A powerful and lightweight Windows desktop enhancement utility written in Rust. IBB-Hooker utilizes global Windows API hooks to extend standard window management with custom features, hotkeys, and system tweaks.
- Advanced Window Management:
- Always on Top: Pin any window to remain above all others with a customizable accent-colored border highlight.
- Transparency: Toggle custom transparency levels (~80% opacity) for active windows.
- Roll Up / Down: Collapse windows to just their title bar to save screen space.
- Send to Tray: Minimize any standard application directly to the system tray.
- FancyZones: A powerful window tiling manager that allows users to define and draw custom screen regions. Snapping to these zones is triggered by holding
Shift + F1while dragging a window. - Smart Window Snapping: Overrides the native Windows snap assist with a custom resizing overlay for adjacent snapped windows.
- Custom Alt-Tab Overlay: A customizable replacement for the default Windows Alt-Tab task switcher.
- Hotkey Manager: A dedicated interface to manage and remap keys from
F1throughF24. Actions include running applications, simulating complex keystrokes, or triggering internal commands like "Toggle Always on Top". - Hardware Remapping: Intercepts the modern Windows Copilot key, remapping it to the Right Control key or a custom executable/URL.
- System Optimization:
- Standby Memory Cleaner: Automatically flushes cached "Standby" memory every 10 minutes or manually on demand to improve system responsiveness.
- Process Management: Quickly terminate non-responsive or targeted applications via a global hotkey.
- Explorer Fix: Automatically applies a full-screen toggle (F11) fix to new Windows Explorer windows to ensure the UI initializes correctly.
- Modern UI: Features support for Windows 10/11 Dark Mode context menus.
- Multi-language Support: System interface available in English, Romanian, and Hungarian.
The workspace is divided into several discrete Rust components:
- manager (Executable): The core background process. It handles the System Tray interface, registers global hotkeys, manages configuration state (stored in the Windows Registry), and coordinates the various enhancement modules.
- hook (Dynamic Library): Compiles into
hook-x64.dllandhook-x86.dll. Injects into running processes viaSetWindowsHookExto intercept window messages. - windowmanager (Library): Contains the core logic for the Smart Snapping system, custom Alt-Tab interface, and the FancyZones manager.
- shared (Library): A lightweight library containing shared constants, IPC message IDs, versioning, and the translation dictionary.
IBB-Hooker registers the following global hotkeys:
Win + Ctrl + F9: Toggle Window TransparencyWin + Ctrl + F10: Toggle Always on TopWin + Ctrl + F11: Roll Up / Roll Down WindowWin + Ctrl + F12: Send Window to System TrayAlt + Ctrl + F4: Force Kill Target ApplicationShift + F1: (While dragging) Snap window to FancyZones
All features can be toggled via the System Tray context menu. Settings are persistently stored in the Windows Registry under:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Gallery Inc\IBBE-Hooker
Specific configurations include:
- FancyZones Layouts:
...\IBBE-Hooker\FancyZones - Custom Hotkeys:
...\IBBE-Hooker\Hotkeys - Copilot Action:
...\IBBE-Hooker\NoCopilot
- Rust Toolchain (cargo, rustc)
- Windows SDK (MSVC)
The project requires building both the 64-bit manager and the 32-bit/64-bit hook DLLs to ensure compatibility across all applications.
- Open a terminal in the root directory.
- Execute the build script:
build.bat. - The final compiled binaries (
manager.exe,hook-x64.dll,hook-x86.dll) will be output to theDistdirectory.
To start the application, execute manager.exe from the Dist directory. Ensure that both hook-x64.dll and hook-x86.dll remain in the same directory as the executable, as the manager dynamically loads them. To safely exit and detach hooks, use the "Exit" option in the System Tray menu.