Learn the island.Own your flow.

Before you begin

ZenithBar is built for 64-bit editions of Windows 10 and Windows 11. Install it, open Settings from the island’s context menu, then choose your language, theme, display and activation behavior.

1. 01
   Install and launch

   Run the Windows installer. ZenithBar appears at the center of your selected screen’s top edge.

2. 02
   Choose how it opens

   Use On hover for a fluid reveal or On click when you want the island to remain completely deliberate.

3. 03
   Add your essentials

   Connect Calendar, pin apps in Quick Access and drop current files onto the file shelf.

The four primary spaces

Keyboard shortcuts

Section shortcuts are active while the island is expanded, so number keys keep their normal behavior everywhere else.

• Swipe horizontally with two fingers to move between sections when the pointer is not over a horizontal scroller.
• Move the pointer away to close automatically, unless the island is pinned, a drag is active or a confirmation needs your attention.
• Configure up to three compact activation zones to open Home, Quick Access or Files directly.

Opening a section directly

The closed bar is split into activation zones. The center pill opens the island on whichever section you left it, while the two side zones jump straight into a section of your choice — Quick Access on the left and Clipboard on the right by default, both configurable in Settings.

• Click a side zone to open its section immediately, skipping Home entirely.
• With hover-to-open enabled, resting the pointer over a side zone opens that same section — no click needed.

Scroll and Quick Look

Vertical scrolling switches modes, while horizontal scrolling keeps moving through lists. A gesture only counts when its vertical movement is larger than its horizontal movement, so a diagonal swipe over a carousel never flips the mode by accident.

• In Quick Access, scroll down to switch to Sites and up to return to Apps.
• In Clipboard, press Space for Quick Look on the card under the pointer.

Controls that stay in context

• View cover artwork, track title, artist, album and the source application.
• Play, pause, skip backward or forward, scrub the timeline and change the source app’s volume.
• Keep a compact music preview visible while the island is closed, or hide media entirely.

Supported sessions include popular players such as Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, TIDAL, SoundCloud, MusicBee, foobar2000 and AIMP when they expose playback through Windows.

1. 01
   Connect Google

   Open Settings → Calendar and sign in through the secure Google authorization window.

2. 02
   Choose calendars

   Select the active account and enable any additional calendars you want merged into the island.

3. 03
   Set reminders

   Turn on event reminders and choose a lead time from 5 to 60 minutes.

• The week strip and upcoming event list update automatically.
• Select an event to open it in Google Calendar or join its linked meeting.
• Calendar access is read-only; ZenithBar does not edit or delete your events.
• All-day events appear in the schedule but do not generate reminder previews.

Quick Access supports up to 13 apps. The first six stay immediately visible; the remaining seven live in the More area.

• Search the installed-app catalog or choose a custom executable.
• Drag apps to reorder them around your actual workflow.
• Enable hover labels when icons alone are not enough.
• Launch any pinned app without leaving the current workspace first.

Give an app your own icon

In Settings → Quick Access, the circular control next to a pinned app opens a small menu. Apps offer Change icon and, once one is set, Restore original icon.

• PNG, ICO and ICNS files are accepted, up to 10 MB.
• A preview shows the app in its real tile before anything is saved, so you can pick another file or cancel.
• Restoring brings back the icon Windows provides — the automatic one is never overwritten.

Apps and Sites, one scroll apart

Quick Access holds two separate boards: pinned Apps and pinned Sites. Scrolling moves between them without touching a button.

• Scroll down over the grid to reveal Sites; scroll up to come back to Apps. A page indicator flashes to confirm which board you landed on.
• The gesture works both on the Home preview and inside the full Quick Access section, and it is paced so one flick of a notched wheel changes exactly one board.
• Prefer clicking? The toggle above the grid and the two-stop slider below it switch boards as well.

Work with files, not windows

• Drop files or folders onto the island, then drag them back out into any compatible application.
• Search the shelf or filter by folders, files and images. Image items include visual previews.
• Create internal folders, rename items, reorder them and move content between folders.
• Link a real folder to open its current contents in Explorer without copying the whole directory.
• Open project folders with detected IDEs and dock useful folders to any screen corner.
• Removed items go to the shelf trash, where they can be restored or deleted permanently.

Cards that look like their files

Photos always showed themselves; now text does too. Notes, scripts, logs and other text files preview their own first lines on the card, so a shelf full of documents stops reading as the same repeated icon.

The file menu, in two steps

• The first level keeps what you reach for most: Open, Show in Explorer, Copy and Delete.
• More actions swaps the same panel for Pin, open in a detected IDE, Copy path, Duplicate and Rename, with Back at the top.

