Corona

A radial app launcher for Windows. Press a hotkey and a circle of app icons appears around your cursor — click one to launch it.

Features

• Radial overlay — 8 app slots arranged in a circle, centered on your cursor
• Global hotkey — configurable, default is Alt + Space
• System tray — runs silently in the background, zero taskbar footprint
• Click to launch — move your cursor to an icon and click; press Escape or click outside to dismiss
• Settings UI — browse for any .exe (or any file with a shell handler), configure your hotkey

Requirements

• Windows 10 or later
• .NET 8 Runtime (Desktop runtime)

Getting started

Run from source

git clone <repo-url>
cd Corona
dotnet run

Build a single-file executable

dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained -p:PublishSingleFile=true

The exe will be in bin\Release\net8.0-windows\win-x64\publish\Corona.exe.

Usage

1. Launch Corona.exe — it appears in the system tray (bottom-right, near the clock)
2. Press Alt+Space anywhere to open the launcher around your cursor
3. Click an app icon to launch it
4. Press Escape or click outside the circle to dismiss

To configure:

• Right-click the tray icon → Settings
• Click Browse on any slot to assign an app
• Change the hotkey using the modifier checkboxes and key dropdown
• Click Save

Data

Settings and crash logs are stored in:

%APPDATA%\Corona\
  settings.json   — app slots and hotkey
  crash.log       — error log (tray → "Open crash log")

Project structure

Corona/
├── App.xaml / App.xaml.cs          — startup, tray icon, hotkey wiring
├── RadialOverlay.xaml / .cs        — transparent circle overlay
├── SettingsWindow.xaml / .cs       — settings UI
├── Models/
│   ├── AppSlot.cs                  — single launcher slot
│   └── AppSettings.cs              — full settings model
├── Services/
│   ├── SettingsService.cs          — JSON persistence
│   └── GlobalHotkeyService.cs      — Win32 RegisterHotKey wrapper
├── Helpers/
│   ├── IconHelper.cs               — extracts icons from executables
│   └── Logger.cs                   — file-based crash logger
└── ViewModels/
    └── SlotViewModel.cs            — INotifyPropertyChanged wrapper for settings UI