A privacy-first Windows tray app (C# .NET 8 + WPF) that captures native Windows toast notifications and mirrors them into a fully customisable, always-on-top overlay. It is especially useful on 4K, 5K, ultrawide, and multi-monitor setups where default Windows toasts are easy to miss. Filter noise, style cards per app, narrate only the alerts that matter, and keep notification text RAM-only by default. If you explicitly enable Session Archive, Notifications Pro also keeps a temporary in-memory archive for the current app session so you can review or copy recent captured notifications; it is never written to disk and is cleared when the app closes.
Still in active development. I use it every day. More updates coming.
- Download the latest
.msixpackage and matching.cercertificate from GitHub Releases. - Install the certificate only if you trust the release and want Windows to trust that package signature, then install the
.msix. - Launch Notifications Pro and grant Windows notification access when prompted.
- If live notifications still do not appear, open
Settings > System > Notification Accessand useRetry Access Checkor switchCapture ModetoForce Accessibility.
| Default Windows notifications | Notifications Pro |
|---|---|
| Small transient toasts that are easy to miss on 4K/5K/ultrawide displays | A resizable always-on-top overlay you can place exactly where you want, including a dedicated side monitor |
| One-size-fits-all presentation | Per-app icons, sounds, card backgrounds, typography, timestamps, density, and grouping controls |
| Limited control over what breaks focus | App mute, field-scoped rules, app-filtered rules, deduplication, quiet hours, burst protection, and focus mode |
| No dedicated notification workspace | Put notifications on any monitor, use a fullscreen backdrop on a spare display, or pin the overlay to a consistent corner |
| Basic speech/accessibility control | Built-in narration, per-app read aloud, rule-gated speech, Voice Access labels, auto-duration, and accessibility-aware styling |
| System decides when to dismiss toasts | Persistent cards, auto-duration, hover-to-pause, and explicit visible-card limits |
| Overflow and history behavior are opaque | RAM-only visible cards, overflow count only, and no disk history of notification content by default |
Notifications Pro is built for people who need more control than Windows offers out of the box: developers watching builds and reviews, social/community managers tracking mentions, streamers keeping alerts readable on a second screen, and anyone using a high-resolution desktop where standard toasts disappear too quickly or too far into the corner.
| Role | Why You Need It |
|---|---|
| Streamers & Creators | Read chat and alerts on a single monitor while maintaining full-screen gaming focus. Use OBS Chroma-key integration for seamless stream overlays. |
| Developers & Engineers | Catch CI/CD build failures, PR reviews, or server alerts while deep in focus mode. Texts aren't truncated like default Windows toasts. |
| ADHD & Neurodivergent | Never lose a thought. Persistent notifications ensure you decide when a reminder disappears, not an arbitrary 5-second timer. |
| Professionals | Filter noise. Auto-mute Slack during meetings, but highlight "urgent" emails in red so you only break focus for emergencies. |
| Social & Community Managers | Monitor brand mentions, DMs, and engagement across platforms like X (Twitter), Discord, and Reddit without drowning in browser tabs. |
- WinRT listener (
UserNotificationListener) — the primary capture path, requires a one-time permission grant via Windows Settings. - Accessibility fallback — uses
SetWinEventHook+ UI Automation to read toast text when the WinRT path is unavailable (e.g. unpackaged app restrictions). Simultaneous notifications are split into individual entries rather than merged. - Capture mode selector —
Settings > System > Notification Accessnow offersAuto,Prefer WinRT, andForce Accessibilityso you can recover quickly if live notifications stop flowing through the direct path. - Polling guard — a 2-second polling loop supplements the event-driven path for reliability; a flag prevents overlapping polls.
- Toast suppression (optional) — after capturing a notification, the app can remove the native Windows toast popup so only the overlay shows. The WinRT path now attempts removal before the overlay card is queued to reduce visible flashing, and Notifications Pro ignores its own startup/self toasts so suppression does not bounce the app’s tray balloon back into the overlay. Requires the WinRT path. Off by default.
- Always-on-top, transparent, borderless — sits over any application.
- Click-through mode — overlay is visually present but all mouse events pass through to whatever is beneath.
- Drag anywhere — click and drag the overlay to reposition. Right-click a notification card for a context menu (dismiss, copy text, clear all, mute app).
- Click-to-dismiss — left-click a card to remove it.
- Hover-to-pause — hovering over the overlay pauses all expiry timers so you can finish reading before cards disappear.
