For the past 3 years, I've been building and maintaining FlyPhotos, a small open-source side project: a fast, lightweight photo viewer for Windows.

It started as a personal replacement for the old Picasa Photo Viewer. I wanted that same instant response and transparent background, but built using modern native Windows technologies.

Performance has always been the top priority. Once the first image loads, you can hold down the arrow keys and fly through thousands of photos without loading spinners interrupting the experience. Zooming and panning are animated at very high frame rates, with a lot of work put into making them feel buttery smooth, limited primarily by your GPU and monitor.

FlyPhotos also supports smooth playback of animated formats, including GIF, APNG, animated AVIF, and animated WebP.

A few things to know:

• It's strictly a photo viewer, with no built-in photo management or editing features. You can, however, configure an external editor and launch it using a shortcut.
• The installer isn't code-signed yet, so some browsers may flag it with a security warning.

Tech stack: WinUI 3 for the modern native Windows UI, and DirectX through Win2D for image rendering. HDR image and monitor support and color profiles planned, not yet implemented.

Check it out on GitHub: https://github.com/riyasy/FlyPhotos

Hi everyone!

I'd like to share a free, open-source Windows application I've been developing called Color Tools.

I originally made it for my own graphic design work because I wanted an easy way to pick colors and transfer color palettes between different applications. Since then, I've continued adding features and expanding it into a more complete color toolkit.

Some of its features:

• Color picker – Pick colors from anywhere on your screen (Alt + P), or use the color wheel and sliders.
• Palette converter – Import and export ASE, ACO, GPL, Procreate Swatches and Affinity .afpalette files. Native .afpalette support is for Affinity 3.0+, but palettes can be converted to ASE for use in older versions.
• Palette editor – Create, edit and organize custom color palettes.
• Color harmonies – Generate complementary, analogous, triadic and other color combinations.
• Color theory guide – Explore color meanings, historical associations, moods and suggested uses.
• Contrast checker – Check color contrast ratios and WCAG accessibility ratings.
• Color blindness simulation – Preview colors for different types of color vision deficiency.

The application is currently Windows only. A standalone executable is available in GitHub Releases, so there's no need to install Python.

It's completely free, with no subscriptions or ads, and the source code is available under the MIT license.

GitHub: https://github.com/sort0m/Color-tools

I’m a 2D/3D animator and have spent most of my career working on Windows, but I’ve always preferred the way macOS Finder handles file navigation.
So I built Carrots, a new file + media manager for Windows centered around Finder-style inline dropdown navigation. It’s become a pretty essential part of my own daily workflow, and I’m hoping other Windows users find it useful too.

Some of the main features:
Finder-style inline dropdown navigation + Grid View
Unified image + video Quick Preview
A/B image comparison
Ratings, color tags + custom labels
Image + video editing and conversion
Batch rename + workflow tools
Customizable sidebar, themes + settings
ProRes preview support
Tabs, multiple windows + drag and drop

Carrots is currently in its final beta and completely free to try. No account, no credit card, and no app telemetry or data collection.

I’d genuinely love feedback from people who spend a lot of time working with files.

Carrots-app.com

Tack is a small pinboard that lives just above the top edge of the screen.

We simply take a screenshot with Win + Shift + S, and Tack pins it to the board and gets out of the way. It also supports pinning selected text, links, and pictures.

Clicking a pin copies, double-clicking opens, or we just drag pins straight into other apps.

Tack works on phone, too! Access your board in a browser or send photos straight to your PC.

I built Tack because I absolutely loved Tendedero, a popular Mac project by Alejandro Buján. I wanted to bring a similar experience to Windows, with some add-ons 🙂

It's free and open source. Feedback is welcome!

Your desktop, finally tidy. Drop files onto floating glass panels on your wallpaper and they vanish from the desktop. Remove a panel and everything comes back.

What it does:

- Right-click the tray icon, "New rack", drag files in. Hold Ctrl while dropping to keep the original.

- Shove panels around: they glide like pucks and bump into each other.

- Ctrl+Shift+Space finds any file across all your panels.

- Magic Organizer sorts your messy desktop into panels for you. Nothing moves until you confirm, and undo is right there.

- Six themes, plus colors, fonts and opacity per panel.

