A Windows desktop app for frameless, always-on-top sticky notes — they float above every other window, like the built-in Windows Sticky Notes, but with richer text formatting: an explicit font-size dropdown (10–72) alongside Bold and Italic. Built as a personal tool after none of the existing open-source alternatives combined a redistributable license with that feature set — see Design notes for what was evaluated and why this wasn't forked from any of them.
- Python 3.12 + PySide6 (Qt) — chosen over WPF/C# for consistency with
the rest of this author's projects, and over Tkinter for far easier
rich-text (
QTextEdit) and modern styling support. - No database, no cloud sync, no account, no Docker — notes are stored in a
local
notes_data.json(source runs) or%LOCALAPPDATA%\Trozovka Notes\(packaged.exe).
Why this must run as a native Windows process: "always on top of any app" is an OS-level window property. A Linux GUI app (even via WSLg) can only float above other Linux windows — it cannot overlay native Windows applications. This app must be run with a Windows Python interpreter, even if the source lives on WSL.
Two ways to run it — use the download if you just want to see it working; use source if you want to read or modify the code.
Grab Trozovka Notes.exe from the latest release
and double-click it — no Python install required.
It's an unsigned executable, so on first run Windows SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC." Click More info → Run anyway to launch it.
Requires Python 3.12+ installed on Windows (not inside WSL/Linux — see "Tech stack" above).
git clone https://github.com/Trozovka/Trozovka-Notes.git
cd Trozovka-Notes
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py
To build your own .exe instead of downloading the release, run
build-exe.ps1 — output lands in dist\Trozovka Notes.exe.
Either way, the app has no window chrome in the taskbar by design (it's a floating utility, like the real Sticky Notes) — use the tray icon in the notification area to create new notes or bring all notes to the front.
Run create-desktop-shortcut.ps1 once from Windows PowerShell to add a
"Trozovka Notes" icon to the Desktop — double-click it to launch the app.
remove-desktop-shortcut.ps1 deletes it again.
This is launch-on-demand only, by design: an earlier version of this script registered the app to auto-launch at Windows login via the Startup folder, but Bitdefender's behavior blocker flagged that as malicious persistence and shut down the app along with everything else running alongside it (including WSL). A plain Desktop shortcut avoids that entirely.
- Multiple independent note windows — frameless, rounded, draggable, and resizable from any edge or corner
- Always-on-top: notes float above any other Windows application
- Rich text formatting: Bold, Italic, and a font-size dropdown (10–72)
- Color picker with 7 note colors (yellow, green, pink, purple, blue, gray, charcoal)
- Autosave: content, formatting, position, size, and color persist locally and reload on relaunch
- System tray icon: new note, show all notes, quit
Before writing any code, existing open-source sticky-note projects were searched and evaluated:
| Project | Why it wasn't forked |
|---|---|
| PaperTodo (WPF, 1.4k★) | Feature-rich (font/size/bold/colors) but licensed under PolyForm Noncommercial — not a redistributable open-source license |
| PinnyNotes (WPF, GPL-2.0) | Real always-on-top implementation, but a plain-text power-user tool with no bold/italic/font-size formatting |
| li-zheng-hao/StickyNotes (MIT) | Abandoned since 2023 |
| NoteBot | No LICENSE file at all |
| Playork/StickyNotes | Web app (Vue) — can't achieve OS-level always-on-top |
None were both properly open-source and a close feature match, so this was
built independently. PinnyNotes' Topmost window approach informed the
general architecture (not its code).
Trozovka
MIT — see LICENSE. Copyright (c) 2026 Trozovka.