Send files to your phone

When Windows has a phone linked through Phone Link, dragging files over the island splits the drop area in two: your shelf on one side, the phone on the other.

• Drop on the phone half and the files are copied into a Zenith folder on the device storage.
• The island closes and the compact pill confirms the transfer, since there is nothing left to see on the shelf.
• Individual files only — folders are not sent — and the phone half appears only while a device is actually linked.

ZenithBar watches the Windows clipboard and turns supported content into a visual history. New captures are classified as text, links, images or colors and grouped by date.

• Search everything or filter by History, Text, Links, Images, Colors and Pinned.
• Copy an item again, open a saved link, drag content out or remove it from history.
• Pin important items and create collections for related references.
• Use Clear to remove only the items represented by the current filter.
• Copies made in another app carry that app’s icon at the bottom of the card, next to how long ago you copied it.

Quick Look with the Space bar

Clipboard is keyboard-first. Opening the section hands it keyboard focus right away, so Space works without clicking a card first — the same reflex as Quick Look in Finder.

• Point at any card and press Space to expand it into a full preview.
• The preview stays open after you release the key, so you can read it at your own pace.
• While a preview is open, moving the pointer to another card switches the preview to it — no need to close and reopen.
• Esc closes Quick Look, and a second Space on the same card does too.

Opposite the main island sits a smaller one. It answers two questions you would otherwise open a browser and a folder for: what the weather is doing, and whether that download has finished.

Weather

• The pill shows the current condition and temperature; hovering opens the full card.
• Inside: feels-like, humidity and wind, an hourly strip and a forecast for the coming days.
• The card takes its colors from your theme rather than from the weather, so a storm never repaints a corner of your screen.

Downloads

• Downloads in progress appear with live progress, whichever browser started them.
• Finished ones stay in a short history you can open, reveal in Explorer or clear.
• Images and videos show their own frame instead of a generic file-type icon, so a screenshot is recognizable at a glance.

Under the expanded island there is a dock of widgets. What you start there keeps running after the island closes, and the compact pill keeps showing it.

Pomodoro and stopwatch

• Run a focus session or a plain stopwatch with laps, whichever fits the task.
• A running timer survives the island collapsing — the countdown moves to the compact pill so the session stays visible while you work.

The notes fan

• The third dock button opens a fan of note cards, each with its title and a line of its content.
• Clicking a card turns the island into a reader sized to that note, with Pin, Reminder, Edit and Delete alongside it.
• Pinned notes lead the fan, so what matters stays first.
• Choose whether the fan is always visible, opens on click, or appears when the pointer rests just below the island.

• Show up to two compact notification previews while the rest wait in a quiet queue.
• Click a preview to open its app or the Windows notification center.
• Hide sensitive content, show only the app icon or group rapid alerts from the same source.
• Choose a preview duration from 10 to 30 seconds.

When Hide during games is enabled, ZenithBar detects true full-screen and borderless game sessions and temporarily hides the island.

• Add manually excluded applications when a specific full-screen tool should hide the island too.
• Common browsers and video players remain visible by default, so full-screen playback does not look like a game.
• Windows capture and snipping overlays are excluded from automatic hiding.

The island can look back at you

Set Center display to Face and the middle of the idle island becomes a pair of eyes that follow your pointer and blink on their own. Choosing the face gives up the clock in that spot.

• Expressions are not random — each one answers something the pointer actually did: arriving at the island, leaving it, dashing across the screen, being shaken, resting somewhere for a few seconds, or sitting still long enough to fall asleep.
• Launching a pinned app from Quick Access brings the face back happy.
• With Reduce motion, or your system’s reduced-motion setting, the eyes stay visible and still.

A unified Google profile can serve both Calendar and workspace backup. The backup is stored in your private Google Drive application-data area rather than among your normal Drive files.

• Back up your Quick Access arrangement, file shelf, clipboard workspace and preferences on demand.
• Restore the saved workspace after reinstalling or moving to another PC.
• See the last successful backup time before replacing your current setup.
• Signing out disconnects Google services; ordinary local features continue to work.

Enter your ZenithBar key in Settings → License to activate. The signed key can be verified locally, so the island does not need a permanent internet connection to remain activated. Deactivate before moving the license when required.

• Clipboard captures and notification content are processed locally on the PC.
• Files on the shelf remain on your device.
• Calendar requests use read-only Google access.
• Google Drive backup is optional, user-initiated and stored in a private application folder.
• License information is protected using Windows secure storage.
• To count how many installs and versions are active, the app periodically sends a random, hashed install identifier and its version number — nothing else. Details are in the privacy policy.