Desktop Status Bar

A lightweight Windows desktop sidebar built with Tkinter. It stays on the right edge of the screen, shows real-time system stats, and includes a customizable quick-launch panel for apps, commands, websites, and local paths.

Features

• Real-time CPU, memory, disk, network, and battery monitoring
• Auto-hide sidebar on the right edge of the screen
• Pin button to keep the sidebar visible
• Semi-transparent floating UI
• Smooth scrolling quick-launch panel
• Built-in settings panel for adding and editing shortcuts
• Config saved in config.json

Requirements

• Windows
• Python 3
• psutil

Install

1. Run setup.bat
2. The script installs psutil
3. The sidebar is added to Windows startup
4. The app launches immediately

If you prefer manual install:

pip install psutil
pythonw status_bar.pyw

Usage

• Move the mouse to the right edge of the screen to reveal the sidebar
• Click 📌 to pin or unpin it
• Click ⚙ to open the shortcut settings panel
• Click ✕ to close the app

Recent Progress

• Improved the shortcut settings panel to preserve in-progress form edits when switching selection
• Reworked the left settings list into custom rows so selection updates feel lighter and less flickery
• Added themed scrollbar rendering and smoother wheel scrolling for the left shortcut list
• Added a Status Bar Settings section with desktop-only trigger mode, style presets, and opacity control
• Updated the shortcut list behavior so Add and Delete stay below the visible shortcut items and pin above Status Bar Settings only when the list overflows
• Added automatic scrolling to newly created shortcut items so they are selected and brought into view more reliably

Known Issue

• When the shortcut list is already full, a newly added item may still fail to appear immediately in the visible area until the list is saved or reopened; the item is usually created successfully, but the live visibility behavior still needs refinement

Manage Shortcuts

Use the settings panel to add, edit, remove, enable, or disable shortcuts.

Supported shortcut types:

• executable: launch a local .exe
• url: open a website
• command: run a CLI command
• system: open a local folder or file

Examples:

• executable target: C:\Program Files\App\App.exe
• url target: https://chatgpt.com
• command target: cursor
• system target: D:\Projects

Config File

Shortcuts are stored in config.json under shortcuts.

Example:

{
  "id": "notion",
  "name": "Notion",
  "icon": "📝",
  "kind": "url",
  "target": "https://www.notion.so",
  "browser": "chrome",
  "group": "Work",
  "enabled": true
}

Common fields:

• id: unique shortcut id
• name: display name
• icon: icon or emoji shown in the sidebar
• kind: executable, url, command, or system
• target: path, URL, or command
• group: section label in the sidebar
• enabled: whether the item is shown
• detect: optional app name used when target is auto
• browser: browser preference for URLs

Files

• status_bar.pyw: main application
• config.json: user configuration
• setup.bat: install and startup setup
• uninstall.bat: remove startup entry

Notes

• Some applications can be auto-detected from common install paths or the Windows registry
• You can still edit config.json directly if you prefer not to use the settings panel

License

No license file is included yet. Add one before reusing this project in other distributions.