windmenu

Fast like the wind, a WINdows DMENU-like launcher

compressed-screencast.mp4

Features

• Fast application launcher via hotkey (Ctrl+Alt+Space is default)
• Horizontal single-row bar mode
• Vim-like navigation (Ctrl+J/K) alongside arrow keys
• Scans Windows Start Menu shortcuts automatically
• Supports custom commands via configuration
• Trigger keyboard shortcuts from commands in the menu
• Single self-contained executable
• Configurable appearance and behavior

Installation

Option 1: PowerShell

iex "& {$(irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gicrisf/windmenu/main/install.ps1)}"

No admin required.

Press Ctrl+Alt+Space to launch.

Windows Defender may flag iex as suspicious. If so, check out the options below.

Option 2: ZIP

The previous script downloads the latest release to $HOME\.windmenu, optionally adds it to your PATH, and lets you select an autostart method.

You can do the exact same thing manually:

• Download windmenu.zip
• Extract it wherever you prefer (e.g. $HOME\.windmenu)
• Run .\windmenu.exe start
• To start at boot, see autostart/README.md.

Option 3: Scoop

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

Option 4: Cargo

cargo install --git https://github.com/gicrisf/windmenu

Compiles the current development branch; requires a Rust toolchain on your Windows host.

Configuration

Interaction

Press Ctrl+Alt+Space to open the menu. Navigate with arrow keys or Ctrl+J/Ctrl+K (vim-style). Both the activation hotkey and the navigation keys are configurable in windmenu.toml.

Window

The menu comes in two layouts: vertical (default) and horizontal.

By default, the menu is a centered rectangle with a vertical list of entries. The lines setting controls how many items are visible at once (default: 12):

lines  = 12      # menu items shown at once (vertical only)
width  = 1000    # window width in pixels
center = true    # center on the monitor under the cursor

For a dmenu -h style single-row bar at the top of the screen, switch to horizontal layout:

horizontal = true
width      = 0       # 0 = full monitor width
center     = false   # pin to top-left

In horizontal mode entries flow left-to-right in a single row, the input box is capped at a quarter of the window width, and < / > page markers appear when there are more entries than fit on screen. The lines setting is ignored.

Theming

A theme is just six colors. windmenu ships with a built-in scheme that is active by default; override any of the six keys at the top level of windmenu.toml to tweak it, or set all six to define your own:

bg        = "#1e1e1e"   # Window background
fg        = "#ffffff"   # Window text
bg_select = "#0078d4"   # Selected item background
fg_select = "#ffffff"   # Selected item text
bg_input  = "#2d2d2d"   # Input box background
fg_input  = "#ffffff"   # Input box text

To keep several named schemes on hand and switch between them, see Config packs.

Menu

Two types of entries appear in the menu:

Applications

Discovered from your Start Menu automatically. The scan runs in the background at startup, so the hotkey works immediately.

Commands

Add your own with [[commands]] entries in windmenu.toml:

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

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

args runs a program; keys simulates a keyboard shortcut.

A few commands are always available:

• Toggle Caps Lock — handy when the physical key is remapped
• Refresh Apps — rescan applications without restarting
• Reload Config — reload commands from windmenu.toml

Supported Keys

Valid key names for keys = [...] command combinations: modifiers (ALT, CTRL, SHIFT, WIN), F1–F12, arrow keys, A–Z, 0–9, and special keys (TAB, ESC, SPACE, ENTER, punctuation). See KEYS.md for the full reference.

Config packs

Themes and commands can live in standalone pack files that you pull in with import. Ready-made ones live in a separate repo, windmenu-packs — clone it next to your windmenu.toml and import what you want:

import = ["packs/themes/catppuccin.toml", "packs/commands/power.toml"]
theme  = "catppuccin-mocha"

A theme is inert until you select it with theme; a command pack activates on import. Imports are non-recursive and missing/broken files are warned-and-skipped, so windmenu always starts. Your windmenu.toml always wins over imports, and among imports the later one wins.

Uninstallation

For a portable or scripted installation: stop the daemon (windmenu stop), disable auto-start (autostart.ps1 disable — see autostart), then delete the installation folder.

Scoop and Cargo users: scoop uninstall windmenu or cargo uninstall windmenu handle everything on their own.

Troubleshooting

If windmenu doesn't pick up your configuration, run windmenu doctor to see which config file is being loaded. If Windows Store apps are missing, windmenu test reparse-points checks that Store-app detection is working.

Acknowledgments

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

• wlines - The excellent menu rendering engine that WindMenu's built-in renderer is ported from. 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.