Nock

A tiny, native notch and top bar made for Windows.
Written in Rust. No webview, no framework, no runtime. One small .exe, or a tiny installer.

⬇ Download for Windows 10/11  ·  free, MIT, about 1 MB

Actively developed. Nock is young and still being tested on more PCs, so you may hit rough edges. Bug reports and ideas are very welcome: open an issue. A Linux port is in progress.

• Notch at the top centre. Click it and a panel opens with tabs: Media, Controls, Today (focus timer, to-dos, calendar), Stats, Clipboard, Apps, Games and Power.
• Top bar along the top of the screen: active app name, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sound, brightness, battery and clock, each with a dropdown (join Wi-Fi networks, connect Bluetooth devices, sliders, calendar). Optional clock styles and a CPU / memory read-out.
• A little life: a buddy character on the bar, scripted scenes, an arcade with four mouse-only games, and small reactions on the pill (squish on click, glow with the music, confetti when the timer ends).
• Smart pill: the notch tells you things without a click. Amber "Battery low" with time left, "Mic on" with the time and a click-to-mute mic icon, "Link / Path / Colour / Code copied" (click a link or path to open it), a break nudge after 90 minutes of steady use, and meeting countdowns from your calendar. Tray → Smart hints turns it off. See Smart pill.
• Gentle reminders (all off by default): drink water, and look away from the screen (20-20-20).
• Zero idle cost: event driven, no polling loop; about 0% CPU and about 32 MB of memory while idle (see Why it is light). Hides itself in full-screen video and games, with a top-edge reveal.
• Follows the Windows light/dark theme.

Download NockSetup-<version>.exe from the latest release and run it. It installs just for you (no admin rights), adds Nock to the Start menu so you can find it by searching "Nock", and can start it with Windows. Uninstall it from Windows Settings → Apps like any other app.

Prefer no installer? The same release also has Nock-portable-<version>.exe: put it in a folder you will keep and run it. (Nock adds its own Start menu shortcut when it runs, so search finds it either way; tray → Show in Start menu and search turns that off.)

Right-click the tray icon → Start with Windows to launch it at login.

Updates: right-click the tray icon → Check for updates. If a newer release exists Nock offers to update; for a copy installed with the installer it downloads the new installer, runs it silently and restarts itself. The portable file just opens the download page. It only checks when you click, never in the background.

1. Install Rust from https://rustup.rs (choose the default MSVC toolchain). If asked, also install the Visual Studio Build Tools with the "Desktop development with C++" workload (this includes the Windows SDK, which embeds the exe icon).

2. In this folder run:

   cargo build --release
   

   (or double-click build.bat)

3. Run target\release\nock.exe. It is a single self-contained file. Copy it anywhere.

To build the installer yourself, install Inno Setup 6 and run ISCC.exe /DMyAppVersion=1.2.3 installer\nock.iss after the release build. The release workflow does this on every version tag.

Nock works best with the Windows taskbar set to hide itself. The bar and notch then take over the top of the screen, the taskbar slides up only when you move the pointer to the bottom edge, and the whole screen feels like one clean desktop.

Settings → Personalization → Taskbar → Taskbar behaviors → Automatically hide the taskbar (on Windows 10: right-click the taskbar → Taskbar settings → Automatically hide the taskbar in desktop mode).

The pill itself reacts: it squishes when you click it, jiggles when the pointer arrives, glows with the music (following the real output level), gives a heartbeat flash when you copy a link, and bursts into confetti when the focus timer ends.