- Multi-monitor support — place the overlay on any connected display; it remembers which monitor.
- Quick position + monitor move —
Settings > Layoutcan move the overlay directly to a selected monitor and snap it to common corners/edges without manual dragging. - Edge snapping — configurable snap distance; overlay aligns to screen edges when dragged nearby.
- Manual resize — drag the left or right edge of the overlay to change its width. Resize anchors to the edge it is near so right-aligned overlays do not jump.
- Fullscreen overlay mode — expands the overlay to cover an entire monitor with a configurable semi-transparent backdrop (solid colour or local image, with opacity and fit controls). Useful as a dedicated notification monitor or for focus sessions.
- OBS fixed-window mode — locks the overlay to a precise width/height for predictable window-capture in OBS/streaming tools.
- Stacked cards — each notification is a separate card, and the optional scrollbar applies when the currently visible cards need more vertical space.
- Single-line banner mode — a compact banner-style layout. Keep each notification to one line, or allow wrapping up to a configurable max-line count. Timestamps can render inline when enabled.
- Replace mode — globally available text-replacement rendering that works across all layout modes.
- Text alignment — choose Left / Center / Right alignment for stacked cards, wrapped banner cards, and the live preview.
- Newest-on-top toggle — controls whether new notifications appear at the top or bottom.
- Retained notifications — configurable 1–1000 retained cards, with new installs/reset defaults now starting at
40. Extra notifications increment a+N not shownsummary instead of being retained, and clicking that summary can raise the limit for future cards. The themed scrollbar is enabled by default for fresh installs but only appears when the retained cards overflow the overlay height; it does not resurrect discarded overflow items. - Max overlay height — the overlay expands vertically up to this limit, then shows a scrollbar. Clamped to the active monitor work area.
- Width / height presets — quick buttons for 1080p / 2K / 4K / 8K display sizes.
- Built-in theme presets — select from a dropdown and apply in one click.
- Custom themes — save your current overlay look by name; re-apply or delete any time.
- Import / export — share a complete settings profile as a JSON file. Filtering rules, settings-window theme state, settings-window display mode, and compact-window mode round-trip cleanly, while managed custom assets are stored as relative Notifications Pro references instead of machine-specific absolute paths.
- Named profiles — save, load, and delete full profile snapshots from the Profiles tab or tray menu, including filtering rules, settings-window styling, popup/window behavior, and the same portable managed-asset references used by settings export/import.
- Typography — independently configure font family, size, and weight for app name, title, and body text. Line spacing control.
- Timestamps — optional per-card timestamps in Relative (
2m ago), Time (14:35), or DateTime format, with independent size, weight, and colour. - Colours — independent hex colours for title, app name, body text, background, and accent stripe.
- Background opacity — from fully opaque to near-transparent.
- Card background images — optional local image per stacked notification card with explicit
Solid / Imagemode plus opacity, hue, brightness, saturation, contrast, black-and-white, fit, coverage, and vertical-focus controls. You can keep the image inside the padded content area or let it span the full card, while the normal background colour remains the fallback base. - Card shape — corner radius, internal padding, card gap, outer margin.
- Grouping appearance — grouped notifications can render as a
Framed Group,Header Chip, orMinimal Label, with optional per-group counts, while reusing the normal accent/border/text styling controls. - Accent stripe — 3 px coloured bar on the left edge of each card.
- Optional border — thin border around each card, configurable colour and thickness.
- Highlight styling — matched highlight rules can add configurable tint opacity, explicit highlight border width, choose a full border / accent-side-only / no-border frame, optionally play
Flash,Pulse, orShake, and individual highlight rules can override those treatments directly fromSettings > Filtering.Send Highlight Previewlets you verify the current highlight styling locally without waiting for a real toast. - Per-app tint — subtle colour tint on each card based on the source app name.
- Icons — optional per-app icons using 10 built-in vector presets (Bell, Megaphone, Star, Warning, Info, Heart, Lightning, Fire, Chat, Checkmark) or your own image files. Icon size configurable 16–48 px.
- Dyslexia-friendly font — bundled OpenDyslexic typeface with one-click preset buttons in
Appearance > Typography. It is packaged as an app-local Notifications Pro resource rather than installed into Windows system fonts. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md. - Apps tab overrides — assign per-app
Read aloud, sound, icon, and card-background overrides once Notifications Pro has seen that app, with app search,Only modified, and one-click reset. - Apps tab stability — per-app override controls now bind directly to the settings window, avoiding the repeated WPF popup-binding errors that could appear when opening the
Appstab. - Chroma key — solid-colour background (green / blue / magenta / custom) for OBS chroma-key filtering.
