⚡ Tiny Windows Productivity Utilities

A ultra-lightweight, high-performance suite of agent-proof, native Win32 C & GDI utilities designed for Windows power users and keyboard enthusiasts.

Note

All utilities are built strictly using Clang (clang-cl or MinGW clang) with zero external runtimes, zero background daemons, zero registry clutter (except optional Explorer context menus), and zero disk persistence. Every tool runs as an instant single-instance process that exits cleanly when toggled off.

🚀 Key Features & Principles

Zero Background Overhead: No background services or persistent tray daemons. Tools launch on demand (e.g. via AutoHotkey) and exit immediately upon completion or toggle-off.
Single-Instance IPC Toggle: Every interactive overlay tool uses named Win32 Mutex & Event primitives (Global\Tiny<Tool>Mutex / Event). Re-launching a running tool instantly toggles it off and exits cleanly.
Native Per-Monitor DPI Awareness: Automatically scales overlays, fonts, spotlights, and hitboxes dynamically across multi-monitor setups with mixed DPI scaling factors (100%, 150%, 200%).
Pure Win32 & GDI/DWM: Hardware-accelerated desktop window manager compositing without DirectX, Electron, or heavy web engines. Low memory footprint (< 10 MB per tool) and < 0.2% idle CPU.
Declarative Shared Micro-Headers: Built on modular C headers in src/common/ (tiny_cli.h, tiny_ipc.h, tiny_dpi.h, tiny_gui.h, font.h, clipboard.h, color-thief-algorithm.h).

🛠️ Included Utilities

Utility	Target Executable	Subsystem	Description & Key Functionality
Pin to Top	`pin-to-top.exe`	GUI	Toggles active window topmost status with wallpaper accent-colored border overlay & interactive window picker.
Find My Mouse	`find-my-mouse.exe`	GUI	High-visibility cursor locator with smooth pulse-in / pulse-out animation disc centered on mouse pointer.
Mouse Spotlight	`mouse-spotlight.exe`	GUI	Dims desktop for presentations, leaving a smooth anti-aliased spotlight hole on mouse pointer with dynamic sizing.
Color Picker	`color-picker.exe`	GUI	Floating color magnifier & tooltip displaying real-time `HEX`, `RGB`, `HSL`, and `CMYK` values with instant 1-key clipboard copy.
Screen Capture	`capture.exe`	GUI	Screenshot & doodle annotation suite with interactive mode picker (Snip, Window, Fullscreen), dynamic drawing canvas, and save dialog.
Pixel View	`pixel-view.exe`	GUI	Frameless image & animated GIF viewer featuring nearest-neighbor chunky pixel block rendering for retro graphics.
IP Send	`ip-send.exe`	GUI	ASCII TUI IP Messenger (`ipmsg`) payload composer with search, message wrapping, file drag-and-drop, and Explorer context menu integration.
Context Menu Manager	`context-menu.exe`	GUI / CLI	Cascading Explorer context menu registry utility with recursive submenus, XML backup/update GUI, and CLI support.
OCR Utility	`ocr.exe`	GUI / CLI	Portable zero-install OCR tool leveraging Tesseract engine with automatic language model downloading and clipboard/stdout output.
Window Switcher	`window-switcher.exe`	GUI	Keyboard-driven DWM live thumbnail window switcher with unique prefix/subsequence hint badges, UWP app resolution, search filter, and instant close buttons.
Command Manager (`cmdx`)	`cmdx.ps1`	CLI (PowerShell)	PowerShell command registry and shim generator creating dual `.cmd`/`.ps1` wrappers in dedicated `cmds/` folder registered in User PATH.

📖 Detailed Utility Breakdown & CLI Options

📌 Pin to Top (`pin-to-top.exe`)

Toggles the topmost state of windows and displays a clean border overlay.

CLI Options:

pin-to-top.exe [--border-width 1-20] [--max-windows 1-10] [--window-selection true|false]

Features: Interactive window selection picker mode on double click, dominant wallpaper accent color detection via MMCQ quantization, dynamic window tracking on move/resize, and auto-cleanup on window destruction.

