Wisp

A dock and a launcher for Windows.
Replaces the taskbar. One ~1.5 MB executable.

Wisp hides the taskbar. A dock takes its place.

Touch the bottom edge of the screen. The dock slides up.

Press Alt+Space. The dock grows into the launcher. Type, then press Enter.

Wisp is written in Rust with Win32 and Direct2D. It needs no .NET, web view or PowerToys.

Dock

• Shows your running apps. Click one to switch to it.
• Holds your tray icons. Icons you pin in Windows sit in the dock. The rest are behind ⌄.
• Shows volume, battery and the clock. Scroll over the volume to change it. Click it to mute.
• Hides when you move away. Stays hidden over full-screen apps.
• Needs the real taskbar? Right-click ⌄ and choose Show taskbar.

If Wisp quits or crashes, the taskbar comes back. No tray icon is lost.

Launcher

Type	Get
code	Apps, then files. vsc finds Visual Studio Code.
?invoice	Files only
^vis · term$ · 'note · !edge	Starts with · ends with · exact · exclude
sqrt(2) * 10	A result. Enter copies it.
> ipconfig	Runs in Command Prompt
wifi off · bt · vol 40 · mute	Changes the setting. Tab lists networks, devices or outputs.
play · pause · next	Controls media
w code	Switches to an open window
lock · sleep · restart · shut down	Does it. Some ask for a second Enter.
time tokyo · date	Copies the time or date
dark mode · display · …	Opens the Settings page
now · sound	Live panels for status and audio
quit	Quits Wisp
anything else	Searches the web

Recent apps rank higher. They show when the box is empty.

Keys	Action
Alt+Space	Show or hide the launcher
Enter	Open or run the selected result
Tab	More actions, such as Run as administrator
Ctrl+Shift+Enter	Run as administrator
Ctrl+Shift+E	Show in File Explorer
Ctrl+Shift+C	Copy the path
Esc	Close

Drag and drop

Drag a result out of the launcher. No need to open File Explorer.

• Files and folders: drop into a chat, an email, an upload box or a folder. The original stays put.
• Apps: drop on the desktop or in a folder to make a shortcut.
• Text: drop a calculator result, the time, the date or a path into any text box.
• Links: drop a URL or web search into a browser or a chat.

The launcher steps aside while you drag. Press Esc to cancel.

Speed

Wisp 0.2.0 against PowerToys Run 0.94 on the same PC. Median of 30 runs.

	Wisp	PowerToys Run
Typing → first results	24 ms	200 ms
Shortcut → launcher drawn	15 ms	30 ms
Memory	20 MB	302 MB
Size on disk	1.5 MB (0.4.0)	794 MB

The dock grows into the launcher in 155 ms. Each frame takes at most 8 ms. A hidden dock uses almost no CPU.

bench/ has the method and the full results.

Install

1. Download the zip from the latest release.
2. Extract it to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Wisp.
3. Run wisp.exe.

The settings app opens on the first run. It sets your shortcut and Start with Windows.

The settings app also updates Wisp. Open it and select Update on the About page.

Note

PowerToys Run also uses Alt+Space. Turn it off, or change Wisp's shortcut.

Note

Wisp is not code-signed. If SmartScreen warns you, choose More info → Run anyway.

Config

Open Settings from the tray icon. Or edit %APPDATA%\wisp\config.toml.

hotkey = "Alt+Space"
theme = "system"            # "system" | "dark" | "light"
backdrop = "acrylic"        # "acrylic" | "mica" | "solid"
position = "bottom"         # "bottom" | "center"
dock = true
hide_taskbar = true
max_results = 8
show_recent = true
file_search = true
search_url = "https://www.google.com/search?q={query}"

Configs from Wisp 0.3 keep the taskbar. To switch, set dock and hide_taskbar to true and position to "bottom".

To add your own panel, put a TOML file in %APPDATA%\wisp\surfaces. See src/surface/now.toml.

How it works

• Tray icons. Wisp creates its own hidden Shell_TrayWnd. Apps find it first. Wisp copies each icon and passes the message on to Explorer.
• One window. The dock and the launcher are the same window. That is how the dock can grow into the launcher.
• Blur. Windows turns its blur off for windows that are not active. The dock is never active, so it uses an older blur API that stays on.
• Drawing. Direct2D draws in software. It is fast at this size and saves about 30 MB.
• Apps. Wisp reads shell:AppsFolder, the same list as Start.
• Files. Wisp queries the Windows Search index on a worker thread.

Build

Install Rust and the Windows SDK.

git clone https://github.com/SumirSeth/wisp
cd wisp
cargo build --release --workspace

To try changes without touching your installed Wisp, run scripts\install-nightly.ps1. It installs Wisp Nightly with its own folder, config and shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+Space).

For timings and screenshots, build with --features perf-trace. Then run scripts\measure-perf.ps1 or scripts\capture-screenshots.ps1.

Contributing

CI runs these checks. Run them before you open a pull request:

cargo fmt --all --check
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets --features wisp/nightly,wisp-settings/nightly,wisp/perf-trace -- -D warnings
cargo test --workspace

License

MIT © Sumir Seth