- Information density presets — Compact / Comfortable / Spacious — adjusts typography, spacing, and line limits in one click from the
Appearancetab.
- Notification duration — configurable display time in seconds; each card has its own timer.
- App grouping — optional grouping by source app, with a separate appearance control so the grouping behaviour lives in
Behaviorand the styling lives inAppearance. - Persistent notifications — disable auto-expiry; cards stay until manually dismissed.
- Auto-duration — extends display time based on notification length (configurable base seconds + seconds-per-line).
- Animations — choose from
Slide + Fade,Slide,Fade,Drift + Fade,Zoom + Fade, orPop; directional styles still respect Left / Right / Top / Bottom, duration is configurable up to1200ms, and motion easing can useEaseOut,Bounce,Elastic, orLinear. - Deduplication — suppress identical notifications within a configurable time window.
- Quiet hours — block all notifications between configurable start/end times (supports overnight ranges).
- Burst protection — cap the number of notifications accepted in a sliding time window to avoid floods.
- Always-on-top — toggle without restarting; also available from the tray menu.
- Per-app mute — silence notifications from specific apps. Muted-app choices are saved in settings, and the Settings UI also shows apps seen this session for quick management.
- Field-scoped keyword rules — highlight or mute rules can target
Title Only,Body Only, orTitle + Body, with optional regex matching. - App-filtered rules — highlight, mute, and narration rules can be limited to a specific app name such as
X,Outlook,Slack,Codex, orAntigravity. - Editable rule cards — highlight, mute, and narration rules can all be edited in place after creation, and the Filtering tab now keeps those editors in a compact-friendly single-column layout instead of squeezed multi-column rows.
- Narration rules — optional read-aloud overrides can force
Read AloudorSkip Read Aloudfor matching notifications, with an optional spoken-content override and a mirroredOnly speak matching rulestoggle inSettings > Filtering. - Local highlight preview —
Settings > Filtering > Send Highlight Previewinjects a local highlighted test card so you can verify tint, border, and animation changes immediately. - Focus mode — a timed DND period (configurable minutes) accessible from the tray menu.
- Presentation mode — auto-DND when a configured app (PowerPoint, Zoom, Teams, etc.) goes fullscreen.
- Master toggle for notification sounds.
- Windows sound list — Notifications Pro enumerates the Windows sound events currently exposed in the registry, deduplicated by WAV path, so you can pick from the sounds your machine actually exposes instead of a hardcoded short list.
Note: Windows 11 unified many system sound events, so some choices may still produce the same audio. For distinct sounds use a custom WAV file.
- Custom WAV files — browse for any
.wavfile; stored under%AppData%\NotificationsPro\sounds\. - Per-app overrides — assign a different sound to each app. Imported settings and saved profiles now trust only Windows system sounds or files inside Notifications Pro’s managed sounds folder.
- Test button — play the current default sound immediately.
- Start with Windows — enables/disables the packaged Windows Startup Task for Notifications Pro.
- Notification access recovery — the System tab shows current capture status, includes buttons to open Windows notification access, retry the direct WinRT access check, and run a capture diagnostic, and exposes
Auto,Prefer WinRT, andForce Accessibilitycapture modes. - Session archive — optional, off by default, and still RAM-only. When enabled, Notifications Pro keeps a temporary in-memory list of captured notifications for the current app session so you can review them in Settings or use the explicit copy actions in Settings and the tray menu to send them to the Windows clipboard. Notifications Pro does not save that archive to files or databases, and clears it when the app closes.
- About dialog — tray menu About shows the installed version, package identity, listener mode/status, runtime version, and project link.
- Tray quick actions — the tray menu can show/hide the overlay, pause notifications, toggle always-on-top / click-through, start focus mode, clear all, quick mute seen apps, and switch saved themes or profiles.
- Tray listener health — tray tooltip surfaces the active listener mode plus current status details for faster troubleshooting.
- Global hotkeys — register system-wide keyboard shortcuts for: toggle overlay visibility, dismiss all notifications, toggle Do Not Disturb.
- Settings undo/redo — Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y with a 50-entry history stack, plus undo/redo buttons in the settings header.
