SpotWin

SpotWin is a native Windows 11 launcher inspired by macOS Spotlight. The app runs in the background, listens for the Win + Alt chord, and opens a centered WinUI 3 search window for apps, user files, and Windows settings.

Stack

• .NET 8, targeting net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0
• Windows App SDK 1.8 stable
• WinUI 3 with Mica backdrop
• Win32 interop for keyboard hook, window placement, rounded corners, and shell launch
• WiX installer scaffold for a clean MSI

Layout

• src/SpotWin: WinUI 3 app and background services
• src/SpotWin.Tray: small WinForms helper assembly for the tray icon
• installer/SpotWin.Installer: WiX MSI project scaffold
• docs/architecture.md: architecture and tradeoffs

Build

This machine currently does not expose dotnet in PATH. On a Windows 11 dev machine with the .NET 8 SDK and Windows App SDK tooling installed:

.\scripts\build.ps1

Publish self-contained

dotnet publish .\src\SpotWin\SpotWin.csproj -c Release -p:PublishProfile=win-x64-self-contained

The publish profile keeps WinUI dependencies as separate files, which is required for unpackaged WinUI 3 apps.

Package MSI

After publishing:

.\scripts\package-msi.ps1