Notchio 0.1.0 · for Windows 11

Quiet until
you need it.

A virtual notch for Windows. A small island that lives at the top of your screen, shows one useful thing at a time, and unfolds into a single control surface when your cursor rests on it.

Download for Windows
01

One story at a time.

Collapsed, it's a short pill. It never shows two things at once. When several things are happening, the most urgent one wins. Long titles scroll, so the whole line can be read.

  6. Cycling on its own. Pick one to stop.
24:31Focus
220 × 40 · logical px
02

Everything, in one object.

Hover, and the pill becomes the island: a header of quick actions, the tool you last used, and a tray of everything else. Moving from the content to the tray never collapses it. Below is a working replica at its real size. Click around. Press ← →, or 1 to 0.

Home
↓1.2M↑80K86%

Good afternoon

Hover
Opens after 120 ms of rest, so sweeping past for a browser tab doesn't pop it.
Leave
Collapses about 110 ms later. The last tool stays selected.
CtrlSpace
Pins it open. Not to be confused with the padlock, which locks your PC.
Scroll
Cycles tools. On Weather, Calendar, Clock, Notes, or System, only those five.
Drop
Files dropped on the island go straight to File Tray.
Esc
Collapses immediately.
03

It knows where to sit.

By default it sits at the top centre. Maximise a window and Smart placement moves it down into the taskbar, into a gap that isn't Start, your apps, or the tray. Fullscreen hides it. You can drag it to any edge yourself.

ENG10:24
Drag the notch. It snaps to the nearest edge.

Smart → top Top centre on the desktop. Moves to the taskbar while a window is maximised, if the bar has room. It waits about three seconds before leaving a dock that still works, and never moves while it's open.

04

Three ways to look at it.

A first install opens on Classic. Halo and Deck are opt-in under Settings → Appearance → Theme, and switching back never changes a thing in Classic.

05

Nineteen tools. One island.

Fifteen live in the tray, four in the header. Hide or reorder any of them from Settings → Modules.

    • Brightness moves every screen together: laptop panels, external monitors, and a fallback for anything that answers neither.
    • Volume follows the default speaker, including when you switch to headphones.
    • Cards for weather, now playing, CPU, the next event, unread notices, and the focus timer. Each one opens its tool.
    • Spotify, the browser, VLC, anything Windows already knows is playing.
    • Album art, a seek bar you can drag, shuffle, repeat, and volume.
    • Lyrics follow the playhead with a short lead so they never lag the vocal, even while you scrub.
    • Newest first, plus Notchio's own banners.
    • Dismiss or Clear here also dismisses the matching Windows toast.
    • A new toast can briefly take the collapsed pill.
    • Feels-like, high and low, humidity, wind, and rain.
    • IP geolocation by default, or pin your own coordinates.
    • No API key.
    • Sync Google, Outlook, or iCloud through a private iCal link. Repeating, moved, and cancelled events all resolve.
    • Teams, Meet, Zoom, Webex, GoTo, Whereby, Slack, and Jitsi links get a Join button that turns green ten minutes before.
    • The collapsed notch counts down to a meeting from ten minutes out.
    • Add, remove, and pin.
    • Drag a note into any app to drop its text there.
    • A short history line for CPU and memory.
    • Temperature is read on this PC. A reading frozen for ten minutes is hidden, not faked.
    • End any app with a visible window. Protected Windows processes are refused.
    • Click a row to copy it back.
    • Drag a row into Discord, Word, or a browser. Links arrive as links.
    • Links and code-like snippets are classified.
    • It's a real Windows file drag, so it works wherever a file from Explorer does.
    • Convert images to JPEG, PNG, WebP, or PDF.
    • Remove a background with a portrait model that runs on the PC.
    • Plus a list of saved links.
    • Select text and drag it into any app.
    • Currency uses live rates when the network is available.
    • Add any app or https:// target.
    • Records which app is in front and for how long. Nothing else.
    • No keystrokes, screenshots, window contents, or website addresses.
    • Export CSV or JSON, pause it, or clear it.
    • Read in the background, so the numbers are current the moment you open it.
    • Plan rings, model donuts, a seven-day chart, input versus output.
    • Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini are read from their local logs. Nothing is uploaded.
    • Focus for 5, 15, 25, or 45 minutes. A running timer takes the collapsed pill.
    • London, New York, and Tokyo at a glance.
    • The app you paste into renders it in its own emoji font.
    • Closing the island turns the camera off.
    • Opens Windows Bluetooth settings for pairing.
06

Your data stays
on the PC.

Orange sits on the microphone icon when a mic is open, somewhere on the PC.

Green sits on the camera icon. Both show on the pill and in the header, the moment it happens.

WhatFromWhat that means
WeatherA location you pin, or this networkNo key. No account.
LyricsThe track that's playingLooked up by title and length. No key, no account.
PlaybackWindowsRead locally from the media controls.
CalendarsA private calendar linkKept on this PC. Only the host name is ever shown.
TokensSession logs on this PCNothing is uploaded.
Screen timeThe app in frontNo keystrokes, screenshots, window contents, or URLs.
Background removalOn this PCYour photo never leaves.
07

The spec sheet.

Logical CSS pixels. The native overlay hit-tests the same numbers, plus a small invisible hover pad of 28 × 14.

10:24 PM↓1.2M ↑80K
26440
Idle, top. 264 × 40 logical px.
Idle, top264 × 40
Idle, taskbar232 × 40
Now playing or notice280 × 40
Focus timer or stopwatch220 × 40
Side dock, idle40 × 264
Side dock, music or notice40 × 280
Expanded, top or taskbar780 × 580
Expanded, side860 × 580

Click-through by default

The window ignores the cursor unless it's on the island, or a file drag is crossing it. Clicks don't steal focus from what you're typing, and it stays out of Alt+Tab.

Placed in physical pixels

Display scaling can't push it off its dock. It only moves when the placement actually changes.

No dimming, no overlay

The desktop behind the notch stays untouched. No wallpaper effect, no fullscreen layer.

Real mute, not a keypress

Speaker and mic mute toggle the default endpoints directly, for multimedia and communications.

Privacy lights from Windows

The orange and green dots light up when Windows says a mic or camera is open.

What it can't do, yet.

08

Install it. Then forget it's there.

Grab the installer. It adds a tray icon, never a taskbar button. Launching twice doesn't stack two notches.

Notchio_0.1.0_x64-setup.exe

Windows 11 · x64 · Launch at logon is one switch in Settings → Startup.