- Settings window theming — Dark / Light / System / any named overlay theme. Colours are fully customisable (background, surface, text, accent, border), and you can link the overlay theme and settings-window theme when you want both to move together.
- Settings popup mode — settings window can open as a normal resizable window or as a popup shell, with optional auto-close, a compact-width layout, and remembered placement so live setting changes do not yank it back to the primary display.
- Quick tips toggle —
Settings > Settings Windowcan turn the first-run guidance banner on or off without affecting notification capture.
- Accessibility mode toggle — enables persistent notifications + system motion/contrast/text-scaling respect in one click.
- Respect Reduce Motion — disables slide animations when Windows "Reduce Motion" is active.
- Respect High Contrast — adapts overlay colours when Windows High Contrast is active.
- Respect Text Scaling — scales notification text with the Windows text-size accessibility setting.
- Auto-duration — longer notifications stay visible longer so there is time to read them.
- Spoken notifications — built-in narration can read multiple title/body/timestamp combinations, using every voice Windows currently exposes to Notifications Pro through its app and desktop speech APIs, with adjustable speed, volume, preview, explicit trigger mode, a mirrored
Only speak matching rulestoggle inFiltering, and per-appRead aloudcheckboxes inSettings > Apps. Each visible card is spoken once, so newly arriving cards do not replay cards that already finished speaking. - Microsoft Voice Access labels — choose
Off,Body Only, orTitle + Body + Timestampfor the card-level UI Automation label used by Voice Access and similar assistive tools. - Keyboard navigation — Alt-key mnemonics for every settings tab, Escape to close, and full tab-cycle navigation across all controls.
- Scrollable overlay — when visible cards exceed the max height, a clickable themed scrollbar keeps those visible cards readable without giving up drag-anywhere behavior on the rest of the overlay. It stays hidden while the idle
Waiting for notifications...placeholder is showing. - Overlay scrollbar customisation — show/hide scrollbar, configurable width, opacity, track/thumb colours, inset padding, card-to-scrollbar gap, and corner radius, all carried by overlay themes.
- Bundled accessibility font notice — OpenDyslexic is included only for Notifications Pro itself and is not registered system-wide. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for attribution and license details.
- CLI arguments —
--pause,--resume,--theme <name>,--send-test,--hide, and--showcan control the app from shortcuts or scripts. - Theme scheduling — automatically switch between day/night themes on a configured schedule.
Keep notifications readable on-stream without disrupting your layout:
- Settings > Streaming — enable Chroma Key, pick a key colour (Green / Blue / Magenta).
- Settings > Streaming — enable OBS Fixed Window Mode, then set width and height to match your capture dimensions.
- In OBS, add a Window Capture source for the overlay, then add a Chroma Key filter using the matching colour.
- Use Per-app icons and Per-app tint so viewers can instantly identify which app each notification is from.
Avoid distraction without missing urgent messages:
- Enable Presentation Mode — the app auto-pauses notifications when PowerPoint, Zoom, Teams, or any configured app goes fullscreen.
- Use Quiet Hours to block notifications during scheduled meeting blocks.
- Use Keyword highlight so words like "urgent" or "fire" still break through even in focus mode.
- Enable Click-through so the overlay never steals focus mid-game.
- Use Per-app mute to silence low-priority apps while keeping alerts from important ones.
- Position the overlay in a corner that does not overlap your HUD.
- Use Single-line banner mode with a wide overlay for minimal screen real-estate.
- Enable Accessibility Mode for a sensible bundle of defaults (persistent cards, motion/contrast/scaling respect).
- Increase body/title font size for large monitors or vision needs.
- Use Auto-duration so you are never rushed to read a long notification.
- Enable Density: Spacious for larger tap targets and more breathing room between elements.
- Turn on Settings > Accessibility > Read Notifications Aloud if you want Notifications Pro itself to narrate incoming notifications.
- Use Timestamps in DateTime mode to track when notifications arrived.
- Use Settings > Accessibility > Microsoft Voice Access to expose either a generic card label, the notification body only, or the title + body + timestamp through Windows accessibility APIs.
- Set up Keyword highlight for terms like
failed,down,critical,error,urgent. - Enable Sounds for specific apps (e.g., a monitoring tool) while keeping others silent.
- Use Burst limiting so a flood of alerts from a runaway process does not bury the overlay.
- Set Retained Notifications high and Duration long so alerts accumulate until acknowledged.
- Use Persistent Notifications for critical alerts that must not auto-expire.
