点击桌面空白壁纸（或任务栏空白区域）即可显示桌面 —— 就像 macOS Sonoma 一样。
PeekDesktop 将 macOS Sonoma 的「点击壁纸显示桌面」功能带到 Windows 10 和 11。默认情况下，它使用资源管理器的原生「显示桌面」行为，同时还包含可选的「飞离」实验性效果，以及托盘菜单中的「需要双击」、「点击桌面时显示桌面」和「点击任务栏时显示桌面」开关。你可以正常点击或拖拽桌面图标，不会意外触发显示桌面。显示桌面后，再次点击任意应用窗口、任务栏空白区域或桌面壁纸，所有窗口就会恢复到原来的位置。
📥 下载最新版本
| 文件 | 适用平台 |
|---|---|
PeekDesktop-vX.Y.Z-win-x64.zip |
Intel/AMD（大多数电脑） |
PeekDesktop-vX.Y.Z-win-arm64.zip |
ARM64（Surface Pro X、Snapdragon 等） |
无需安装程序。下载 zip 压缩包，解压后运行 PeekDesktop.exe 即可。发布版本为自包含单文件，无需额外安装 .NET。程序会驻留在系统托盘中，并自动更新自身 —— 当新版本可用时，它会自动下载、验证代码签名，并原地重启完成更新。
- 点击桌面空白壁纸或任务栏空白区域（不是图标或任务栏按钮）-> 显示桌面
- 停留在桌面上 -> 可以点击或拖拽图标、右键菜单、整理文件，窗口保持隐藏
- 再次点击任意应用、任务栏或空白壁纸 -> 所有窗口恢复到原来的位置
- 显示桌面（资源管理器） — 默认且推荐模式。使用资源管理器的原生显示桌面行为。
- 飞离（实验性） — 窗口飞出屏幕的动画效果。有趣但存在与外部窗口管理（Win+D、任务栏）的已知问题。追求视觉效果可使用，但要知道当 Shell 在背后改变窗口状态时可能会出现混乱。
PeekDesktop uses lightweight Windows APIs:
SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL)— low-level mouse hook to detect desktop clicksWindowFromPoint— identifies the window under your cursor- MSAA hit-testing (
AccessibleObjectFromPoint) — distinguishes empty wallpaper from desktop icons - UI Automation hit-testing — classifies empty taskbar space without firing on Start, pinned apps, or tray buttons
- Taskbar Show Desktop button click — primary path, immune to keyboard remapping (PowerToys, etc.)
- Win+D
SendInput— fallback if taskbar button is unavailable EnumWindows+WINDOWPLACEMENT— captures exact position and state (including maximized) of every windowSetWinEventHook(EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND)— watches for when you switch back to an appSetWindowPlacement— restores windows to their exact previous positions
No admin rights required. Uses < 5 MB RAM idle.
Right-click the tray icon for options:
- ✅ Enabled — toggle the peek feature on/off
- 🔁 Start with Windows — launch automatically at login
- 🖱️ Require Double-Click — optionally require a double-click on the desktop to trigger peek
- 🎮 Pause While Gaming / Full-Screen — on by default for exclusive full-screen and known gaming fullscreen apps
- 🖥️ Peek on Desktop Click — on by default; turn it off for taskbar-only activation
- 📌 Peek on Taskbar Click — optionally trigger peek from empty taskbar space
- 🪟 Restore All Windows on App Switch — on by default; in Explorer show desktop mode, taskbar/Alt+Tab app switches restore all hidden windows behind the selected app
- 👀 Peek Style — switch between Explorer and fly-away modes
- ℹ️ About — version info
- ⬇️ Check for Updates — download and install newer versions automatically
- 🔄 Auto-Check for Updates — on by default; silently checks for updates on startup
- ❌ Exit — quit PeekDesktop
When Windows is in dark mode, the tray menu also follows the system theme when supported by the OS.
- Small Native AOT single-file builds for both x64 and ARM64
- Peek on Taskbar Click — optional trigger from empty taskbar space
- Taskbar-only activation — disable desktop-click peeking while keeping taskbar peeking enabled
- Dark tray menu support — follows Windows dark mode when available
- Taskbar button Show Desktop — bypasses keyboard remappers (PowerToys Keyboard Manager, etc.)
