mdview

Windows-first Markdown viewer with native shell integration.

About

mdview is focused on fast, clean markdown reading on Windows, with Explorer integration built in:

• native-feeling startup (no flash gate),
• live theme/accent sync,
• Explorer Preview Pane rendering via COM preview handler,
• Open With / context menu / default-app registration helpers.

This project is currently in v0.1.0-beta.2.

Current Capabilities

• Markdown rendering pipeline (md-engine, comrak-based, source position aware).
• Tauri desktop shell + frontend viewer UI.
• Explorer Preview Handler using WebView2, with resilient fallback pages.
• Relative asset support in preview via virtual host folder mapping.
• Shared config-backed theme resolution (%APPDATA%\\mdview\\config.json).
• Native registration commands:
  • --register
  • --unregister

Build

From repository root:

cargo check --workspace

Release app packaging:

cd apps/viewer-shell/src-tauri
cargo tauri build

Primary release binary:

target\\release\\viewer-shell.exe

Per-user installer packaging:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\package-nsis.ps1

This builds:

• target\release\viewer-shell.exe
• target\release\win_preview_handler.dll

Then stages both and compiles a Windows installer if NSIS is installed. Installer output path:

dist\\nsis\\mdview-<version>-setup.exe

First Run

Register shell integration:

target\release\viewer-shell.exe --register

This registers:

• Preview Handler for .md / .markdown
• Context menu verb (Open with mdview)
• Open With + Default Apps capability metadata

After register, set defaults in Windows Settings for .md and .markdown (mdview opens this page automatically when possible).

Installer Notes

• The current installer path is per-user.
• It installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\mdview.
• viewer-shell.exe and win_preview_handler.dll must stay side-by-side in the installed directory for Preview Pane support to work.
• It runs viewer-shell.exe --register during install.
• It runs viewer-shell.exe --unregister during uninstall.
• Windows Explorer may need a restart, or the user may need to sign out and back in, before Preview Pane registration changes are fully picked up.
• NSIS is required to produce the installer executable. If NSIS is not installed, use:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\package-nsis.ps1 -StageOnly

to validate the staged payload without compiling the installer.

Repository Layout

• apps/viewer-shell: Tauri shell + web UI.
• crates/md-engine: markdown parse/render pipeline.
• crates/base-styles: theme token to CSS variables bridge.
• crates/win-preview-handler: Explorer Preview Pane COM handler.
• crates/win-installer: native registry registration/unregistration logic.
• crates/settings-store: shared app config and theme preference resolution.
• docs: architecture notes, ADRs, and release notes.