Tiny Clips for Windows

A native WinUI 3 / Windows App SDK port of Tiny Clips — a tray-based screen-capture app (screenshots, video, GIF). See the full design in /plans/windows-winui3-port-plan.md.

Status: Phases 1–3 substantially complete — tray app with the region/screen/window capture picker, screenshot, MP4 video + animated GIF recording, post-capture screenshot editor and video/GIF trimmers, an on-screen recording indicator, global hotkeys, pre-capture countdown with a region outline, save toasts, launch-at-login, a full native Settings window, first-run onboarding, and a Guide. Mouse-click visual overlays, the branding overlay, and microphone + system-audio capture are implemented. Packaging/Store work is deferred. See the plan for the full roadmap.

Features

• Capture picker — choose Region, Screen, or Window (R / S / W) before any capture, mirroring the macOS picker. Video/GIF captures then show a pre-record setup panel before countdown.
• Screenshot (PNG/JPEG, scale, quality) — full screen, a specific window, or a drag-selected region. The region selector shows a live snapshot of the screen and dims only outside the selection.
• Scrolling capture — pick Scroll (P) in the Screenshot picker, select a region, then scroll the page; a floating panel shows the frame count with Done (Enter) to stitch everything into one tall image and Cancel (Esc) to discard. Sticky headers/footers are suppressed and memory use is bounded (the capture stops and saves automatically when a limit is reached). Enter/Esc apply while the panel has focus; use its buttons after clicking into the page.
• Video recording → hardware-accelerated H.264 MP4 (configurable frame rate, audio sources, microphone device, mouse-click visuals, and time limit before each recording).
• GIF recording → animated GIF (frame rate, max-width downscale, infinite loop).
• Recording indicator — a floating always-on-top panel shows the elapsed time and a Stop button (with the stop hotkey) while recording.
• Editor & trimmers — an optional post-capture screenshot editor (crop, copy, save / save-a-copy), a video trimmer, and a GIF trimmer, each openable automatically after capture.
• Region outline — a red outline frames the selected region during the countdown.
• Onboarding & Guide — a first-run welcome wizard and an in-app help reference.
• Clips Library — browse every saved capture from the tray. Collapsible sidebar with Smart Collections (All, Recent, This Week, This Month, Large Files, Favorites, Screenshots, Videos, GIFs), your Collections, and Tags; search across names, tags and notes; a Sort & Filter flyout (type, date, five sort orders); grid or list view; a details pane with inline video/GIF preview and an editor for name, tags, notes, collection; favorites; multi-select with batch favorite/tag/copy/share/delete; Windows Share and drag-out to other apps; rename, archive, Uploadcare upload/link; live updates via a folder watcher; thumbnails cached on disk. Keyboard: Ctrl+F search, Ctrl+A select all, Enter open, F2 rename, Delete, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+Shift+G/L grid/list, Ctrl+Shift+D details, Ctrl+Shift+E select mode, Ctrl+R refresh. Preferences live in Settings → Clips Library (defaults, density, quick actions, confirm delete, auto-refresh, archive-old-clips). Metadata is stored in clip-metadata.json in the app's local data folder; the files themselves are never modified.
• Global hotkeys — Screenshot Ctrl+Shift+5, Video Ctrl+Shift+6, GIF Ctrl+Shift+7, Stop recording Ctrl+Shift+S.
• Launch at login — optionally start TinyClips when you sign in to Windows.
• Pre-capture countdown and save toast notifications (both opt-in via Settings).
• System-tray Fluent menu (rounded/acrylic), light/dark/system theming, full Settings window.

