Close all open windows from the system tray or a global hotkey.
WindowBouncer sits in your system tray and gives you a single click (or keypress) to dismiss every open window on the desktop — useful for clearing your screen before a presentation, screenshare, or just a clean break.
- Close All — send WM_CLOSE to every visible window at once, with automatic dismissal of blocking confirmation dialogs
- Selective close — check individual rows and close only the ones you want
- Global hotkey — trigger Close All from any app without switching focus
- System tray — runs quietly in the background; double-click to show, right-click for the context menu
- Minimize to tray — closing the main window hides it rather than exiting (configurable)
- Window filter — type to narrow the list by title, process name, or PID
- Exclusions — permanently exclude processes or title patterns from appearing in the list
- Light / Dark / System theme
- Start with Windows — optional autostart via registry or, when elevated, a scheduled task
- Run as admin — elevates via a pre-registered scheduled task so UAC prompts are avoided on launch
- Windows 10 (1809) or later
- x64
Download WindowBouncer-<version>-setup.exe from Releases and run it. No administrator rights required. The installer offers optional desktop shortcut and start-with-Windows entries.
Settings are stored in %APPDATA%\WindowBouncer\settings.json and are preserved across upgrades and reinstalls.
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Show / hide main window | Double-click tray icon |
| Close all windows | Tray menu → Close All Windows, or configured hotkey |
| Close selected windows | Check rows in the list → Close Selected |
| Close one window | Click the × button on any row |
| Configure settings | Tray menu → Settings, or main window toolbar → Settings |
| Refresh the window list | Toolbar → Refresh, or reopen the main window |
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Theme | System | Light, Dark, or follow the system setting |
| Close to tray | On | Closing the main window hides it; use tray → Exit to quit |
| Start minimized | Off | Launch directly to tray without showing the main window |
| Start with Windows | Off | Register autostart at login |
| Run as admin | Off | Launch elevated via a scheduled task (avoids per-launch UAC) |
| Close All hotkey | (none) | Global hotkey to trigger Close All from any app |
| Excluded processes | windowbouncer |
Process names never shown in the list |
| Excluded title patterns | (none) | Substring or glob patterns matched against window titles |
WindowBouncer.exe [/NOUI] [/CLOSE] [/REGISTERSTARTUP]
| Flag | Effect |
|---|---|
/NOUI |
Start without showing the main window (tray only) |
/CLOSE |
Close all open windows silently and exit — no UI shown |
/REGISTERSTARTUP |
Silently register the application to start with Windows at login |
Prerequisites: .NET 10 SDK, Inno Setup 6 (for the EXE installer), Windows SDK (for the MSIX — provides makeappx.exe).
WindowBouncer is a WinUI 3 / Windows App SDK app. Both the EXE installer and the MSIX bundle the WindowsAppSDK runtime, so end users don't have to install it separately.
# Both EXE installer and MSIX
./build-installer.ps1
# EXE installer only
./build-installer.ps1 -SkipMsix
# MSIX only
./build-installer.ps1 -SkipExe
# Fast debug build (skips packaging entirely)
./build-installer.ps1 -DebugOnly
# Override tool paths (if not installed to default locations)
./build-installer.ps1 -InnoSetupCompiler "D:\Tools\ISCC.exe" -MakeAppx "D:\SDK\makeappx.exe"Output lands in publish/.
WindowBouncer does not collect or transmit any data. The only files it writes are:
%APPDATA%\WindowBouncer\settings.json— user preferencesHKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run— autostart entry (optional)- A Windows Scheduled Task named
WindowBouncer(optional, admin mode only)