KeyOverlay v0.2.0 – Windows Preview Release

KeyOverlay v0.2.0

KeyOverlay is a lightweight Windows utility that displays keyboard presses, mouse clicks, scrolling activity, and cursor highlights in a clean, customizable overlay.

It is designed for presentations, classroom demonstrations, software tutorials, livestreams, and screen recordings where viewers need to clearly see keyboard and mouse input.

✨ Features

Keyboard and Mouse Overlay

• Display keyboard presses in real time
• Show modifier-key combinations such as Ctrl + Shift + S
• Display left, middle, and right mouse clicks
• Optional mouse-click text and mouse icons
• Display mouse-wheel scrolling
• Control how many recent events remain visible
• Adjustable display and fade-out durations

Cursor Highlight

• Optional cursor highlight ring
• Multiple cursor colour themes
• Adjustable ring size, thickness, opacity, and glow
• Animated feedback when clicking
• Choose whether the cursor hotspot appears in the centre or along the edge of the ring
• Automatically hide the highlight after a selected period of inactivity

Customizable Appearance

• Dark, light, and custom colour themes
• Custom colours for keys, modifiers, mouse clicks, and scroll events
• Adjustable font size
• Adjustable overlay scale
• Separate content and background opacity controls
• Customizable key-pill rounding

Position and Layout Controls

• Position the overlay in common screen locations
• Horizontal and vertical layout options
• Manual X and Y positioning
• Adjustable margins, width, and height
• Display-resolution and scaling presets
• Improved support for multi-monitor arrangements

Keystroke Sounds

• Optional keystroke sound effects
• Adjustable volume
• Included sound presets:
  • Typewriter
  • Mechanical
  • Soft Click
  • Pop

🛠 Improvements in v0.2.0

• Improved input-processing and rendering performance
• Reduced unnecessary per-frame configuration updates
• Added safer, atomic settings-file saving
• Added validation and recovery for older or damaged configuration files
• Improved Windows release behaviour by hiding the console window
• Embedded the application icon directly into release builds
• Expanded automated testing for keyboard input, positioning, cursor highlighting, and overlay behaviour
• Improved continuous-integration checks across the complete Rust workspace

🐛 Fixes

• Fixed the main overlay ON/OFF control requiring an unreliable mouse interaction
• Fixed keystroke sounds remaining silent after being enabled
• Fixed cursor-click animation frames occasionally remaining visible
• Fixed the cursor ring appearing briefly in the upper-left corner of the screen
• Fixed cursor-ring centring when click animation was enabled
• Fixed lower-right cursor-edge positioning
• Fixed mouse events displaying text such as Left Click Click
• Fixed UI controls becoming inconsistent with their enforced setting ranges
• Fixed several dependency, formatting, Clippy, and Windows build issues

💾 Installation

1. Download the Windows build from the Assets section below.
2. Extract the downloaded archive if necessary.
3. Run the KeyOverlay executable.
4. Configure the overlay using the settings window.

KeyOverlay is currently intended for Windows 10 and Windows 11.

📝 Notes

This is an early preview release. Additional testing and refinement may still be required across different monitor layouts, display-scaling configurations, and Windows systems.

Bug reports and suggestions can be submitted through the repository's Issues page.

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Full Changelog: Compare this release with the previous version using GitHub's generated changelog link after publishing.