A notch and a dock for Windows: physics-animated, reactive, and built to replace your taskbar.
Download · Features · Multiple monitors · Settings · Build from source
Nectar is a fork of Bloom by Sehajveer Singh, and the concept and the codebase it grew from are theirs. It is rebranded end to end and maintained independently, with its own fixes and direction.
Features
- A notch that does things. Music, quick controls, system stats, and a calendar in one spring-animated island at the top of your screen.
- A dock that replaces your taskbar. It mirrors your real taskbar (same pinned apps, same order, real icons and names) and hides the native one.
- Native where it counts. The system tray opens the actual Windows flyout, and Quit ends an app the way Task Manager's End task does.
- Yours to shape. Themes, three visibility modes, per-monitor placement, and every option in a plain
settings.jsonyou can edit live. - Light on the system. Audio capture, cursor tracking, and thumbnail work pause themselves when nothing needs them.
The Notch
A notch at the top of your screen that adapts to what you're doing. Scroll or swipe to change modes, or pin it in place like a hardware notch.
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Music | Album art, track info, playback controls, and a visualizer that reacts to five frequency bands. |
| Command Center | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, volume, and brightness without opening Windows Settings. |
| Status | Battery (hidden automatically on desktops without one) and weather, in a layout you choose. |
| Calendar | A month view with a built-in Pomodoro timer. |
Width, height, corner radius, and position each animate on their own spring, so every transition feels physical.
Visibility modes (Settings › Notch):
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Fixed | Always visible, even over fullscreen apps, like a real hardware notch. |
| Smart | Hides when another window overlaps it and reveals on hover. |
| Peek | Hidden until the cursor reaches the top edge, or a media event or notification arrives. |
In Smart and Peek the notch stays fully clickable when it's revealed. Only a thin strip at the very edge of the screen stays click-through, so it never swallows input meant for a screenshot tool or a game. The notch never reserves desktop space, so it can't leave a gap above maximized windows.
The Dock
A taskbar that moves. Drag icons to reorder, hover for window previews, and right-click for a context menu that always opens above the dock.
- Your taskbar, mirrored. On first launch Nectar imports the apps pinned to your Windows taskbar, in the same order, including File Explorer, Discord, and Microsoft Store apps.
- Real icons and names. Windows Settings shows its gear and Task Manager is called "Task Manager", not
taskmgr. - Pinned and running, separated. A divider marks the split by default. Turn on Mix Pinned & Running to drag any icon anywhere.
- Quit means quit. Right-click › Quit ends the app like End task in Task Manager.
- Search built in. A search icon beside Start opens Windows Search.
- Native tray. The tray button opens the real Windows hidden-icons flyout under the notch.
Dock visibility uses the same Fixed, Smart, and Peek modes as the notch. Fixed reserves screen space like a normal taskbar, Smart hides when a window overlaps it, and Peek stays out of the way until you approach the bottom edge.
Multiple monitors
The dock and the notch each have a Show On setting, chosen separately in Settings:
| Show On | Result |
|---|---|
| Primary Monitor | Shown on your primary display only. This is the default. |
| All Monitors | Every connected display gets its own copy. |
| Specific Monitor | Pinned to one display you choose from a list. |
Because the two are independent, the same app can look very different from one machine to the next:
- Dock and notch on every monitor. Each screen looks the same, and each dock reserves its own space at the bottom.
- Dock on the primary only. The other screens have no taskbar at all, since the Windows taskbar is hidden on every monitor while Nectar's dock is on. Maximized windows there use the full screen.
- Notch on one screen, dock on another. Works fine, and each one follows its own visibility mode.
- Dock turned off. The native Windows taskbar comes back on every monitor.
Extra monitors get their own windows, so All Monitors uses somewhat more CPU and memory than a single display. If you're on a low-power machine, keep Show On on one monitor.
Under the hood
The backend is Rust and talks straight to the Windows shell: global input hooks, WASAPI for real-time system audio, COM for media session control, and WMI for hardware monitoring. The interface is React, animated with springs.
Every setting lives in one plain settings.json that Nectar watches and applies as you save, so you can script it or keep it in your dotfiles. SETTINGS.md has the full reference. Settings › About › Reset to Defaults resets everything.
Install
- Download the installer from the latest release.
- Choose Just me or All users. An all-users install asks for administrator permission once.
- Nectar starts with a short splash animation, then the notch and dock appear together.
Nectar updates itself: a green dot on the notch means an update is ready, and you can turn on Auto Update in Settings › About. Launch at Login is in Settings › General.
Uninstall from Windows Settings › Apps, or from Settings › About inside Nectar. Both remove the app and put your native taskbar back.
If Nectar is ever force-closed, it restores the Windows taskbar the next time it starts.
Build from source
git clone https://github.com/kua8/Nectar.git
cd Nectar
bun install
bun run tauri devTo produce a release build, run bun run tauri build.
Contributing
Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue or send a pull request. Say which Windows version and monitor setup you're on if it's a display bug, since that is often what decides it.
License
Nectar is open source under the GPLv3.