• Media: artwork, title, artist, source app, seekable progress bar, previous / play-pause / next. Reads Windows' own media session, so it works with Spotify, YouTube and other browser media, VLC, Apple Music and so on. While music plays, the collapsed pill shows the artwork, track and equaliser bars.
• Controls: shortcuts to Screenshot (Snipping Tool) and the Windows Settings pages people look for: Display, Sound, Network, Power & battery and All settings. (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, volume and brightness are in the top bar.)
• Today: three cards.
  • Focus timer: 5 / 15 / 25 / 50 minute presets, or the pencil to type any number of minutes. Hover a to-do and click its ▶ to start a session on that task (the timer shows the task's name). A line under the timer shows today's focus minutes and tasks done. With Auto break after focus on (tray), a 5 minute break follows each session, then focus again. When a timer finishes you get three beeps, confetti, and the pill pulses "Time's up" for 30 s (or until you click it); the Quidditch scene celebrates if scenes are on.
  • To-do: a 5-item list, saved to disk.
  • Calendar: the current month.
• Stats: CPU and memory ring gauges (with a CPU history), battery with charging state, and uptime. It samples once a second, only while this tab is open.
• Clipboard: the last 20 things you copied. Click one to paste it into the app you were using. Star an item to pin it: pinned items stay at the top, survive "Clear" and restarts, and work as saved snippets. Search filters the list as you type (Enter keeps the filter, Esc clears it). Recent history lives in memory only, and copies from password managers are skipped; only the items you pin are written to disk.
• Apps: pinned launcher tiles with the real app icons. Click + Add app to pick from every installed app (Start menu apps, Store apps, game launchers) with a search box; click an app to pin it, and use the small × on a tile to unpin. The list refreshes each time you open the picker, and has a refresh button. Up to 12 tiles.
• Games: pick one on the arcade screen; all are mouse only and each keeps a best score.
  • Super Flight: click to flap through the pipes.
  • Brick Breaker: move the mouse to steer the paddle, click to launch; power-ups, levels and combos.
  • Slicer: swipe the mouse fast through flying fruit, avoid the bombs.
  • Viking Run: click to jump, click again in the air to double jump, hold to jump higher.
• Power: Lock, Sleep, Restart and Shut down. Restart and Shut down ask for a second click within a few seconds.

A thin translucent bar runs along the top of the screen and the notch hangs from its middle. Left: the app you are in. Right: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, volume, brightness, battery and the date and time. Clicking an icon opens a small dropdown right under it:

• Wi-Fi: on/off switch, nearby networks with signal strength (the connected one marked). Click a saved network to join it, click the connected one to disconnect. A new password-protected network asks for its password right in the dropdown (paste works); an open network joins directly. Enterprise networks open Windows' own Wi-Fi settings.
• Bluetooth: on/off switch, paired devices (connected ones marked). Click a device to connect or disconnect it. Pairing new devices is done in Windows' Bluetooth settings (linked).
• Sound: volume slider and mute. It controls whichever output device is the default right now (speakers, Bluetooth, monitor).
• Display: brightness slider (laptop panels; always shown).
• Battery: percentage, charging state, time left, battery saver, link to battery settings.
• Date and time: month calendar with today highlighted.

Connecting feedback: while a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection is in progress the bar icon pulses and the row shows a spinner. When it finishes a small note says "Connected to …" or "Couldn't connect …".

Hover tooltips: resting the pointer on the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth icon shows what is connected (network name and signal; connected Bluetooth devices) without clicking.

Clock style (tray → Clock style): digital (default), analog, binary, or "hours until Friday".

CPU and memory (tray → CPU and memory on the bar): a small CPU 12% RAM 63% read-out, off by default.

A dropdown closes when the pointer leaves it, when you click into another window, or when you click its icon again. The bar follows the Windows light/dark setting; the notch itself always stays black. It reserves its space like the taskbar does, so maximised windows start below it. Tray → Top bar turns it off (the old notch-only behaviour returns); top_bar in config.ini does the same.

Both are off by default and set from the tray menu. When one fires, your buddy says it and, if the notch is closed, the pill pulses a message.

• Water reminder: every 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes.
• Look-away reminder: every 20, 30 or 45 minutes ("look at something far away for 20 seconds").

The collapsed notch changes with what is going on, all from local rules (no AI, no cloud):

• Battery: unplugged at 15% or less, the pill turns amber with the time left.
• Microphone: while an app is using the microphone the pill shows Mic on and for how long. Click the mic icon to mute or unmute the default microphone (it turns red). This is Windows' own mute, so it works for any call app.
• Copied: a link, file path, #hex colour or short numeric code you copy shows a hint for a few seconds. Click the pill during a link or path hint to open it (a path opens Explorer with the file selected).
• Breaks: after 90 minutes of keyboard and mouse use without a 5 minute gap, it suggests a break.
• Meetings: put a read-only calendar link in calendar_url= in config.ini (Google Calendar: Settings → your calendar → Secret address in iCal format; Outlook: a published calendar). Five minutes before a meeting the pill shows its name and a countdown; click it to open the Zoom, Meet, Teams or Webex link in the event. Daily and weekly repeats work; monthly rules and COUNT do not. This is the one thing that uses the network in the background: with a link set, Nock fetches it at start and about once an hour. Leave it empty and Nock never does.

