windmenu

Fast like the wind, a WINdows DMENU-like launcher

compressed-screencast.mp4

Features

• Fast application launcher via hotkey (Win+Space is default)
• Vim-like navigation (hjkl) alongside arrow keys
• Scans Windows Start Menu shortcuts automatically
• Supports custom commands via configuration
• Key combination commands - trigger keyboard shortcuts from the menu
• Background daemon with named pipe communication
• Configurable appearance and behavior (thanks to JerwuQu's work on the original version of wlines)

Quickstart

Option 1: Scoop (Recommended)

scoop bucket add gicrisf https://github.com/gicrisf/bucket
scoop install windmenu

Then set up the daemons:

windmenu daemon all start

# Optional: enable auto-startup. Learn how through:
# windmenu daemon all enable --help

Option 2: Portable ZIP

Download windmenu-portable.zip from the latest release, extract it, and set up via CLI:

.\windmenu.exe fetch wlines-daemon
.\windmenu.exe daemon all start

# Optional: enable auto-startup. Learn how through:
# .\windmenu.exe daemon all enable --help

Press Win+Space to launch.

Customizing the Hotkey

To customize the hotkey or add your own commands, edit windmenu.toml in the same directory as the executable:

# Change the hotkey
shortcut = ["WIN", "SPACE"]  # Default

# If you use multiple keyboard layouts, try one of these instead:
# shortcut = ["WIN", "R"]
# shortcut = ["ALT", "SPACE"]
# shortcut = ["CTRL", "SPACE"]

Note on the default hotkey: Win+Space is Windows' language switcher shortcut. If you only use one keyboard layout (like US English), this won't matter - the conflict is harmless. But if you switch between multiple languages, you'll want to change the hotkey to something else.

For full configuration options, check the example windmenu.toml in the repository.

Commands

The menu is populated from three sources:

1. Start Menu Shortcuts (discovered automatically)

Windmenu scans for .lnk files in the Windows Start Menu directories (%APPDATA% and %ProgramData%). This is how it finds your installed applications. The scanning happens once at startup, so the menu appears instantly when you press the hotkey.

2. Custom Commands (configured in windmenu.toml)

You can add your own commands in two forms:

PowerShell invocations:

[[commands]]
name = "Terminal"
args = ["wt"]

Key combinations:

[[commands]]
name = "Show Desktop"
keys = ["WIN", "D"]

The key combination support turned out to be more useful than expected. Want to switch virtual desktops? ["WIN", "CTRL", "RIGHT"]. Toggle between windows? ["ALT", "TAB"]. These are first-class commands in the menu, no different from launching applications.

Implementation uses Windows SendInput API with proper key sequencing (press all keys down in order, release in reverse). There's special handling for toggle keys like Caps Lock, which Windows treats differently.

3. Special Commands (always active)

These are built-in commands that are always available, primarily useful for edge cases. For example, the Caps Lock toggle command is handy if you've remapped your physical Caps Lock key to something else but occasionally need to actually toggle caps lock state.

Build

Build all components:

cargo build --release

Uninstallation

If installed via Scoop:

windmenu daemon all stop
windmenu daemon all disable
scoop uninstall windmenu

For portable installs, stop the daemons and delete the directory. The application is fully portable — all binaries and configuration reside within the install directory, so no traces are left elsewhere. Auto-startup entries (Registry, Task Scheduler, or Startup folder) can be cleaned up with windmenu daemon all disable before removing the files.

Key Combination Commands

WindMenu supports executing key combinations as commands!

Add them to your windmenu.toml:

[[commands]]
name = "alt+x key combo"
keys = ["ALT", "X"]

[[commands]]
name = "win+d show desktop"
keys = ["WIN", "D"]

[[commands]]
name = "switch virtual desktop"
keys = ["WIN", "CTRL", "RIGHT"]

Supported Keys

Modifier Keys

• ALT - Alt key
• CTRL or CONTROL - Control key
• SHIFT - Shift key
• WIN or WINDOWS - Windows key

Special Keys

• TAB - Tab key
• ESC or ESCAPE - Escape key
• SPACE - Space bar
• ENTER - Enter/Return key

Function Keys

• F1, F2, F3, ..., F12 - Function keys

Arrow Keys

• LEFT, UP, RIGHT, DOWN - Arrow keys

Number Keys

• 0, 1, 2, ..., 9 - Number keys

Punctuation Keys

• COMMA or , - Comma key
• PERIOD or . - Period key
• SEMICOLON or ; - Semicolon key
• SLASH or / - Forward slash key
• BACKSLASH or \ - Backslash key
• QUOTE or ' - Single quote key
• BACKTICK or ` - Backtick key
• MINUS or - - Minus/hyphen key
• EQUALS or = - Equals key
• LBRACKET or [ - Left bracket key
• RBRACKET or ] - Right bracket key

Letter Keys

• A, B, C, ..., Z - Letter keys (case insensitive)

How It Works

When you select a key combination command from the menu, WindMenu will:

1. Press all the specified keys down in order
2. Release all the keys in reverse order
3. This simulates the key combination being pressed

Mixed Configuration

You can mix regular commands and key combinations in the same configuration:

# Regular command
[[commands]]
name = "open terminal"
args = ["wt"]

# Key combination command
[[commands]]
name = "switch to desktop 1"
keys = ["WIN", "CTRL", "1"]

The menu will display both types of commands and execute them appropriately based on their configuration.

Acknowledgments

WindMenu wouldn't be possible without the contributions of others:

• wlines - The excellent menu rendering engine that powers WindMenu's interface. Special thanks to JerwuQu for the original implementation.
• dmenu - The original inspiration for this project. WindMenu aims to bring dmenu's philosophy and efficiency to Windows.
• winapi-rs maintainers - For providing comprehensive Rust bindings to the Windows API, making native Windows development in Rust possible.