🔍 Find My Mouse (`find-my-mouse.exe`)

Quickly locate your cursor across high-resolution or multi-monitor setups.

CLI Options:
```
find-my-mouse.exe
```
Features: Smooth 400ms quadratic ease-in pulse animation, full-screen background dimming, zero-hook keyboard/click auto-dismissal, and DPI-aware disc scaling.

💡 Mouse Spotlight (`mouse-spotlight.exe`)

Presentation overlay tool that dims the screen except for a customizable spotlight around the mouse.

CLI Options:

mouse-spotlight.exe [--size 20-1000] [--dim 0-100|0-255]

Controls:
- Ctrl + / Numpad +: Enlarge spotlight radius (+3px/frame).
- Ctrl - / Numpad -: Shrink spotlight radius (-3px/frame).
- Ctrl 0 / Numpad 0: Reset to default startup size.
- Esc or click: Dismiss overlay and exit.

🎨 Color Picker (`color-picker.exe`)

Floating screen color magnifier and multi-format tooltip card.

CLI Options:
```
color-picker.exe
```
Controls:
- 1: Copy HEX format (e.g. #023B32) to clipboard.
- 2: Copy RGB format (e.g. rgb(2, 59, 50)) to clipboard.
- 3: Copy HSL format (e.g. hsl(169, 94%, 10%)) to clipboard.
- 4: Copy CMYK format (e.g. cmyk(96%, 0%, 4%, 80%)) to clipboard.
- Left-Click: Copy configured default format and exit.
- Esc / Right-Click: Cancel without copying.

📸 Screen Capture (`capture.exe`)

Full-featured screen capture, region selection, and doodle annotation overlay.

CLI Options:

capture.exe [--snip | --window | --fullscreen] [--draw] [--toolbar] [--save <path>] [--format png|bmp] [--clipboard]

Features: Interactive mode selector menu (1 Snip, 2 Window, 3 Full Screen), zero-flicker state morphing, floating annotation toolbar with color/brush pickers, keyboard shortcuts (R, Y, B, G, K, W, 1-4, Z Undo, X Clear, S Save, Space Toggle Toolbar), and native Save File Dialog.

👾 Pixel View (`pixel-view.exe`)

Native frameless viewer for image files and animated GIFs designed for pixel art preservation.

CLI Options:

pixel-view.exe --file <image_path> [--pixel-size 1-8] [--bg pixelated|linear|solid|transparent]

Features: 100% nearest-neighbor point sampling (zero blurry filtering), WIC animated GIF playback engine, right-click context menu, Ctrl + O file picker, resizable border edge hit-testing.

✉️ Send via IP MSG (`ip-send.exe`)

Frameless dark/light ASCII TUI payload composer for IP Messenger (ipmsg).

CLI Options:

ip-send.exe [--file <path>] [--to <recipient>] [--msg <text>] [--context-menu register|unregister]

Features: Live user search (/), interactive keyboard shortcuts help (/), message edit mode (i), payload drag & drop (Ctrl+O / Paste), light/dark theme toggle (Ctrl+D), and Explorer context menu integration (Send via IP-send).

📁 Context Menu Manager (`context-menu.exe`)

Explorer context menu registry manager supporting unlimited nested submenus via XML configurations.

CLI Options:

context-menu.exe [--update <config.xml>] [--backup <backup.xml>]

Features: Native Windows choice dialog on double-click (Update / Backup), recursive XML schema support (<item> nested inside <item>), %1 file / %V folder placeholders, and isolated per-user registry management under HKCU\Software\Classes.

🔤 OCR Utility (`ocr.exe`)

Portable zero-install optical character recognition utility powered by Tesseract OCR engine.

CLI Options:

ocr.exe [<image_path>] [--lang eng|hin|tam|tel|auto] [--psm 6] [--oem 1]

Features: Native File Explorer picker when run without arguments, automatic lazy downloading of Tesseract binary and language models to local exe directory, standard UTF-8 stdout output, auto clipboard copy (CF_UNICODETEXT), and WIC pre-processing image upscaling.

🗂️ Window Switcher (`window-switcher.exe`)

High-performance, minimal, keyboard-driven native Win32/DWM live thumbnail window switcher.