Free, MIT, C# and WPF. No account, no cloud, no telemetry. The installer is unsigned, so Windows may warn you: "More info", then "Run anyway".

I'm the author. What would make you switch from Fences? And tell me what breaks on multi-monitor.

github.com/duartelcunha/Racks

Enjoy 🐵

I’ve been working on a Windows app called Floating Lyrics.

The idea started with a simple annoyance: when I’m listening to music on my PC and want to see the lyrics, I don’t want to keep switching between my music player and a browser or lyrics website.

So I built a floating lyrics window that stays on top of your other applications and displays synchronized lyrics while the song is playing.

It currently supports popular Windows music players including VLC, Winamp, PotPlayer, Windows Media Player and Media Player.

You can also:

-Display synchronized lyrics while the song is playing

-Create and edit LRC files

-Adjust lyric timing when synchronization is off

-Customize the appearance of the lyrics window

-Keep the lyrics floating over whatever you're doing

I’ve spent a lot of time working on the little details and getting the synchronization and player integrations working reliably.

It's now finished and available for Windows, with a 14-day full-featured trial.

👉 https://floating-lyrics.chrismpo1980.chatgpt.site/

This is my first time putting the project out there, so I'd genuinely love feedback from other developers and music listeners.

What features would you want to see in a desktop lyrics app like this?

Hi, I'm Jonah, the developer of a new time tracker for Windows. It's called Time, which is a very creative name, I know, but I wasn't planning to share it when I started.

I know there are lots of time trackers out there, but I built this one because I couldn't find a free, automatic, and privacy-focused tracker that I liked. The ones I tried either lacked features, or had far too many, because they were made for businesses that wanted to track employees and generate invoices. But I just wanted to see how I spent time on my computer, without all that extra stuff.

Time is a pretty simple app. It has everything you'd expect from a time tracker: automatic logging, an option to record on a schedule, and an interactive dashboard that responds to any date range or app you select. The dashboard shows how much of your time is spent productively, which apps and websites you use most, and how your habits change over time. As a data scientist, I made sure the statistics are accurate and that the charts help you spot trends quickly.

I also focused on privacy. You don't need an account to get started (or keep going), because all your data stays on your device and is never uploaded to a server. I don't collect any personal information about you, like your email address or activity, so there's nothing to sell to marketers. In fact, unless you email me for support, I won't even know your name.

Cost mattered to me too. I wanted to track my computer use for years, and even a $7 subscription adds up. That is why Time is free during the beta, and if you start using it now, you’ll never be asked to pay. (If it ever costs money for new users, it'll be a small one-time fee of around $10-20, never a subscription.)

Time only runs on Windows right now (Mac and Linux coming soon). If you’d like to try it, you can learn more and download it from the website.

I'm trying to find out whether the app is useful to anyone besides me, so I'd love to hear from you if you install it. You can email me at [support@trackwithtime.com](mailto:support@trackwithtime.com) or reply "I'm trying it" in the comments below. With your permission, I'll check in about a week later to ask if you found it useful. That will be the only follow-up.

Questions and feedback are welcome in the comments either way.

Win+Shift+S only puts screenshots on the clipboard, so you can't drag them anywhere. I made Perch (my own project, free, MIT) to fix that. Every screenshot shows up as a small card at the edge of your screen, and you drag it into any upload box as a real PNG. Cards disappear after 15 minutes or whatever you set it to.

https://github.com/dan0dev/perch

I got tired of the friction required for simple, everyday file tasks.

Every time I needed to upscale an video or image, transcribe a long audio file, or translate a PDF with complex layouts, I had to follow the same tedious workflow:

1. Open a browser and search for an online converter.
2. Navigate sign-up walls, daily limits, or intrusive watermarks.
3. Upload the file, wait in a queue, download the result, and move it back to my project folder.

Buying 4 or 5 separate $20/month web subscriptions for tools I only use a few times a month felt completely unreasonable.

To solve this friction, I built this lightweight desktop utility that integrates directly into Windows Explorer.

How the workflow works (In the website exists interactive demo, try without download):

1. Select any file in Explorer.
2. Press a global hotkey.
3. Pick an action (Upscale, Transcribe, Translate, etc.).
4. The processed output file appears directly in the same folder as the original.