- Long chat messages, email previews, and calendar reminders display in full — no truncation.
- Use Per-app mute to silence low-signal channels at certain times.
- Right-click a card to copy the full notification text to the clipboard.
- Use Deduplication to suppress rapid-fire duplicate messages from chatty threads.
- Track mentions, replies, and DMs without keeping heavy browser tabs open or switching contexts.
- Use Keyword highlight for your brand name or specific campaign hashtags so you never miss an important engagement.
- Use Deduplication and Burst limiting to filter out rapid-fire "liked your post" storms while keeping meaningful comments visible.
- Keep the overlay tucked in the corner of your screen to passively monitor community health while working on other tasks.
- Start with
Settings > System > Notification Accessand keepCapture ModeonAutounless live notifications stop appearing. If preview notifications work but real ones do not, switch toForce Accessibility. - Use
Settings > Filteringfor targeting logic,Settings > Appsfor per-app presentation overrides,Settings > Accessibilityfor voice/rate/output choices, andSettings > Appearancefor how stacked cards look. - If you want the app itself to speak, turn on
Settings > Accessibility > Read Notifications Aloud. Then use eitherSettings > Accessibility > Narration TriggerorSettings > Filtering > Only speak matching ruleswhen speech should happen only for rule matches instead of for every allowed app. - Use
Settings > Filtering > Send Highlight Previewwhenever you adjust highlight tint, border mode, animation, or per-rule overrides and want to verify the look immediately. - Background images are local-only assets copied into Notifications Pro's backgrounds folder. Stacked cards can use fit and coverage controls, single-line banner mode stays solid-colour for readability, app-specific overrides live in
Settings > Apps, and shared exports/profiles keep those managed assets as relative Notifications Pro references instead of leaking machine-specific absolute paths. - If browser-hosted services all look like one browser app, install those sites as browser apps/PWAs first so Windows can surface a cleaner app identity when the browser supports it.
- Browser-hosted X notifications usually surface as plain Windows notification text:
AppName,Title, andBody. Notifications Pro does not receive structured account IDs or post metadata from X itself. - If X is arriving as a generic browser host, install it as a browser app/PWA first. Chrome’s desktop app flow is here: Install or manage apps in Chrome. Edge also supports installable apps here: Install as app from Microsoft Edge. In practice, if X notifications are inconsistent in Edge on your machine, Chrome remains the safer workflow.
- Use
Settings > Filtering > Highlight RuleswithMatch Scopeset toTitle OnlyorBody Onlydepending on where the account name or watchword usually appears in your Windows notifications. - Use literal keywords like
@openai,@nvidia, or a campaign hashtag when the text is stable. Turn on.*only when you really need regex patterns. - Add
App Filter = Xif you want X-specific rules without affecting Outlook, Reddit, Slack, or other notification sources using similar words. - Use
Settings > Filtering > Narration Rulesif only certain handles, phrases, or alerts should be spoken aloud while the rest of X stays visual-only. If speech should happen only for those matches, turn onOnly speak matching rules.
- The same rule system works for Reddit, Instagram, Discord communities, and browser-hosted social tools, but the exact usable keywords depend on what Windows puts into the
TitleandBody. - For moderation or community work, use
Body Onlyrules for phrases likereported,reply,mention, or a subreddit/community name, then add an app filter if the same phrase appears in unrelated apps. - Use per-app
Read aloudcheckboxes inSettings > Appswhen an entire platform should stay silent, then add narration rules only for truly high-signal posts or messages. - When several services all arrive through the same browser host, rely on text patterns and app filters rather than assuming Notifications Pro can distinguish accounts structurally.
- Tools like Codex, Antigravity, CI dashboards, repo alerts, and monitoring systems work best with field-scoped rules instead of broad global keywords. Match the exact repo name, environment name, or failure phrase where it usually appears.
- Use
Title Onlyrules for concise build/status subjects,Body Onlyrules for longer deployment or tool output phrases, and app filters when several tools share similar wording. - Pair highlight rules with the built-in narrator carefully: keep the global spoken toggle on only for the apps you routinely care about, then use narration rules to elevate truly urgent phrases.
- If a tool is too noisy, mute it at the app level first, then reintroduce a small set of specific highlight or narration rules for the signals that matter.
This is deliberate:
- Safety: an always-on-top overlay with clickable URLs increases the risk of accidental clicks and phishing. URLs render as plain text only.
