Beacon

A fast file search and launcher for Windows 11, built with WinUI 3. Beacon indexes your NTFS drives using the MFT (Master File Table) for near-instant full-text search across millions of files.

Features

Quick Search

• Instant search with 50ms debounce and FTS5 full-text matching
• File preview panel — images, source code, and metadata with file size, dates, and attributes
• Raycast-style action menu (Tab or right-click) — Open, Reveal in Explorer, Copy Path, Copy Name, Open in Terminal
• Usage-based ranking — frequently opened files appear higher in results (60% relevance + 40% usage score)
• Keyboard-driven — Arrow keys to navigate, Enter to open, Ctrl+Enter to reveal, Esc to hide

Advanced Search

• Multi-column table view inspired by Everything — Name, Path, Size, Date Modified
• Sortable columns — click any header to sort ascending/descending
• Toggleable columns — right-click the header to show/hide: Extension, Type, Date Created, Date Accessed, Attributes
• Same action menu as Quick Search on right-click

Indexing

• NTFS MFT enumeration via FSCTL_ENUM_USN_DATA for fast initial indexing (requires admin)
• Fallback directory scan using Directory.EnumerateFileSystemEntries when MFT access is unavailable
• Real-time file watching with FileSystemWatcher to keep the index up to date
• Multi-volume support — select which drives to index in Settings

System Integration

• Global hotkey (default: Alt+Space) to toggle the window from anywhere
• System tray with quick actions: Show, Reindex, Settings, Quit
• Start with Windows option via registry
• Minimize to tray — closing the window hides it instead of quitting

Settings

• Hotkey — customizable global shortcut with modifier key support
• Appearance — Mica, Acrylic, or None backdrop (applied live) + Light/Dark/System theme
• Max results — configurable between 50 and 1000
• Indexed volumes — choose which fixed NTFS drives to index
• Start with Windows toggle

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
UI Framework	WinUI 3 (Windows App SDK 1.8)
Runtime	.NET 8
Database	SQLite with FTS5 via Microsoft.Data.Sqlite
Logging	Serilog (rolling file logs)
Deployment	Unpackaged, self-contained

Architecture

Beacon/
├── App.xaml.cs              # App entry, logging, static service references
├── MainWindow.xaml.cs       # Window management, hotkey, tray, navigation
├── Pages/
│   ├── SearchPage           # Quick search with preview panel
│   ├── AdvancedSearchPage   # Multi-column table search
│   └── SettingsPage         # All configurable options
├── Services/
│   ├── DatabaseService      # SQLite FTS5 schema, search, CRUD
│   ├── NtfsIndexingService  # MFT scan, fallback scan, file watcher
│   ├── SearchService        # Search orchestration with filters
│   └── SettingsService      # JSON settings persistence
├── Models/
│   ├── FileEntry            # Database record model
│   ├── SearchResult         # Search result with scoring
│   ├── AdvancedSearchRow    # Table view row with live FileInfo
│   └── AppSettings          # Persisted configuration
└── Helpers/
    ├── Win32                # P/Invoke declarations
    ├── ActionPanel          # Raycast-style flyout builder
    └── FileIconHelper       # Extension-to-icon mapping

Building

Prerequisites:

• Windows 10/11 (build 19041+)
• .NET 8 SDK
• Visual Studio 2022 with Windows App SDK workload, or just the .NET CLI

dotnet build src/Beacon/Beacon.csproj

The output binary is at src/Beacon/bin/Debug/net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0/win-x64/Beacon.exe.

Data Storage

All data is stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Beacon\:

• beacon.db — SQLite database with file index and usage history
• settings.json — user preferences
• logs/ — rolling log files (7-day retention)

License

All rights reserved.