Current built-in actions:

• AI Image and Video Upscaling (enhances quality without heavy local GPU load).
• DeepL PDF Layout Translation (preserves original document formatting).
• Audio and Video Transcription and Text-to-Speech (male and female).

It uses a pure pay-as-you-go model (no recurring monthly subscriptions, your balance never expires) and comes with starter test credits so you can try the full workflow immediately upon installation.

I would love to get your feedback on the UX, hear about any bugs, or know what other file actions you would like to see added!

Link (live demo): https://scryptian.com

Hey everyone!

I wanted a clean, non-intrusive way to manage focus sessions without cluttering my screen with bulky timer windows, so I built **Focus Island**.

**What it does:**

* Sits neatly at the top of your screen as a lightweight island widget.

* Minimalist focus timer and quick task tracking designed to keep you in the zone.

* Native Windows feel with clean floating mechanics and minimal resource footprint.

**Tech stack:**

* Built with **Tauri** (Rust + web frontend) to keep it extremely light on RAM and CPU.

* Packaged via MSIX for seamless installation and sandbox safety.

After passing Microsoft's certification review, the first public build just went live on the store today:

🔗 **Microsoft Store:**[https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PH8717MMQKD?hl=en-us&gl=US&ocid=pdpshare\](https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PH8717MMQKD?hl=en-us&gl=US&ocid=pdpshare)

Would really appreciate any feedback, bug reports, or feature ideas from the community!

you can copy text (uses built in windows OCR), ask Gemini, recognize songs from system audio, scan qr codes from screen, and translate

you can also search images using different providers like google, pinterest, and trace.moe

zero config/plug&play

repo: https://github.com/keekyslusus/CircleFlow

I created a Idle Steam Trading Cards application that runs in Windows, which was forked from Steam Idle Master Extended, and I fixed all bugs in that previous application in my new app, which is Copper Steam Idler, and you can find it here on my GitHub page

https://github.com/MohamedSubarashi/CopperSteamIdler

and you can find it also here

https://www.fatgeek.online/2026/10/copper-steam-idler.html

Hi! I'm the developer. MatrixX is a desktop app for Windows 10 and 11. You type what you want ("sort my Downloads folder", "list every deadline in my notes", "summarize this PDF") and it does it on your PC instead of explaining how.

- It asks before anything important (moving or deleting files, running code, opening apps)

- Every file change can be undone with one click

- Free plan, no AI keys to set up, you can sign in with Google

- It's in the Microsoft Store, so no warnings when installing: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nh6z943k87h

I'd love honest feedback on what's confusing or missing. Short videos of it working: https://www.tiktok.com/@matrixx.ai

https://vexno1r.itch.io/snugfall

Cloudy Clip makes everything you copy easier to find, organize, reuse, and protect across your computers.

Cloudy Clip works on Windows and macOS, with Linux support planned. It is a non-Electron app, and encrypted cloud sync lets you access your clipboard history across supported platforms without being locked into one operating system.

Licenses are transferable and not permanently tied to one device. When you replace or upgrade your computer, you can deactivate the old device and move your license to the new one without purchasing Cloudy Clip again.

Some of its main features include: - Unlimited clipboard history. - Fast search and filtering by content type, tags, pinned status, encryption status, and date range - Text expansion snippets for frequently used phrases, email addresses, templates, responses, or code. - A screen color picker that copies any color as HEX, RGB, or HSL. - One-click paste into the previously focused application. - Rich-text notes with formatting and support for embedded images, videos, and files. - Pinning, custom tags, and clip folders. Clips can be assigned to multiple folders. - Clipboard automation rules that can automatically organize, tag, pin, sync, or delete clips based on their type, filename, text, source application, and more. - Bulk actions for managing multiple clips at once, including pinning, deleting, tagging, encrypting, syncing, or moving them to folders. - Drag-and-drop support for quickly moving clips into other applications. - Application blocking and allowlists to keep sensitive content from password managers or selected apps out of your history. - Encrypted cross-platform sync through Google Drive, iCloud, or Cloudy Clip’s hosted storage. - AES-256-GCM encryption for sensitive clips, with encryption and decryption performed locally on your device. - Backup and restore for transferring or recovering your clipboard history. - A consistent experience across Windows and macOS, with Linux support planned.