- Pause While Gaming / Full-Screen — avoids interference during gaming sessions
- Require Double-Click — optional double-click trigger for desktop peek
- In-place auto-updater — downloads, verifies Authenticode signature, swaps, and restarts automatically
| Feature | macOS Sonoma | PeekDesktop |
|---|---|---|
| Click wallpaper to peek | ✅ | ✅ |
| Restore on app click | ✅ | ✅ |
| Restore on second wallpaper click | ✅ | ✅ |
| Clicking/dragging icons does not trigger peek | ✅ | ✅ |
| Desktop icons accessible | ✅ | ✅ |
| Exact window position restore | ✅ | ✅ |
| System tray control | ❌ | ✅ |
| Multi-monitor support | ✅ | ✅ |
| Start with OS | Login Items | ✅ Registry |
| Smooth animation | ✅ | Fly Away mode |
Requirements: .NET 10 SDK
git clone https://github.com/shanselman/PeekDesktop.git
cd PeekDesktop
dotnet build src/PeekDesktop/PeekDesktop.csprojdotnet run --project src/PeekDesktop/PeekDesktop.csproj
# Run the P/Invoke safety harness (invalid handles + stress/leak checks)
dotnet run --project src/PeekDesktop.InteropHarness/PeekDesktop.InteropHarness.csproj -- 10000
# Windows-friendly wrapper script
.\test.ps1 -Iterations 10000
# Verbose mode (prints per-test timing + leak probe diagnostics)
.\test.ps1 -Iterations 10000 -VerboseOutput# For Intel/AMD
dotnet publish src/PeekDesktop/PeekDesktop.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained -p:PublishSingleFile=true
# For ARM64
dotnet publish src/PeekDesktop/PeekDesktop.csproj -c Release -r win-arm64 --self-contained -p:PublishSingleFile=trueRelease builds use .NET Native AOT — the exe is a fully native binary with no .NET runtime dependency. Current releases ship as self-contained single-file executables for both x64 and ARM64. Earlier experiments also used PublishAotCompressed (LZMA), but current builds favor compatibility and predictable startup behavior.
src/PeekDesktop/
├── Program.cs # Entry point, single-instance mutex
├── DesktopPeek.cs # Core state machine (Idle ↔ Peeking)
├── MouseHook.cs # WH_MOUSE_LL global mouse hook
├── FocusWatcher.cs # EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND monitor
├── WindowTracker.cs # Enumerate, minimize, and restore windows
├── DesktopDetector.cs # Identify desktop windows, icons, taskbar
├── Win32MessageLoop.cs # Win32 message loop + TaskbarCreated recovery
├── Win32TrayIcon.cs # Shell_NotifyIcon wrapper
├── Win32Menu.cs # Win32 popup menu wrapper
├── Win32Icon.cs # Programmatic icon via CreateIconIndirect
├── WinHttp.cs # WinHTTP wrapper (replaces HttpClient)
├── TrayIcon.cs # Tray icon business logic + menu wiring
├── AppUpdater.cs # In-place auto-updater (download, verify, swap, restart)
├── AppDiagnostics.cs # Logging via Trace/DebugView
├── Settings.cs # Hand-written UTF-8 JSON persistence + autostart
└── NativeMethods.cs # Win32 P/Invoke declarations
PRs welcome! Current status and next ideas:
- Click empty wallpaper to peek
- Click empty taskbar area to peek (opt-in)
- Restore on app click or taskbar click
- Restore on a second wallpaper click
- Clicking or dragging desktop icons does not start peek
- Right-click desktop icons while peeking (context menus stay open)
- Desktop icons remain usable while peeking
- Exact window positions are restored
- GitHub release-based update checks
- Works with PowerToys Keyboard Manager (keyboard remapping)
- Smooth minimize/restore animations (slide/fade)
- Hotkey support (e.g.,
Ctrl+F12to toggle peek) - Per-monitor peek (only minimize windows on the clicked monitor)
- Exclude specific apps from being minimized
PeekDesktop is a showcase for how small a .NET Native AOT application can get. Starting from a standard WinForms app, we systematically eliminated every managed framework dependency until the binary was pure Win32 P/Invoke — then compressed it to fit on a floppy disk.
| Version | Binary Size | What Changed |
|---|---|---|
| v0.4.5 | ~65 MB | Self-contained .NET (no AOT) |
| v0.5.0 | 17.5 MB | Enabled Native AOT |
| v0.6.0 | 4.2 MB | Dropped WinForms — pure Win32 P/Invoke for tray icon, menus, message loop |
| v0.6.1 | 2.3 MB | Replaced HttpClient with OS-native WinHTTP (winhttp.dll) |
| v0.7.2 | 1.88 MB | Eliminated JSON source generator, System.Reflection, Process.Start |
| v0.7.2 + LZMA | ~564 KB | LZMA compression via PublishAotCompressed |
What's left in the 1.88 MB (pre-compression)?
- ~1.2 MB — .NET Native AOT runtime (GC, threading, exception handling, type system)
- ~0.4 MB —
Utf8JsonReader/Utf8JsonWriter+ async task machinery - ~0.2 MB — App code, P/Invoke stubs, string literals
- ~0.08 MB — PE headers and metadata
Key techniques:
- No WinForms, no System.Drawing —
Shell_NotifyIcon,CreatePopupMenu,TrackPopupMenuEx,MessageBoxW,CreateIconIndirectvia P/Invoke - No HttpClient —
WinHttpOpen/WinHttpSendRequestuses the OS HTTP+TLS stack at zero binary cost - No JSON source generator — hand-written
Utf8JsonReader/Utf8JsonWriterfor the two tiny JSON shapes we need - No System.Reflection — PE version resources read via
GetFileVersionInfoExWP/Invoke - No managed delegates for WndProc —
UnmanagedCallersOnlyfunction pointers avoid marshaling overhead OptimizationPreference=Size+InvariantGlobalization+ stripped diagnostics
Special thanks to Michal Strehovský — the architect of .NET Native AOT — whose PR #5 inspired the final round of optimizations that eliminated the JSON source generator, reflection, and managed delegates. When the person who built the AOT compiler optimizes your app, you pay attention. 🙏