V-Notch

A desktop status and media companion for Windows

Download · Usage · Installation · Changelog · Privacy · Website

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V-Notch adds media controls, synced lyrics, ambient white noise, clipboard history, live translation, system stats, privacy indicators, and a Spotlight launcher to the top of your screen. Use it as a compact pill or expand it into a floating Dynamic Island. It works with MyDockFinder.

Free and open source forever.

V-Notch is an independent project.
If you use it regularly, you can support development via PayPal.

Dynamic Island mode A floating pill with spring animations and Liquid Glass refraction.	Media controls Control playback and volume, view album art, and seek through the current track.
Spotify & synced lyrics Follow synced lyrics over changing color gradients or Canvas backgrounds.	Volume & audio mixer Adjust each app’s volume or use the master slider, styled to match the album art.
File shelf Drop files onto the notch, then drag them into another app when you need them.	Gestures Swipe left or right to change tracks. Scroll to switch views, or swipe down to open the shelf.
Clipboard notification See a notification and preview when you copy text or images.
Liquid Glass optics Glass rendered with DirectX 11, including chromatic aberration and refraction at the edges.	Stay behind windows Keep the notch on the desktop layer, below maximized apps.
Spotlight search Press Alt+Space to find apps and files or calculate an expression.	Settings Adjust the notch’s appearance and behavior in Settings.

Usage

Action	Result
Hover	Expand the notch
Click	Toggle pill / expanded view
Middle click	Play / pause media
Scroll down	Switch to file shelf
Scroll up	Switch back to media controls
Swipe left / right	Previous / next track
Swipe down	Open file shelf
Alt + Space	Open or close Spotlight
Up / Down in Spotlight	Move through results
Tab in Spotlight	Switch between Search and AI
Enter	Launch selected item or send an AI message
Esc	Stop an AI response, leave AI mode, or close Search

File shelf actions

Action	Result
Drag onto notch	Stage files
Lasso drag	Select multiple staged files
Ctrl + Click	Toggle selection
Drag out	Move to any target
Delete	Remove selected files

Spotlight AI

In Settings → Spotlight, choose a default opening mode (Search or AI). Press Alt + Space to open Spotlight and Tab to switch modes. Opening AI mode does not send a request; sending a message transmits it and recent conversation context directly to the selected provider. API keys are encrypted in local settings with Windows DPAPI and excluded from settings exports. AI conversations are also encrypted locally; see the Privacy Policy for storage, recipients, and deletion details.

Installation

V-Notch runs on 64-bit Windows 10 build 19041 or later, or Windows 11. It requires .NET 8 Desktop Runtime or .NET 10 Desktop Runtime. The self-contained installer includes the runtime. A dedicated GPU is recommended for Liquid Glass at 60-120 FPS.

1. Download V-Notch-Setup.exe from Releases. Use V-Notch-Setup-SelfContained.exe to skip the .NET install.
2. Run the installer.
3. Launch V-Notch from the Start Menu or desktop shortcut.
4. Optionally enable "Start with Windows" in Settings.

Build with GitHub Actions

The Release Installer workflow runs automatically via workflow_run after CI succeeds on main (or master and v* release branches). For main pushes, it publishes a beta release tag v<version>-beta.<run>.<attempt> containing both V-Notch-Setup.exe (framework-dependent) and V-Notch-Setup-SelfContained.exe (self-contained), plus .sha256, .manifest.json, .sig, and checksums.txt.

Liquid Glass GPU pipeline and validation

GPU mode uses DXGI Desktop Duplication with Windows.Graphics.Capture fallback, D3D11 Dual-Kawase blur, and the existing refraction/RGB dispersion shader compiled for D3D11. Blur works in linear light with FP16 intermediate textures, blends between pyramid levels, then resolves to BGRA with stable sub-LSB dither. Working textures grow to a bounded peak capacity and are reused across view transitions; samplers clamp to the active rectangle so smaller views cannot read stale pixels from unused capacity. Only the blur levels in use are allocated. Capture and processing keep desktop pixels in GPU textures. Two shared D3D9Ex textures feed one persistent WPF D3DImage back buffer through GPU copies; D3D11 completion queries and D3D9 consumer fences prevent reuse before either device finishes. Hardware presentation needs no WriteableBitmap, desktop readback, or CPU blur. WPF software fallback remains enabled for explicit snapshots and software composition. The legacy CPU capture/render path remains available as a fallback.

The renderer selects the window's monitor adapter. If a hybrid GPU preference redirects D3D9 to a discrete GPU that cannot duplicate the display, Windows.Graphics.Capture supplies textures on that device instead. WGC requests borderless-capture access once per process and sets IsBorderRequired(false) before starting capture on supported Windows versions. Windows policy or denied consent can still require the border. Target FPS caps capture attempts even during interaction wake-ups and updates WGC's MinUpdateInterval live when supported. Actual submissions depend on GPU load and WPF/DWM composition; static scenes can reuse a cached frame. Logs distinguish the target, worker loops, captured frames, and WPF submissions. Capture exclusion is required to prevent recursive feedback, so the glass window is excluded from screenshots/recordings while GPU mode is active, including while screenshot hotkeys are pressed. Sampling outside the selected monitor extends its edge pixels. Desktop switches and duplication access loss discard the cached desktop and retry capture; device/adapter failures and a five-second wait without a usable capture use the existing fallback and retry flow. Diagnostic logs identify DXGI or WGC, the last capture HRESULT, and borderless-access status.

Build with the Visual Studio x64 C++ tools installed. The native build embeds both HLSL sources automatically. Run powershell -NoProfile -File scripts/Test-GlassGpu.ps1 for synthetic hardware checks of blur, refraction, alpha, dispersion, shared textures, and capture timeout. Add -LiveCapture to smoke-test Desktop Duplication or -WindowsGraphicsCapture to exercise WGC without reading desktop pixels back. dotnet run --project Tools/GlassGpuProbe/WpfProbe.csproj -c Release validates the WPF bridge across three start/stop sessions using a hidden window; add -- --main to check the production MainWindow's glass material with isolated settings and startup suppressed. Frame cost depends on resolution, blur radius, GPU and driver; no fixed frame-time claim is made.

Privacy

V-Notch does not collect telemetry or analytics, or track you. Network requests, local storage paths, third-party media notices, API key handling, and recording detection details are documented in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Privacy Policy · Tiếng Việt · Terms of Service · Tiếng Việt · Third-Party Notices

Star history

Thank you to everyone who has supported V-Notch since the early releases. Your feedback and GitHub stars help keep the project going.

Other projects by w0otdev

If you like V-Notch, check out other free and open-source Windows utilities by w0otdev:

• Vertex: Minimalist radial wheel file converter for Windows (built with Rust).
• Scroll-V: Smooth scrolling utility for Windows applications (built with C#).

License

V-Notch uses the Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

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