Tiny Hot Corners for Windows 10

In GNOME 3 whenever you move the mouse to the top left corner, GNOME switches to the activities view, it looks like this:

Whenever I'm using Windows 10, I always forget that this doesn't work. Bleh.

I searched around for existing solutions, and wasn't happy with anything I could find.

The options seem to be

• Some ridiculous AutoHotKey monstrosity (?!?).
• Massive Delphi application with 100MB of resources.
• Some naive program that polls GetCursorPos() in a busy loop.

None of these are what I want, I just want that GNOME 3 thing with absolute minimal overhead.

This is a very minimal hotcorner app, written in C. You can adjust parameters, delays, bindings easily and recompile.

Zero state is stored anywhere, no registry keys or configuration files.

• If you want to configure something, edit the code and recompile.
• If you want to uninstall it, just delete it.

Instructions

Change any of the parameters, compile, then install.

A binary is available here if you prefer.

Building

> nmake

Installing

> copy hotcorner.exe "%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"

(or nmake install)

Uninstalling

> del "%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\hotcorner.exe"

(or nmake uninstall)

If you don't have cl or nmake, they come with Visual Studio (or the Windows SDK, I think).

Additionally, it is possible to build hotcorner on Linux using MinGW.

$ x86_64-w64-mingw32-windres version.rc -O coff -o version.res $ x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc -O2 hotcorner.c version.res -o hotcorner.exe -Wl,-subsystem,windows

Configuration

All configuration requires modifying the parameters in hotcorner.c and recompiling.

• RECT kHotcorner - The coordinates of the hot zone.
• INPUT kCornerInput[] - Input sent on activation.
• DWORD kHotKeyModifiers - Modifier Keys (shift, alt, ctrl, etc) you want to enable the hotkey function.
• DWORD kHotDelay - How long the pointer must wait in the corner before being activated.

License

GPL3

Authors

• Tavis Ormandy @taviso - Original Author
• Ahmed Samy @asamy - HotKey support

Variations

I've made a deliberate decision to keep hotcorner as simple as possible, here are some variations that other users have made that suit their needs better.

• Trigger the start menu with mouse in the lower left corner, by @misterchaos
• Multi-monitor support, by @Ortega-Dan and @mrowqa
• Custom hotkeys and command support, by @xeahsoon

FAQ

• Q: I don't want to compile it, can't you just give me an exe? :(

• A: Checkout the releases, here.

• Q: Can you change a setting, and then compile it for me?

• A: No.

• Q: This doesn't work with my Application/Configuration/Whatever!

• A: File an issue, if it's feasible to workaround I'll try.

• Q: How do I turn it off without rebooting?

• A: You can use CTRL+ALT+C to completely shut down the application.

• Q: Why doesn't it work if my current program is running as an Administrator?

• A: UIPI. I suppose you could "Run As Administrator" if it bothers you.