CLI Options:

window-switcher.exe [--layout center|full] [--sort name|recent] [--background blur|tint] [--blur 1-100] [--tint-color #RRGGBBAA] [--delay <ms>]

Features: Real UWP application process resolution (ApplicationFrameHost.exe), shortest unique prefix/subsequence hint generation (Chrome $\rightarrow$ C, Code $\rightarrow$ CO), single-letter hint cycling, Alt+Tab hook handling with configurable auto-commit timer (default 300 ms), search query filtering, and interactive card close buttons (✕ graceful close, Shift + ✕ force terminate).

⚙️ Command Manager (`cmdx`)

PowerShell global command dispatcher and dual-shim generator.

Commands:

pwsh -File .\src\cmdx.ps1 setup    # Registers cmds/ in User PATH & generates .cmd / .ps1 shims
pwsh -File .\src\cmdx.ps1 clean    # Removes shims & unregisters PATH
pwsh -File .\src\cmdx.ps1 help     # Displays manual & registered alias mappings

Features: Dynamic regex alias matching, automatic User PATH registration (HKCU\Environment), WM_SETTINGCHANGE broadcast, and in-session environment variable refreshing.

🏗️ Building from Source

Prerequisites

Compiler: Clang (clang-cl from MSVC Build Tools or LLVM / MinGW clang). GCC is NOT supported.
Shell: PowerShell (pwsh or PowerShell.exe).
Libraries: Native Win32 system libraries (user32, gdi32, dwmapi, shell32, comdlg32, ole32, windowscodecs, urlmon, shlwapi).

Build Script Usage

Build targets output optimized binaries to dist/release/ (or debug symbols to dist/debug/ when specified).

# Build all utilities (Release mode)
pwsh -File .\build.ps1 all

# Build specific target (e.g. window-switcher, pin-to-top, capture)
pwsh -File .\build.ps1 window-switcher
pwsh -File .\build.ps1 pin-to-top
pwsh -File .\build.ps1 capture

# Build in Debug mode (PDB / DWARF symbols)
pwsh -File .\build.ps1 -Mode debug all

Target Aliases

The build script supports convenient target aliases:

pin-to-top $\rightarrow$ pin
find-my-mouse $\rightarrow$ cursor
mouse-spotlight $\rightarrow$ spotlight
color-picker $\rightarrow$ color
capture $\rightarrow$ snip
pixel-view $\rightarrow$ pixelview
ip-send $\rightarrow$ ip
context-menu $\rightarrow$ contextmenu
window-switcher $\rightarrow$ switcher

⌨️ AutoHotkey Integration Example

You can bind hotkeys in AutoHotkey (.ahk) to trigger these tools instantly:

#Requires AutoHotkey v2.0

; Win + Ctrl + T -> Pin / Unpin Active Window
#^t::Run("dist\release\pin-to-top.exe --border-width 3")

; Win + Ctrl + C -> Find My Mouse Pointer
#^c::Run("dist\release\find-my-mouse.exe")

; Win + Ctrl + S -> Mouse Spotlight for Presentations
#^s::Run("dist\release\mouse-spotlight.exe --size 150 --dim 65")

; Win + Alt + C -> Color Picker
#!c::Run("dist\release\color-picker.exe")

; Win + Shift + S -> Screen Capture Mode Picker
#+s::Run("dist\release\capture.exe --draw --toolbar")

; Alt + Tab Replacement -> Window Switcher
!Tab::Run("dist\release\window-switcher.exe --delay 300")

