TinyClips for Windows

A polished Windows 11 system-tray app for screen capture — screenshots, video (MP4), and GIF. Built with WinUI 3, .NET 10, and the Windows App SDK.

Inspired by TinyClips for Mac by James Montemagno.

Features

• Screenshot — capture a region, full screen, or window → PNG/JPEG
• Video — record region, screen, or window → H.264 MP4 with optional system audio
• GIF — record region, screen, or window → animated GIF with configurable FPS and max width
• System tray — runs entirely from the notification area, no taskbar window
• Global hotkeys — trigger captures from any app (default: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+5/6/7)
• Customizable save — configurable directory, file name template with token presets
• Clipboard — screenshots copied as bitmap, video/GIF as file path
• Toast notifications — post-save notification, click to open in Explorer
• Settings — full WinUI 3 settings window with Mica backdrop, NavigationView sidebar
• First-run onboarding — permission check + setup wizard

Installation

winget (recommended)

winget install TinyClips

Manual

Download the latest release from the Releases page.

Requirements

Requirement	Version
OS	Windows 10 1903+ (targeting Windows 11)
.NET SDK	10.0.201+ (only needed for building from source)
Windows App SDK	1.8+ (bundled via NuGet)

Install the .NET 10 SDK from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/10.0

Verify with:

dotnet --version
# Should print 10.0.201 or later

Project Structure

tiny-clips-windows/
├── build.ps1                  # Build script (workaround for XAML compiler Unicode path bug)
├── global.json                # Pins .NET SDK version to 10.0.x
├── TinyClips.sln              # Solution file
├── TinyClips/
│   ├── TinyClips.csproj       # Project — WinUI 3, .NET 10, unpackaged
│   ├── App.xaml / .cs         # Entry point, tray setup, hidden window
│   ├── CaptureManager.cs      # Central coordinator for all capture flows
│   ├── Assets/                # App icon (.ico)
│   ├── Capture/
│   │   ├── ScreenshotCapture.cs   # GDI+ BitBlt screenshot
│   │   ├── VideoRecorder.cs       # Graphics Capture → MFSinkWriter MP4
│   │   ├── GifWriter.cs           # Graphics Capture → ImageSharp GIF
│   │   └── CaptureHelper.cs       # Shared types (CaptureRegion, CaptureMode)
│   ├── Helpers/
│   │   ├── NativeMethods.cs       # Win32 P/Invoke declarations
│   │   ├── ClipboardHelper.cs     # Clipboard operations
│   │   └── WindowHelper.cs        # WinUI window interop utilities
│   ├── Models/
│   │   └── CaptureSettings.cs     # All user preferences, persisted to JSON
│   ├── Services/
│   │   ├── HotKeyManager.cs       # Global hotkeys via RegisterHotKey
│   │   ├── SaveService.cs         # File naming, save, open-in-Explorer
│   │   ├── PermissionManager.cs   # Screen capture permission check
│   │   ├── NotificationService.cs # Windows toast notifications
│   │   └── LaunchAtLoginManager.cs# Startup registration
│   └── Views/
│       ├── CapturePickerWindow.xaml/.cs    # Mode selection pill (Region/Screen/Window)
│       ├── RegionSelectorWindow.cs         # Full-screen crosshair overlay (Win32)
│       ├── CountdownWindow.xaml/.cs        # 3-2-1 countdown overlay
│       ├── StartRecordingWindow.xaml/.cs   # Pre-recording Start pill
│       ├── StopRecordingWindow.xaml/.cs    # Recording timer + Stop pill
│       └── SettingsWindow.xaml/.cs         # Full settings UI
├── plan.md                    # Implementation roadmap
└── spec.md                    # Full PRD with requirements

Build

Using the build script (recommended)

The WinUI 3 XAML compiler crashes when source files are under a path containing non-ASCII characters (e.g. Ø, å, ü). The build script works around this by copying sources to C:\BuildTest before building.

# Build for ARM64 (default)
.\build.ps1

# Build for x64
.\build.ps1 -Platform x64

# Release build
.\build.ps1 -Configuration Release

# Build and run
.\build.ps1 -Run

# Combine flags
.\build.ps1 -Platform x64 -Configuration Release -Run

The script copies build output back to TinyClips\bin\<Configuration>\<rid>\ for convenience.

Manual build (ASCII-only path required)

If your project path contains only ASCII characters, you can build directly:

dotnet build TinyClips\TinyClips.csproj -c Debug -r win-arm64
# or
dotnet build TinyClips\TinyClips.csproj -c Debug -r win-x64

Opening in Visual Studio

start TinyClips.sln

Then select the TinyClips project, choose your platform (arm64/x64), and press F5.

Run

After building, the executable is at:

TinyClips\bin\Debug\win-arm64\TinyClips.exe
# or
TinyClips\bin\Debug\win-x64\TinyClips.exe

The app launches to the system tray (notification area) with no visible window. Look for the TinyClips icon in the tray.

Default Keyboard Shortcuts

Global (work from any app):

Action	Shortcut
Screenshot	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+5
Record Video	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+6
Record GIF	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+7
Stop Recording	Ctrl+.

Capture Picker (when the picker pill is open):

Action	Key
Region mode	R
Screen mode	S
Window mode	W
Cancel	Esc

All global shortcuts are customizable in Settings → Shortcuts.

Right-click the tray icon for the context menu: Screenshot, Record Video, Record GIF, Settings, and Quit.

Settings

Settings are stored as JSON at:

%LocalAppData%\TinyClips\settings.json

Delete this file to reset all settings to defaults.

Dependencies

Package	Version	Purpose
Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK	1.8.260317003	WinUI 3 framework
H.NotifyIcon.WinUI	2.4.1	System tray icon
SixLabors.ImageSharp	3.1.12	GIF encoding

Known Issues

• XAML compiler Unicode path bug — The WinUI 3 XAML compiler (XamlCompiler.exe, net472) crashes silently when source files are under a path containing non-ASCII characters. Use build.ps1 which copies to C:\BuildTest as a workaround.
• ARM64 P/Invoke — All Win32 functions with A/W variants must use explicit EntryPoint = "...W" annotations, as ARM64 Windows may not export the undecorated stub.

License

See LICENSE for details.