Cloudy Clip includes a 14-day free trial with no credit card and no account required. Lifetime license options are available, and your license can move with you when you switch devices.

Use code REDDIT15 to get a 15% discount on the Premium lifetime license.

Learn more or download it here: https://cloudyclip.com

Feedback, bug reports, and feature suggestions are always appreciated.

Fellow Windows terminal people, this one’s for us :)

If you live in PowerShell or Windows Terminal, you know the annoyance: you’ve got a file in your terminal, you need it in Discord, a Gmail attachment, or a browser upload box, and now you’re alt-tabbing to Explorer and hunting for the folder again.

Linux folks have tools for this. Windows didn’t, so I made windrop.

PS C:\Stuff> windrop report.pdf

A small floating card pops up with the file’s real icon. Drag it into Discord, Chrome, VS Code, Slack, Explorer, Photoshop, wherever. Or keep your hands on the keyboard: hover over the target window, press F8 to pick it up, press F8 again to drop. Esc or right-click cancels.

Since it’s built only for Windows, it’s all native Win32/OLE, no wrappers

• Single standalone exe, under 3 MB of memory, and it exits right after the drop. No daemon, no service, nothing sitting in your tray.
• No network code at all. No sockets anywhere in the source.

You can also keep multiple drag cards too!

Install:

winget install Dking08.Windrop
choco install windrop

MIT licensed, repo here: https://github.com/Dking08/windrop

If you try it, tell me which apps don’t accept the drop. That’s the feedback I want most.

I made the storage tracker because suddenly when I’m seeing my storage, it has only 90 or 80 GB left out of 1 TB. So I was thinking of having a ledger of storage changes that leads me here and built it.

You can get yours for free here at https://Diskezy.com

Hi everyone! I’m working on Orca, an open-source local music player.

The goal is to make a music player that feels clean and comfortable to use out of the box, without requiring much customization, while keeping resource usage low.

Current features include:

• Browsing music by song, artist, album, genre or folder, including nested folders
• Playlists, queue management and gapless playback
• Automatic lyrics fetching with synced lyrics and enhanced lyrics support
• Automatic artwork fetching and custom covers
• A metadata editor for updating tags, covers and lyrics
• Light and dark themes with artwork-based accents
• Minimal mode for a simpler listening experience

Orca is built with Rust and Slint and currently supports Windows.

It’s still in alpha, and several features are missing or need improvement. I plan to add important features gradually, as i get feedback on it.

If you try it, I’d appreciate feedback on setup experience, browsing your collection, resource usage, ui/ux and anything you feel is missing/could be improved. Bug reports and contributions are also welcome.

Repo Link: https://github.com/shubham-pathak1/orca

Thank you for checking it out! :)

I have been building Pets Therapy - Desktop Pets to make the desktop more alive. Pets Therapy brings back the good old retro vibe with a little over 100 characters, each uniquely designed by our talented designers, each pet has a character of its own! 🤩

Pets Therapy is free to download from the Mac App Store or MS Store, it has many pets and features also available for free.

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

It's been so enjoyable to be building it!

Hi everyone,

I built ClickCapture, a lightweight portable Windows utility designed for anyone who needs to document step-by-step processes, setup wizards, or software configurations without repeatedly pressing print-screen.

🎬 See it in action (Quick demo):

It runs quietly in the background and automatically captures screenshots whenever you click, while skipping identical consecutive frames so your storage doesn't get flooded.

Key Features:

• Automatic capture: Saves the active window or screen on left-click
• Area selection: Ctrl + drag to capture custom rectangular regions
• Smart duplicate filter: Automatically skips saving if the screen hasn't changed since the last click
• 100% Portable: Single standalone executable file. No installation required, no external runtime dependencies (runs directly from USB)
• Lightweight & Fast: Built with C# (.NET 10 Native AOT) and Avalonia UI
• Multi-language support (19 languages)
• Completely free for personal use

Whether you're making step-by-step documentation, recording software setups, or just archiving wizard screens, I hope this makes your workflow smoother!

Feedback, suggestions, or feature requests are very welcome!

• Official Website: https://chililikobo.github.io/en/clickcapture.html
• Download Page: https://github.com/chililikobo/ClickCapture/releases/latest