- Predictability: Windows toasts can include action buttons and rich media. The overlay is intentionally passive (read / dismiss / copy) so behaviour is consistent across both the WinRT and accessibility capture paths.
- Privacy: rendering images from notification payloads would require decoding potentially remote content.
Per-app icons are user-configured (built-in vector presets or your own files) and are never sourced from notification payloads.
Notifications Pro is designed to avoid persisting notification content:
- No notification title or body is ever written to disk — no database, no cache, no logs of notification text.
- Notification content exists only in RAM. By default, Notifications Pro keeps only the currently visible notifications on screen, releases each one after dismissal or expiry, and stores overflow as a count only. If you explicitly enable Session Archive, the app also keeps a temporary in-memory session list of captured notifications so you can review them or copy them while the app is running. Session Archive is off by default, is not saved by Notifications Pro to files or databases, and is cleared when the app closes.
- Windows processes do not automatically share Notifications Pro's address space. However, sufficiently privileged local software, debuggers, or malware that can inspect this process while it is running could still read visible notification text from memory. RAM-only by default reduces persistence; it is not a claim against local machine compromise.
- Using Copy Text, Copy All to Clipboard, or either Session Archive copy action hands the selected notification text to the Windows clipboard. Notifications Pro does not persist that text itself, but Windows clipboard history or third-party clipboard tools may retain copied text outside the app.
- The app makes no network calls and includes no telemetry.
- If Spoken Notifications is enabled, the text is spoken through your selected Windows audio output and may be audible to people nearby. Notifications Pro still keeps that text in RAM only and never saves spoken content to disk.
- Visible notification text is available to Windows accessibility tools while on screen. The Voice Access setting controls the card-level UI Automation label only; it does not save or transmit the text.
Windows may keep notification history in the Action Center independently. The optional toast-suppression feature removes captured notifications from the Action Center; leave it off to preserve Windows default behaviour.
Under %AppData%\NotificationsPro\:
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
settings.json |
App preferences and app-level overrides, including muted app names, but no notification title/body content |
themes\*.json |
Named custom overlay themes |
backgrounds\ |
Optional user-provided background image files for cards and fullscreen backdrops |
icons\ |
Optional user-provided icon image files |
sounds\ |
Optional custom WAV files |
- Windows 10 or Windows 11
- .NET 8 SDK (to build from source) or .NET 8 Runtime (to run a published build)
dotnet restore src/NotificationsPro/NotificationsPro.csproj
dotnet restore tests/NotificationsPro.Tests/NotificationsPro.Tests.csproj
dotnet build src/NotificationsPro/NotificationsPro.csproj
dotnet run --project src/NotificationsPro
dotnet test tests/NotificationsPro.Tests/NotificationsPro.Tests.csprojdotnet publish src/NotificationsPro -c Release -r win-x64 --self-containedNotifications Pro is distributed as a native Windows App package (.msix). Because it relies on Windows package identity for the best notification-access behavior, the installer must be digitally signed. Current releases use a dedicated self-signed signing certificate for Notifications Pro.
To install it for the first time:
- Download the matching
.msixinstaller and.cercertificate from GitHub Releases. - Review the release source and certificate details. Install the certificate only if you trust this release and want Windows to trust that package signature.
The public
.cermay show subjectCN=LiamWytcherley. That is the current package publisher / maintainer signing identity for Notifications Pro, and it is expected. The.cercontains only the public certificate used to verify the MSIX, not the private signing key. - Right-click the
.cerfile, choose Install Certificate, and place it in Trusted Root Certification Authorities. - If Windows still reports that the package signature is not trusted on your machine, import the same
.cerinto Trusted People as well, then retry the install. - Double-click the
.msixfile to install Notifications Pro.
Note on Windows Defender / SmartScreen: New self-signed binaries may trigger SmartScreen, Defender, or other antivirus reputation checks. Review the release source, publisher, and certificate before bypassing a warning. If you need an antivirus exclusion, keep it narrowly scoped to
NotificationsPro.exerather than broad folders or trust-wide changes.How you manage trust and exclusions on your machine is your decision. Keep any exceptions as narrow as possible and avoid broad allowlists when a specific per-app rule will do.
Right-click the tray icon to access: show/hide overlay, pause (DND), always-on-top, click-through, focus mode timer, quick mute, theme quick-switch, profile quick-switch, clear all, open notification-access settings, retry access check, settings, quit.
