aliihsaad/WinDock

Your Windows PC. Within reach.

Turn an Android phone into a personal app dock for your Windows PC. Keep it beside your keyboard, tap to launch apps, control your music, and capture your screen — all over your local network, with no account or cloud service.

Website & interactive demo · Downloads · Releases · Version history · MIT license

WinDock at your desk — an AI-generated product illustration.

1. Install on your PC. Open WinDockSetup.exe. It includes the required runtimes and adds WinDock to your Start menu and system tray.
2. Install on your phone. Open the Android APK and allow installation from your browser or file manager when prompted.
3. Connect. Keep both devices on the same trusted network. Open WinDock on your phone, select your PC, and enter the PIN from Show connection info in the Windows tray menu. Enter the tray address manually if discovery misses it.
4. Make it yours. Turn the phone sideways, swipe up, and open Apps to pin your favorites. Hold an icon to start arranging.

The Windows installer is currently unsigned and the Android APK is debug-signed. Windows may show a publisher warning. An APK signed with a different key can require uninstalling an earlier Android build before installing the new one. See the release notes and checksums.

Updating: quit WinDock from the Windows tray and run the latest installer; your dock settings are kept. Reconnect the phone app to load the updated dock. This release fixes automatic now-playing updates and needs no new Android APK. Starting with 0.2.1-preview.1, the Windows tray offers Check for updates and checks at startup. A newer release shows a notification and download menu item; installation remains manual. Older installations need one manual upgrade first.

• Launch your Windows apps. Pin classic Start Menu shortcuts and packaged apps, including Claude and ChatGPT, with their real icons. Tap to launch or bring an app forward when Windows permits it.
• Build your own dock. Choose 4, 6, or 8 icons per page. Hold to rearrange, drag to an edge to move between pages, and swipe left or right to navigate.
• Set the mood. Choose a background and glass style. The landscape interface opens to large icons; swipe up for Apps, Controls, Capture, and Appearance.
• Control the essentials. Adjust volume and supported display brightness, control media playback, or use Windows power actions.
• Capture your main monitor. Save full-resolution PNG screenshots to Pictures\WinDock, or silent MP4 recordings to Videos\WinDock. Recordings fit within 1920×1080 at up to 15 fps and stop after 60 minutes. Stop from the phone or Windows tray. Audio and cursor overlays are not included.

Pinned apps and their order sync through the PC. Layout density, background, and glass preferences stay on each device. The Windows tray also opens your capture folders and offers optional startup with Windows during installation.

Swipe up and choose Touch & sign. The touchpad moves the PC cursor with one finger, taps for left-click, and uses two fingers for scrolling or right-click. The dark, edge-to-edge surface shows a soft glow under each finger. Back and Signature sit at the bottom left, click/drag controls in the middle, and Speed at the right. The controls stay visible; Speed opens a small slider above them. Spread two fingers to zoom in or pinch them together to zoom out in PC apps that support Ctrl + mouse wheel. Move the cursor over the image or document first. The Drag button holds the left button until you release it. Leaving the touchpad or losing the connection releases held buttons; Reconnect appears if the session pauses or disconnects.

While using the touchpad in the updated Android app, clicking a supported PC text field opens your phone's own keyboard, with emoji and its normal word composition. Words appear on the PC when the keyboard commits them (usually at a space or a suggestion). The keyboard button opens it manually for apps that don't expose text focus. Existing PC text is not copied to the phone. Browsers have a manual keyboard composer; automatic opening needs the updated Android APK.

Choose Sign beside the keyboard, or switch to Signature, and draw with a finger or stylus. Insert into PC copies the image to the Windows clipboard and requests a paste in the active app. The app must accept pasted images; plain text fields cannot contain a signature image. Save to PC remains available. Black or blue ink is exported as a transparent 1600×600 PNG in Pictures\WinDock\Signatures. Open that folder from the Windows tray: Open saved files → Signatures. Both saving and inserting keep a PNG here. If an app cannot paste it, use that app's image insertion command with the saved file. Undo and Clear stay on the phone.

These features are included in 0.2.0-preview.1. Update both the Windows host and Android app (version code 3). Direct drawing inside PC apps is deferred. The PNG is a handwritten signature image, not a certificate-based digital signature. Touchpad control follows Windows permissions and cannot operate secure prompts or applications running with higher privileges than WinDock.

The Windows companion serves the dock interface on your local network. The Android app discovers the PC and displays that interface in a landscape WebView. A Node.js host handles PIN pairing and live updates; a C# helper performs the Windows actions. You can also open the tray address in a browser.

Your app actions and captures stay on your PC. WinDock is designed for a trusted home or office network, not internet remote access. Sessions reset when the PC host restarts. The website's interactive demo uses sample apps and simulated touchpad, typing, signature and capture actions; it never connects to your PC.

0.2.1-preview.1 fixes automatic now-playing updates and adds Windows update notifications. The Android APK remains at 0.2.0-preview.1 (version code 3). See the version history for changes and upgrade notes.

The Windows installer and Android APK are built from this source. GitHub Actions checks Windows installation and Android builds. Published Android APKs use the local preview signing key; disposable CI debug APKs may use a different key.

The initial iPhone companion connects by PC address and reuses the same dock and PIN pairing. A separate macOS build workflow builds it and runs simulator tests. Its unsigned device archive needs signing before it can be installed on an iPhone; TestFlight and physical-device testing are pending.

Some behavior still depends on the PC and device:

• Windows can reject requests to bring an app to the foreground.
• Brightness requires a supported built-in panel or an external monitor with working DDC/CI support. Some picture modes and connections prevent changes.
• Running-app and media information may lag changes made directly on the PC.
• The exact physical-phone launch/focus acceptance gate remains unrecorded; see the verification evidence and gates.
• Offline browser installation needs HTTPS or localhost; a plain LAN HTTP address serves the interface online but cannot register its service worker.

The native iOS companion is planned and is not available for download yet. See the roadmap for the remaining work and iOS plan.

For the host, use Node.js 20.11+; CI uses Node.js 24. Windows builds also need .NET SDK 8. Use Inno Setup 7 for the installer. Android builds need JDK 17 or 21 and Android SDK Platform / Build Tools 34.

npm ci
npm test
npm run build:windows
npm start

On Windows, build:windows prepares the helper used by npm start and creates artifacts\WinDock-win-x64\WinDockTray.exe, which can run on its own. The host prints its address and pairing PIN. A Linux provider is included for development; Windows and Android are the downloadable app platforms.

To serve locally built downloads, run npm run package:downloads after building both installers. The website deploys to Vercel automatically from main; GitHub Releases host the public download files.

More detail: developer reference · Android build and testing · website deployment.

Open an issue with your Windows version, phone model, reproduction steps, and expected behavior. For changes, keep the platform-provider boundary intact and run npm test; native or Android changes also need the relevant platform checks. Never include pairing PINs, session cookies, or your personal dock configuration in a report or commit.

WinDock's source code is available under the MIT license. Copyright © 2026 Ali Saad. Third-party dependencies and app icons retain their own licenses and trademarks.