The important ones (meetings, low battery, break) glow in a strong colour and stay up for a minute or more (a meeting stays until it starts or you click it, and shows again in its last minute), because a small pill is easy to miss when you are focused. Tray → Chime for meeting, battery and break hints (smart_sound=1, off by default) adds a short sound. Tray → Smart hints (smart=0 in config.ini) turns all of these off.

Nock is not code-signed yet, so Windows 11 machines with Smart App Control switched on refuse to run it (the app is safe; Windows only blocks programs from publishers it doesn't know). Machines where it is off, which is most of them, only show the usual SmartScreen note ("Windows protected your PC"): click More info → Run anyway. If Smart App Control is on, you can turn it off in Windows Security → App & browser control → Smart App Control settings, or build and run in a different environment. You can read all of the source here before running anything.

A tiny original character lives on the top bar, in the free stretch between the notch and the status icons. It naps most of the time and wakes up for short outings, so it costs almost nothing:

• Strolls along the bar every minute or so, then goes back to sleep.
• Dances when music starts playing.
• Follows your pointer when you move it over that part of the bar, and its eyes follow the cursor. Click it to pet it.
• Cheers when the focus timer ends, and says "Connected!" or "Oops" after a Wi-Fi / Bluetooth attempt, "Low battery" when the battery runs low, "Bedtime?" late at night, and your reminders.

Pick the character from the tray menu → Buddy: Robot (default), Kitty, Blob, Bunny or Hero, or Off. It is also the buddy setting in config.ini (0 = off, 1 blob, 2 cat, 3 bunny, 4 hero, 5 robot, 6 ronin, 7 courier, 8 necromancer). The characters are drawn from simple shapes in code, so there are no image files. It hides together with the bar in full screen.

Three more characters are drawn as detailed pixel art and talk in character as they stroll: Ronin (a rain-worn samurai: "Patience.", "One cut."), Courier (a neon hoverboard runner: "Delivery's late. Again.") and Necromancer ("Death is a pause."). Pick them in the tray menu → Buddy. They also star in some of the scenes below.

The first scene plays a minute or two after Nock starts, then one every few minutes (about every 5 by default; set scene_min= in config.ini), when there is room on the bar: the characters act out a short scripted story and then walk off while your buddy comes back. Each one is a random pick that never repeats the last, and only scenes that fit the free space are chosen. Play one right away from the tray menu → Scenes, or turn the automatic ones off there (scenes=0 in config.ini). Nothing runs between scenes.

Showdown	Heist
Team-up	Duel at dusk
Rise	Alley fight
Friday deploy	You're on mute
Low battery	Cricket six

(The clips are rendered from the scene code, a few at real speed, on a mock bar; the real thing plays on your actual top bar.)

• Original characters: Showdown (Cinder the ember knight vs Krag the obsidian brute), Heist (Veil the shadow thief vs Sparkplug the young inventor), Team-up, Duel at dusk (Ronin vs Courier), Rise (Necromancer vs Ronin) and Alley fight.
• Everyday jokes, with their own everyday cast (a hoodie-wearing developer, a manager, support and intern colleagues, a very angry bug, cricketers and a fan): Friday deploy (the dev ships anyway, the bug shows up), You're on mute (the manager presents to nobody), Low battery ("1%... I can make it") and Cricket six (the bowler bowls, the batter hits it out of the bar).
• Press conference: a bobblehead answers a crowd of reporters with mics and a camera (needs about 420 px of free bar).
• Wizard-school fan art: Harry vs Voldemort, Owl post, Harry and friends vs Voldemort, Quidditch and Dementor.

The wizard-school scenes and the Thor, caped-flyer and other characters in the arcade are unofficial fan art drawn from simple shapes, not affiliated with or endorsed by their owners; all names and trademarks belong to their respective rights holders. The press conference scene uses a small photo cut-out bundled in assets/face.png. If you hold rights to anything in this repository and would like it changed or removed, please open an issue.

The exe carries its own icon and file details (assets/notch.ico, embedded by build.rs), so Explorer, the taskbar and the Start menu show Nock instead of the generic Windows icon. The tray icon is assets/icon.png, compiled into the exe.