Requirements

• Windows 11 21H2 (build 22000) or later
• .NET 10 SDK
• Windows SDK 10.0.26100
• Developer Mode enabled (Settings → System → For developers) for MSIX sideload/registration
• Optional: Windows App Development CLI (winapp) for identity, manifest, signing, and MSIX packaging:

  winget install Microsoft.winappcli --source winget
  

Project layout

windows/
  TinyClips.Windows.slnx        Solution
  Directory.Build.props         Shared TFM / min-version / platforms (x64, ARM64)
  src/
    TinyClips.App/              WinUI 3 packaged app (tray, DI bootstrap, windows)
    TinyClips.Core/             UI-free domain (services, models) — capture pipeline lands here
  tests/
    TinyClips.Core.Tests/       xUnit tests
    ui/                         winapp ui automation scripts (run against a live app by PID)
  tools/
    RecordingBenchmark/         Headless CPU-vs-GPU recording benchmark (manual; see docs)
  packaging/
    msix/  winget/              Packaging artifacts (later phases)
  spikes/                       Throwaway de-risking prototypes (not in the solution/CI)

Build & run

WinUI 3 requires an explicit platform (x64 or ARM64; AnyCPU is not supported).

# Restore
dotnet restore windows/TinyClips.Windows.slnx

# Build the app
dotnet build windows/src/TinyClips.App/TinyClips.App.csproj -c Debug -p:Platform=x64

# Run with package identity (uses the winapp CLI under the hood)
dotnet run --project windows/src/TinyClips.App/TinyClips.App.csproj -c Debug -p:Platform=x64

# Test
dotnet test windows/tests/TinyClips.Core.Tests/TinyClips.Core.Tests.csproj -c Debug

To build the Microsoft Store flavor (same feature set, Store distribution behavior), set:

dotnet build windows/src/TinyClips.App/TinyClips.App.csproj -c Debug -p:Platform=x64 -p:TinyClipsStoreBuild=true

The app launches tray-only (no window). Left- or right-click the tray icon for the Fluent menu: Screenshot, Capture Region, Record Video, Record GIF, Settings, Guide, Exit. Capture items first show the Region / Screen / Window picker. Video/GIF captures then show a setup panel before countdown and recording. Recording items toggle to Stop Recording (also Ctrl+Shift+S) while active, and a floating recording indicator shows the elapsed time. Global hotkeys work app-wide.

For coordinate/DPI behaviour across mixed-DPI monitors, see docs/dpi-and-coordinates.md.

For how the screen, webcam, microphone, and system audio are kept in sync (shared timeline, WASAPI capture, drift/discontinuity correction, audio back-pressure, the Audio offset setting, and the end-of-recording sync report), see docs/audio-video-sync.md.

For the experimental GPU recording pipeline (zero-copy WGC → Direct2D overlays → hardware encoder), the per-recording performance report, and the RecordingBenchmark harness with measured CPU-vs-GPU numbers, see docs/gpu-recording-pipeline.md.

CI

.github/workflows/windows-build.yml builds x64 + ARM64 and runs the Core tests on windows-latest. It is path-filtered to windows/**, so it only runs when Windows code changes.

Accessibility release gate

Before shipping a Windows release, complete the manual accessibility release-gate matrix against the packaged candidate. It covers keyboard-only and Narrator behavior for the tray, settings, capture flows, indicators, editor, trimmers, onboarding, and guide. A build or static automation review does not replace the documented hands-on results.

Distribution

• Direct (available now): install with winget install Refractored.TinyClips, or use the architecture-specific .appinstaller from a Windows GitHub Release as a stable bootstrap for the current version. Both routes install the same signed x64/ARM64 NativeAOT MSIX, which bundles its .NET native code and Windows App SDK runtime and checks for signed updates in the background and on launch. Clean Windows 11 machines need no separate runtime installation. winget upgrade and App Installer can both update the same package family. Fully free.
• Microsoft Store: Store-managed updates only. Store packages do not include the direct .appinstaller update channel. Feature set matches Direct; no Windows Pro tier.

See the plan for the full phased roadmap, packaging, and signing details.

For the Microsoft Store listing copy, screenshot plan, compliance answers, and protected CI/CD setup, see docs/microsoft-store-listing.md.