📂 Repository Structure

tiny-windows-utilites/
├── build.ps1                # Centralized Clang build pipeline & target configurations
├── AGENTS.md                # Agent guide & developer coding rules
├── README.md                # Project documentation & overview
├── docs/                    # Architectural specs, PRD, and per-tool documentation
│   ├── PRD.md               # Authoritative behavior specification
│   ├── CHECKLIST.md         # Implementation status & verification log
│   ├── JOURNEY.md           # Engineering journey, decisions & trade-offs
│   ├── capture.md           # Screen capture utility design
│   ├── color-picker.md      # Color picker design
│   ├── context-menu.md      # Context menu utility design
│   ├── find-my-mouse.md     # Find my mouse utility design
│   ├── ip-send.md           # IP Send utility design
│   ├── mouse-spotlight.md   # Mouse spotlight design
│   ├── ocr.md               # OCR utility design
│   ├── pin-to-top.md        # Pin to top utility design
│   ├── pixel-view.md        # Pixel view utility design
│   ├── window-switcher.md   # Window switcher design
│   └── cmdx.md              # CMDX command registry design
└── src/                     # Native Win32 C & PowerShell source code
    ├── capture.c
    ├── cmdx.ps1
    ├── color-picker.c
    ├── context-menu.c
    ├── find-my-mouse.c
    ├── ip-send.c
    ├── mouse-spotlight.c
    ├── ocr.c
    ├── pin-to-top.c
    ├── pixel-view.c
    ├── window-switcher.c
    └── common/              # Shared C micro-headers
        ├── clipboard.h      # Win32 Unicode & bitmap clipboard helpers
        ├── color-thief-algorithm.h # Desktop wallpaper accent color extractor
        ├── font.h           # Centralized typography & physical DPI scaling
        ├── tiny_cli.h       # Zero-heap declarative CLI argument tokenizer
        ├── tiny_dpi.h       # Per-Monitor v2 DPI awareness initializer
        ├── tiny_gui.h       # Win32 GDI overlay & geometry helpers
        └── tiny_ipc.h       # Single-instance mutex & event IPC contract

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License.

Navigation Menu

Repository files navigation

⚡ Tiny Windows Productivity Utilities

🚀 Key Features & Principles

🛠️ Included Utilities

📖 Detailed Utility Breakdown & CLI Options

📌 Pin to Top (`pin-to-top.exe`)

🔍 Find My Mouse (`find-my-mouse.exe`)

💡 Mouse Spotlight (`mouse-spotlight.exe`)

🎨 Color Picker (`color-picker.exe`)

📸 Screen Capture (`capture.exe`)

👾 Pixel View (`pixel-view.exe`)

✉️ Send via IP MSG (`ip-send.exe`)

📁 Context Menu Manager (`context-menu.exe`)

🔤 OCR Utility (`ocr.exe`)

🗂️ Window Switcher (`window-switcher.exe`)

⚙️ Command Manager (`cmdx`)

🏗️ Building from Source

Prerequisites

Build Script Usage

Target Aliases

⌨️ AutoHotkey Integration Example

📂 Repository Structure

📄 License

About

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Packages

Contributors

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Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
docs		docs
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
build.ps1		build.ps1

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⚡ Tiny Windows Productivity Utilities

🚀 Key Features & Principles

🛠️ Included Utilities

📖 Detailed Utility Breakdown & CLI Options

📌 Pin to Top (pin-to-top.exe)

🔍 Find My Mouse (find-my-mouse.exe)

💡 Mouse Spotlight (mouse-spotlight.exe)

🎨 Color Picker (color-picker.exe)

📸 Screen Capture (capture.exe)

👾 Pixel View (pixel-view.exe)

✉️ Send via IP MSG (ip-send.exe)

📁 Context Menu Manager (context-menu.exe)

🔤 OCR Utility (ocr.exe)

🗂️ Window Switcher (window-switcher.exe)

⚙️ Command Manager (cmdx)

🏗️ Building from Source

Prerequisites

Build Script Usage

Target Aliases

⌨️ AutoHotkey Integration Example

📂 Repository Structure

📄 License

About

Resources

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

Packages

Contributors

Languages

📌 Pin to Top (`pin-to-top.exe`)

🔍 Find My Mouse (`find-my-mouse.exe`)

💡 Mouse Spotlight (`mouse-spotlight.exe`)

🎨 Color Picker (`color-picker.exe`)

📸 Screen Capture (`capture.exe`)

👾 Pixel View (`pixel-view.exe`)

✉️ Send via IP MSG (`ip-send.exe`)

📁 Context Menu Manager (`context-menu.exe`)

🔤 OCR Utility (`ocr.exe`)

🗂️ Window Switcher (`window-switcher.exe`)

⚙️ Command Manager (`cmdx`)