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Left-click a card | Dismiss it |
| Drag anywhere | Reposition the overlay |
| Hover | Pauses all expiry timers |
| Right-click a card | Context menu (dismiss, copy, clear all, mute app) |
| Drag left/right edge | Resize width (when manual resize is enabled) |
Changes are debounced and auto-saved. Use Send Test Notification (Ctrl+T) to preview general styling without waiting for a real notification, and use Settings > Filtering > Send Highlight Preview when you want a local highlighted card for filter-specific styling checks. The header also exposes undo/redo, and Reset to Defaults asks for confirmation before replacing your current settings.
Notifications Pro mirrors the notifications Windows is already surfacing. If Windows notifications are off for an app, there is nothing for the overlay to capture.
- Microsoft setup guide: Change notification settings in Windows
- In Notifications Pro, use
Settings > System > Notification AccessforOpen Windows Notification Access,Retry Access Check,Run Capture Diagnostic, andCapture Mode.
If several services all show up as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or another browser host, install the site as an app/PWA when the browser supports it. That gives Windows a better chance to surface a distinct app name instead of the shared browser host name.
- Chrome desktop app/PWA install: Install or manage apps in Chrome
- Microsoft Edge app/PWA install: Install as app from Microsoft Edge
- Notifications Pro only sees the Windows app name, title, and body it receives. It does not get direct platform account IDs or browser-internal metadata.
In Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Notifications, turn on Read Notifications Aloud to make Notifications Pro narrate captured notifications itself.
Choose from Body Only, Title Only, Title + Body, Body + Timestamp, Title + Timestamp, or Title + Body + Timestamp. You can also choose whether narration should speak All Allowed Notifications or Only Matching Narration Rules, pick an available Windows voice, adjust rate and volume, and use Preview Voice or Refresh Voices immediately.
Per-app narration now lives in Settings > Apps, where each seen app has a Read aloud checkbox alongside its other app-specific overrides. Unchecked apps still stay visible on screen but are ignored by narration. If you need finer control, Settings > Filtering > Narration Rules can force Read Aloud or Skip Read Aloud for matching title/body text, optionally limited to a specific app. If you want speech only for rule hits, turn on Only speak matching rules in Settings > Filtering or switch Narration Trigger to Only Matching Narration Rules in Accessibility. Visible cards are spoken once, so new arrivals do not replay cards that already finished speaking.
Notifications Pro now lists every voice Windows exposes to it through the local app speech API and the desktop speech API. Some Narrator Natural voices may still be missing even after installation because Windows does not expose every Narrator voice to third-party app text-to-speech. Use Refresh Voices after installing new voices, or reopen the app if Windows still has not published the new voice list.
If you want to install more voices, Microsoft’s setup guides are:
This is the app's own text-to-speech feature. Audio plays through your default Windows output and can be heard by people nearby. Notifications Pro does not write spoken text to disk and does not keep overflow notification content for later playback.
In Settings > Accessibility > Microsoft Voice Access, choose Off, Body Only, or Title + Body + Timestamp to control the card-level Windows UI Automation label that Microsoft Voice Access can reference for visible notifications.
This is an accessibility integration, not a separate text-to-speech engine inside Notifications Pro. The selected text is only exposed while the card is on screen, stays in RAM only, and is never written to disk, logged, or sent over the network.
On first run, Windows will prompt for notification access. If you denied it or it was not granted:
- Open Windows Settings → Privacy → Notifications (or search for
notification access). - Find the notification listener / notification access section.
- Enable access for Notifications Pro.
Official Windows help:
The tray menu also has Open Privacy > Notifications... and Retry Access Check for troubleshooting.
The same recovery controls now appear in Settings > System > Notification Access, alongside the current capture-mode status and a manual Auto / Prefer WinRT / Force Accessibility selector.
If live notifications stop appearing while preview/test notifications still work, switch Capture Mode to Force Accessibility first. That is the intended recovery path for WinRT delivery stalls or false-positive access states.
