The fastest way to find or launch anything on your Windows PC.
Zero setup. Zero ads. Zero learning curve. Just press Ctrl + Space and type.
Ctrl + Space
↓
Type what you need
↓
Press Enter
↓
Done.
No complicated syntax to memorize. No dashboards to navigate. No waiting.
Spotlight-Win stays out of your way until you summon it, does the obvious thing, and disappears.
Spotlight-Win understands what you mean without requiring command prefixes:
| What you type | What Spotlight does |
|---|---|
chrome |
Launches Google Chrome |
code or vscode |
Launches Visual Studio Code |
project report |
Opens your recent document |
45 * 12 or sqrt(144) |
Instantly evaluates the math |
100 usd to eur |
Live currency conversion |
github.com |
Opens your browser |
task manager |
Launches Windows Task Manager |
sleep or lock |
Puts PC to sleep or locks screen |
Search across installed applications, system tools, documents, downloads, code files, and folders with sub-15ms latency. Deep directory results clearly show parent folder context (e.g., Projects > my-app).
Evaluate math expressions directly inline—supporting arithmetic, powers (2^8), and standard functions (sqrt, sin, cos, abs, log).
Type conversions naturally (e.g. 250 usd to inr, 50 gbp to jpy). Rates update automatically in the background and are cached offline for instant response.
Type URLs directly or create custom short aliases (e.g. yt → https://youtube.com, gh → https://github.com) to launch favorite destinations with a few keystrokes.
- 100% Offline-First: No web telemetry, no tracking, and zero Bing scraper ads.
- Ultra-Lightweight: Idles at <30 MB RAM with <1% background CPU impact.
- Safe Execution: Uses native Windows
ShellExecuteWto launch apps and files with their default OS-registered associations.
We follow a strict interaction philosophy: One search box. One obvious answer.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Space | Summon or hide Spotlight |
| Enter | Do the obvious thing (open top result) |
| ↑ / ↓ | Move selection |
| Shift + Enter | Reveal selected file in Windows Explorer |
| Ctrl + Shift + C | Copy selected item path to clipboard |
| Alt + Enter | Forget item from recent history |
| Esc | Get me out (close window) |
(Power-user escape hatches like app:, file:, folder:, and sys: exist if you ever want to force-filter, but you never need them for everyday work.)
Spotlight-Win combines a responsive web frontend with a high-performance native Rust core via Tauri v2:
-
Two-Stage Retrieval & Hard Bounding: Tantivy inverted index retrieves candidate matches in sub-millisecond time. The ranking hot path is strictly bounded to
$\le 48 \text{ candidates} + \approx 200 \text{ installed apps}$ , completely decoupling index size from keystroke latency. - Decoupled Personal Composite Ranking: Final results are scored across Match Quality (70%), Personal Profile (25% with 7-day half-life exponential recency decay and logarithmic frequency), and Context (5%).
- Self-Healing State Recovery: Transparent automatic reconstruction of derived index files on unexpected process termination or corruption—zero error popups or manual user fixes required.
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In-Memory Caching &
$O(1)$ Mapping: Extracted Windows binary icons, precomputed normalized names, acronyms, and path lookup maps avoid disk I/O and per-keystroke allocations. - Debounced Incremental Watcher: Real-time filesystem changes (Desktop, Start Menu, User Folders) batch-update without UI stutter or SSD thrashing.
- Single Activation Invariant: A single launcher session can activate a selected result at most once. Repeated Enter keydowns, OS key-repeat, and concurrent activation attempts are consumed idempotently until a new session is initiated.
- Intentional Multi-Instance Invariant: Distinguishes accidental within-session repeats from deliberate multi-window launches across sessions. Launching an already-running app prompts for confirmation ("Do you want to open another Chrome window / instance?") with Enter confirming and Esc safely cancelling. Non-app targets execute immediately.
- Failsafe System Actions: Destructive actions (shutdown, restart) require deliberate keywords and trigger confirmation prompts before execution.
git clone https://github.com/Snaehath/Win-Spotlight.git
cd Win-Spotlight
npm install
# Run automated product invariant and benchmark test suite
npm test
# Launch dev server
npm run tauri devnpm run build:releaseStandalone setup files and binaries will be generated in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.
Spotlight-Win is operating under an active feature freeze for its upcoming Release Candidate to focus exclusively on production reliability, Windows integration, and friction removal.
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🗺️ Long-Term Vision: See ROADMAP.md for our full 12–18 month plan evolving Spotlight-Win into the fastest command surface for Windows (Personalization → System Actions → Clipboard → Workflows → Local AI).
-
📋 Release Candidate Checklist: Detailed release exit criteria and soak testing protocols are tracked in
RC_ACCEPTANCE_MATRIX.md. -
Bounded Two-Stage Search: Tantivy candidate retrieval with bounded personal ranking and zero-allocation metadata.
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Self-Healing Index Recovery: Automatic transparent recovery from unexpected process kills and corrupt cache states.
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User State Preservation: Defensive timestamped backups of
history_v2.jsonon corruption before state reset. -
Single Activation Invariant: Dual-boundary session lock preventing duplicate launches from held or repeated Enter presses.
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Automated Invariant Suite: 9 automated regression tests covering scoring separation, exponential recency, acronyms, and safeguards.
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End-to-End Latency Verification: Real-world dogfooding measuring p50 (<50ms) / p95 (<100ms) / p99 keypress-to-paint times.
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Edge-Case Resilience: Seamless behavior across multi-monitor setups, high-DPI scaling (125%, 150%, 200%), and Windows sleep/wake cycles.
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Zero-Friction Installer: Smooth one-click install/uninstall experience for everyday users.
Spotlight-Win is built to give Windows users the clean, blazing-fast search experience they deserve.
If you encounter unexpected results, have ideas on ranking tuning, or want to suggest improvements:
- Open an Issue for bug reports or ranking feedback.
- Join the Discussions to share your daily workflow impressions.
Reclaim your desktop. Stay in flow.