Ace Run

A lightweight Windows application launcher built with WinUI 3 and C#.

Manage a hierarchical list of .exe files and URLs across multiple workspaces and launch them quickly with custom parameters — all from a clean, modern interface.

Features

• Quick Launch — Add executables and launch them with one click
• URLs & Protocols — Add web links alongside your apps; custom protocols like steam://, obsidian:// and ms-settings: work too
• Custom Parameters — Set arguments, working directory, and admin mode per app
• Drag & Drop — Drop .exe, .lnk or .url files into the window, or drag a link straight from your browser; silently added with sensible defaults
• Folder Grouping — Organize apps into folders with drag-to-reorder; drag tiles onto a sidebar folder to move them there, and go back to the previous folder with Alt+Left or the mouse back button
• Organize — Right-click a folder in the sidebar to sort it in one pass by name, path, tag, or a custom sort key — or reverse it. The result becomes the new manual order, so drag-to-reorder keeps working afterwards
• Tags — Give an app any number of color-coded tags; tag names are searchable, and a folder can be sorted by tag
• Multiple Workspaces — Switch between independent app lists, each with its own folders, tags, and accent color; export/import as .acerun files
• Multi-Select — Select several items and launch, tag, move, delete, or drag them onto a folder in one go
• Search — Instantly filter by name, path/URL, launch arguments, or tag name, ranked with recently launched items first; every result shows its folder and can jump to it
• System Tray — Minimize to tray, quick-launch recent apps from the context menu
• Single Instance — Re-launching brings the existing window to the foreground instead of opening a second copy
• Icon Extraction — Automatically displays and caches each app's icon
• Keyboard Shortcuts — Drive the whole app from the keyboard; see below
• Global Shortcut — Bind a key combination that summons the window from anywhere and puts it away again
• Settings — Global shortcut, start with Windows, close-to-tray, hide-after-launch, theme, and language, in their own window
• Fluent Design — Mica backdrop with the workspace color framing the window; light, dark, and high-contrast themes
• i18n — English, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+F / Ctrl+E	Focus the search box
Enter (in search)	Launch the top result
Down (in search)	Move focus to the results list
Esc	Clear the search, then close the overlay rail
Ctrl+N	Add an app
Ctrl+Shift+N	Add a URL
Ctrl+Alt+N	New folder
Ctrl+B	Toggle the sidebar
Alt+Left / mouse back button	Go back to the previous folder
Ctrl+,	Open the Manage menu (workspaces / tags / settings)
Ctrl+1…Ctrl+9	Switch to workspace 1–9
Enter	Launch the selected item(s)
Alt+Enter	Edit the selected item
Ctrl+A (in the item list)	Select every item in the current view
Delete	Delete the selected items — or the selected folder, in the sidebar
F2	Rename the selected folder (sidebar)
Your global shortcut	Summon the window from any app and land in the search box, ready to type; press again to hide it (off by default — set it in Settings)

Requirements

• Windows 10 1809 (build 17763) or later
• .NET 10.0
• Supported platforms: x86, x64, ARM64

Build

dotnet build win/ace-run.csproj

Run

dotnet run --project win/ace-run.csproj

Publish

Self-contained publish (x64). Both the .NET runtime and the Windows App SDK runtime ship inside the output folder (SelfContained covers the former, WindowsAppSDKSelfContained the latter), so the target machine needs no separate install — at the cost of a ~275 MB folder. dotnet publish does not clear the target directory, so empty it first when switching publish settings:

dotnet publish win/ace-run.csproj -c Release -p:Platform=x64 -r win-x64 -p:PublishProfile=self-contained