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| MSIX won't install or Windows says the package is untrusted | Download the matching .msix and .cer from the same GitHub release. Install the .cer into Trusted Root Certification Authorities, and if Windows still says the signature is not trusted, add the same certificate to Trusted People and retry. |
| No notifications captured | First confirm Windows is actually surfacing notifications for that app and that the tray menu is not showing Resume Notifications (meaning capture is paused). Then use tray Retry Access Check. If test notifications work but live ones do not, open Settings > System > Notification Access, use Open Windows Notification Access if needed, run Run Capture Diagnostic, and switch Capture Mode to Force Accessibility. |
| Can't drag the overlay | Click-through is on. Turn off the tray Click-Through item or disable Settings > Layout > Click-Through Mode. |
| Windows toasts stop appearing | If you want both native Windows toasts and the overlay, turn off Settings > System > Suppress Toast Popups. When enabled, Notifications Pro intentionally removes captured native toasts while it is running. |
| Several Windows sound choices sound identical or very similar | Notifications Pro lists the distinct WAV files Windows currently exposes for its default sound events, but Windows can still map multiple event names to the same or very similar audio. Use Settings > Sounds > Test to preview the current choice, or Browse Custom Sound... if you want a clearly distinct alert. |
| The app is running in the tray but I can't see the overlay | Use the tray Show Overlay item first. If the overlay appears off-screen, open Settings > Layout and use Quick Position presets to move it back. |
| Notifications are not read aloud | Turn on Settings > Accessibility > Read Notifications Aloud, then use Preview Voice. If Preview Voice is silent, check your Windows output device and selected voice. If Preview Voice works but live notifications stay silent, ensure notifications are not paused, confirm the app is still checked in Settings > Apps > Read aloud, and verify that Settings > Filtering > Only speak matching rules or Narration Trigger = Only Matching Narration Rules is not enabled unless you already have a matching Read Aloud rule. |
| A highlight, mute, or narration rule is affecting the wrong app | Open Settings > Filtering and add or tighten the optional App Filter so the rule only matches the intended source such as X, Outlook, Slack, Codex, or Antigravity. |
Everything shows up as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge |
Install the site as a browser app/PWA so Windows can surface a more specific app identity when the browser supports it. If it still comes through as the browser host, keep the browser app name as the App Filter and narrow the match with title/body rule text. |
| Voice Access only sees "Notification" | Change Settings > Accessibility > Voice Access Card Labels from Off to Body Only or Title + Body + Timestamp. Off intentionally keeps the generic card label. |
docs/STATUS.md— current capabilities and manual test checklistdocs/PLAN.md— milestones and roadmapdocs/ARCHITECTURE.md— component overview
Notifications Pro is strictly provided "AS IS", without warranty of any kind.
While extensively tested, this software hooks into Windows UI Automation and notification systems. The authors and contributors cannot be held liable for any claim, damages, data loss, or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise, arising from, out of, or in connection with the software or the use or other dealings in the software. Please refer to the LICENSE file for the full legal text.
Release Notes
- Fixed overlay mouse-wheel scrolling so overflowing notification stacks can now be scrolled while the pointer is over the cards themselves instead of only via scrollbar dragging.
- Added focused wheel-scrolling regression coverage and reran the project-level build/test verification pass.
- Fixed the Settings window so ordinary live setting changes no longer shove popup mode back to the centre of the primary monitor.
- Restored remembered Settings-window placement across popup/window reopen and rebuild flows, and kept popup resizes on the current display instead of re-centering them.
- Added focused placement regression coverage and reran the project-level build/test verification pass.
- Hardened user-facing error handling so unexpected crash prompts, narration preview failures, notification-access recovery failures, and background-image copy failures no longer show raw exception text.
- Clarified the public privacy and security docs that
RAM-only by defaultreduces notification-content persistence, but does not claim hardened protection against sufficiently privileged local process inspection. - Added regression coverage for the safe exception-dialog formatting helper and reran the project-level build/test verification pass.
- Hardened local background image handling so custom card/fullscreen artwork now uses stricter managed-path validation and a bounded transformed-image cache during long styling sessions.
- Made Session Archive copy actions more explicit in the tray and settings flows, and tightened the public privacy/security wording around clipboard behavior plus what app-level metadata can still be saved in settings or profiles.
- Added 1 MB guardrails to normal startup settings and custom-theme JSON loads, with expanded regression coverage for the new hardening paths.
- Fixed
Settings Windowslider and live-binding refresh issues in popup mode by correcting the Settings Window theme property notifications. Opacity, surface, element, and corner-radius values now update their on-screen readouts reliably while you drag. - Tightened the public README for first-time users with a clearer quick-start/install path, safer MSIX trust wording, explicit app-local OpenDyslexic disclosure, and more direct privacy wording around Session Archive behavior.
- Reset the in-README release notes to a fresh baseline so this section reflects the current app cleanly instead of carrying a long stale history.