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knoxxr edited this page Jul 14, 2026 · 1 revision

Installation

Windows (installer)

  1. Download VirtualDesktopIndicator-Setup-<version>.exe from the Releases page.
  2. Double-click it and follow the wizard.
  • No .NET install required — the runtime is bundled (self-contained build).
  • No admin rights — installs per-user to %LocalAppData%\Programs\Virtual Desktop Indicator.
  • During setup you can choose a desktop shortcut and Run at Windows startup (on by default).
  • Uninstall from Settings → Apps → Installed apps, or the Start-menu entry "Uninstall Virtual Desktop Indicator". The autostart entry is cleaned up too.

The installed app checks GitHub Releases for a newer version on startup — see Updates.

Microsoft Store (MSIX)

The app can also be packaged as an MSIX for the Microsoft Store. In the Store build, updates are delivered by the Store (the GitHub self-update is disabled) and "Run at startup" uses the MSIX startup-task mechanism.

Maintainers: see Microsoft Store (MSIX) for how to build and submit.

Linux (X11)

A separate build under linux/ targets Linux/X11 with Avalonia UI — same overlay, hotkeys, tray, and settings, adapted to Linux:

  • Desktop detection/switching uses the EWMH X11 protocol (_NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP / _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS / _NET_DESKTOP_NAMES).
  • Global hotkeys use X11 key grabs (XGrabKey); the "Windows" modifier maps to Super.
  • Autostart writes a freedesktop entry to ~/.config/autostart.
  • Config lives at ~/.config/VirtualDesktopIndicator/config.json.
  • Updates are not self-installed — the app notifies you and opens the release page.

Requirements: an X11 (Xorg) session (Wayland is not supported) and a system tray/AppIndicator (on GNOME, the "AppIndicator" extension).

Install from the tarball: extract VirtualDesktopIndicator-linux-x64-<version>.tar.gz and run ./install.sh (per-user, no root).

⚠️ The Linux build compiles and publishes but has not yet been runtime-tested on a live X11 desktop. Reports from real GNOME/KDE/XFCE sessions are welcome.

Run / build from source

Requires the .NET 9 SDK and Windows 10/11 (x64).

dotnet run -c Release              # run
dotnet publish -c Release          # framework-dependent exe (.NET runtime required)

Linux:

dotnet publish linux/VirtualDesktopIndicator.Linux.csproj \
  -c Release -r linux-x64 --self-contained true -p:PublishSingleFile=true -o publish-linux
./publish-linux/virtual-desktop-indicator

See Building & Releasing for the installer and release workflow.

Virtual Desktop Indicator

Releases · Issues

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