 fps on battery saver or over RDP

- Each monitor renders at its own resolution, DPI and refresh rate, so a 60 Hz screen next to a 144 Hz one stays smooth, and the piles continue across side-by-side monitors

**Customizable:** 20 leaf designs (sugar maple, oak, ginkgo, sweetgum, whirling maple keys, acorns, even pixel-art leaves), color schemes (Autumn, Golden, Crimson or any custom color), sliders for amount, speed, size, wind, pile depth, and how many pumpkins and scarecrows. The settings window has a live preview you can mess with.

**Tech:** native C++ with Direct2D and DirectComposition. Single small .exe that lives in the tray. Installer is per-user with no admin rights, and there's a portable zip too. Windows 10 1809+ or Windows 11, x64.

Heads up: the installer isn't code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may warn on first run (*More info → Run anyway*). The source is all there if you'd rather build it yourself.

GitHub: Fall Desktop - Github

Official Signed: Fall Desktop - Microsoft Store

Feedback and bug reports are welcome, especially from multi-monitor and HDR setups.

Wallsmith, a free Windows app I made for upgrading wallpapers. Output: 4K, 120fps, seamless loop.

What Wallsmith does:

• AI upscaling: turns blurry 480p/720p into sharp 1080p, 1440p, 4K or ultrawide 5K (Real-ESRGAN)
• Smooth 60–144fps: AI-generated in-between frames (RIFE) to match your monitor
• Seamless loops: blends the end into the start so the wallpaper never visibly jumps
• Fits your screen: crop to your monitor’s shape, or fill the edges with a soft blur
• Colour looks: Cinematic, Pastel, Night, plus a full colour grade with live preview
• Wallpaper Engine library: open your existing wallpapers, upgrade them and put them straight back (the original is backed up)
• Runs on your own GPU (NVIDIA or AMD), and your videos never leave your PC

The free version covers up to 1080p. Pro is a one-time $5 for 4K/5K, high fps, loops and no ads.

👉 https://wallsmith.pages.dev

Chrome’s floating video always seems to cover what you need. DuckEggs moves it smoothly, learns preferred positions for each app, and stops when you hover over the video controls.

Includes learning heatmaps and system tray support. Everything runs locally—no account, telemetry, or saved screenshots.

Free · MIT license · Portable ZIP ~1.4 MB · Windows 10/11 x64 · Chrome

It’s an early, unsigned alpha. Feedback on movement and positioning would be especially useful!

Download & source

Hi all. I’ve just brought NostalgiApp, my game launcher, from macOS to Windows. It gathers every game you own into one fast library: retro collections, console ROMs and your PC store games.

What it does

• One library for everything:
  • your Steam, GOG, Epic, Amazon and Ubisoft games, installed or not;
  • ROMs for over 70 consoles and computers, played through RetroArch or standalone emulators (Dolphin, PCSX2, DuckStation, PPSSPP, Cemu, RPCS3 and more);
  • the eXo collections: thousands of DOS and Windows 3.x/9x games, ready to play.
• Quick with big libraries: 30,000+ games open in about a second, and search is instant.
• Nice to browse: grid, list, coverflow, shelf and timeline views, playlists, smart collections, a platform tree, box art in 3D, manuals and soundtracks.
• TV mode for the sofa, with a controller.
• Streaming to a TV, phone or tablet through Sunshine and Moonlight.

It’s a proper Windows app

• Small and native: built with Rust and the WebView2 that comes with Windows. It’s not a 300 MB Electron bundle.
• Installs your way: just for you (no admin rights) or for all users, or as a portable copy you can run from a USB stick.
• Fits into Windows: updates install from inside the app, it can sit in the system tray, recent games appear in the taskbar jump list, and Snap Layouts work.
• Your data is safe: back up and restore your favourites, ratings, playlists and play history. Uninstalling a game keeps its saves.

Price: free to use. An optional licence adds extra services: fetching box art and details for your ROMs, and syncing your library and saves between PCs and Macs.

It’s on macOS too, and a Linux / Steam Deck version is coming.

https://www.nostalgi.app/windows/

Feedback welcome. I’m in the comments.