Everything is in %APPDATA%\Nock\ (tray → Open settings folder). Most settings are in the tray menu; config.ini holds them too:

• config.ini: hover_expand (open on hover instead of click), eq_animation (animate the equaliser bars), clock_24h, reserve_space (keep a thin strip at the top so maximised windows sit below the notch), top_bar, buddy, scenes, scene_min, stats (CPU/RAM on the bar), clock_style (0 digital, 1 analog, 2 binary, 3 until Friday), water_min and eye_min (minutes between reminders, 0 = off), auto_break, start_menu (the Start menu shortcut), fs_hide (hide while a full-screen app or game is in front; also in the tray as Hide in full-screen apps), smart (the hints above), calendar_url (your calendar link, empty = off), and auto_close (close the open panel when the pointer leaves it or another window comes to the front; tray: Close the panel when the pointer leaves).
• apps.txt: pinned launcher entries, one per line: Name|target|optional arguments. The Apps tab edits it for you (+ and ×), but you can edit it by hand too: the target can be an exe, folder, URL or ms-settings: link. After editing, use tray → Reload pinned apps.
• todos.txt: the to-do list.
• pinned_clips.txt: the clipboard items you starred.
• focus_today.txt: today's focus minutes and finished tasks (resets each day).
• games_best.txt: best scores of the four games.
• brightness.log and scene.log: only written if a brightness change or a scene fails to start, with the reason.
• visibility.log also notes when the panel closed because another window came to the front.
• visibility.log: written when Nock hides itself because it thinks a full-screen window is in front (class, size and style of that window), so "it hides for no reason" can be diagnosed.

What that means in numbers (measured with Task Manager-style counters on a Windows 11 laptop, notch collapsed, nothing playing, build 0.8.x):

It is a native Rust program with no web view and no background polling, so it avoids the browser engine (typically a few hundred MB) that Electron-style widgets carry. It is not a benchmark against any specific app, and numbers go up briefly while you use it: the panel redraws as you hover, an animated scene or game uses a little CPU while it plays, and Stats samples once a second while that tab is open. You can check your own numbers in Task Manager → Details → nock.exe.

• Zero work while idle. The process blocks in GetMessage(). There is no polling loop anywhere.
• Timers exist only while needed: a ~60 fps animation timer only during expand/collapse and the small pill reactions; a 20 fps timer only for the equaliser bars and glow while music plays and the pill is collapsed; a 1 Hz timer only while the Stats tab is open, a focus timer runs, or the panel is open on a playing track; a 60 fps timer only while a game is being played; and a 3 s timer only if you turned on the CPU/RAM read-out. Reminders and the clock use single long timers.
• Now-playing, clipboard changes, foreground-window changes and hotkeys are all event driven (WinRT events, WM_CLIPBOARDUPDATE, SetWinEventHook).
• The bar and notch hide while a game or full-screen video/browser is active. During a full-screen video or browser (not games) you can bring them back by resting the pointer on the top edge near the middle of the screen; they slide away again once you move down. While that is active the app watches the pointer position with a tiny system hook that exists only during full screen.
• Drawing is Direct2D into a small bitmap, only the size of the current pill/panel, pushed to a per-pixel-alpha layered window. Artwork is decoded once per track.
• One long-lived background thread (the media session) plus short-lived ones for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and app-list lookups that exit when done. Release profile uses LTO, one codegen unit and panic=abort.

• Multi-display: pick the display from the tray menu (Show on display).
• Nock's windows have no title and are tool windows, so window pickers (OBS, screen recorders, Alt-Tab) should not list them. They still appear in full-screen / display captures, because they are drawn on the desktop.
• Media controls only do what the playing app allows through Windows. Apple Music for Windows, for example, does not let other programs seek, so its progress bar is display-only, and its Previous button is greyed out whenever the app reports it as unavailable.
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth buttons in the top bar toggle the radio through the Windows Radios API. If Windows exposes no such radio (or denies access) the button opens the matching Settings page instead.
• Brightness on laptop panels is set through the display driver directly (instant, follows the slider as you drag). If the driver does not offer that, it falls back to a slower WMI call through PowerShell.
• The volume slider follows the Windows default output device. Apps routed to a different device under Settings → Sound → Volume mixer aren't affected.
• Sleep uses the standard suspend call; if hibernation is enabled on your PC Windows may hibernate instead.
• The calendar shows the month only (no events). There is no weather or notification peek.
• The games are mouse only, because the notch never takes keyboard focus from your other apps. The to-do, search and timer boxes take typed characters only (no IME composition).
• Game sounds are simple system beeps.
• The installer and exe are not code-signed (see the SmartScreen note above).

Issues and pull requests are welcome, see CONTRIBUTING.md. Looking for something to work on? See GOOD_FIRST_ISSUES.md. Version history is in CHANGELOG.md.

MIT