wind-trailer-github-1080p.mp4
A replacement for the built-in Magnifier, with smooth continuous zoom that keeps tracking the mouse even when games hide, clip, or center-lock the cursor.
Contributing or curious how it works? The developer book lives at docs/architecture: twelve chapters covering every subsystem, end to end.
Wind renders the magnified view itself - capturing the desktop with DXGI Desktop Duplication and scaling it on the GPU (Direct3D 11) onto a click-through overlay, or magnifying inside the compositor (DWM fullscreen transform) when a game is in front. That gives sub-pixel smooth panning and a crisp cursor that the integer-offset Windows Magnification API can't, and lets you keep clicking and using the screen while zoomed.
- Smooth, sub-pixel zoom and pan with light inertia - no stepping or cursor hop.
- Interact while zoomed - clicks pass through to the app under the cursor.
- Auto engine per situation - games get the compositor-internal transform path (stays smooth under heavy GPU load), everything else the high-fidelity render overlay; Wind switches live when you alt-tab, keeping the zoom level.
- Named settings profiles - full snapshots (keybinds included), switchable from the tray menu or the Settings titlebar.
- Real cursor - the actual pointer shapes (text I-beam and link hand included), drawn crisp at every zoom.
- HDR-aware - on an HDR display it tonemaps to match the desktop automatically (tracking the live SDR-brightness slider); on SDR it's a straight passthrough. No per-machine tuning.
- Follows the mouse even when a game locks/hides the cursor (HID-level Raw Input, no injection - anti-cheat safe).
- Inspect mode - freeze the cursor (keeps a hover/tooltip alive) and free-look around with a crosshair; clicks land where you aim.
- Zoom lock detection - games that pin the mouse to the screen center (DOOM-style mouselook) would drag the zoom back with it; listed apps (Settings > Cursor) pan from raw mouse motion instead.
- Tracking modes - the view can follow you instead of only the pointer: it recenters on the text caret as you type (on by default) or on the keyboard-focused control (off by default), gliding smoothly to each new target; a mouse edge mode keeps the pointer from reaching the view's border. Settings > Tracking.
Selected with the model ini key or the "Magnifier engine" row in Settings. model is
read once at launch, so switching it restarts Wind (Settings does this automatically on Apply).
hybrid(default, shown as Auto) - constructs both engines below and picks per zoom-in: the transform for a borderless-fullscreen foreground on the primary monitor (games, F11 video), the render overlay for everything else. Re-picks live when the foreground changes mid-zoom.render- captures the desktop with DXGI Desktop Duplication and redraws it into a D3D11 overlay. The cursor is drawn into the same frame as the content, so it can never drift against the view. The only model that can cover the shell (see thezorderBandnote below).transform- the DWM fullscreen transform only (whathybriduses over games), with no overlay at all. Compositor-internal, so it stays smooth while a heavy game renders.magnify- drives the native Windows Magnifier with Wind's buttons. This is the model for DRM-protected video (Netflix and friends), which shows black under screen capture. Holding a zoom button scroll-zooms Magnifier exactly like its own Ctrl+Alt+wheel shortcut, stepping bymagnifySteppercent per notch (ini key; lower = smoother and slower, applies live). Everything else is pure native Magnifier behavior; quitting Wind (or switching models) closes it and restores your original Magnifier settings. Max zoom is Magnifier's ceiling, 1600%.
The magnify model hands the view and cursor to Windows Magnifier, so the render-only features
do not apply there: sharpness, hdrTonemap, bilinear, outline*, brightness,
cursorSensitivity/cursorSmoothing, multiMonitor, and Inspect mode.
Zoom binds ship unbound - the first-launch guided setup captures your choice (mouse side-buttons and/or keyboard keys, with optional alternates). Everything is rebindable in Settings; bound keys are swallowed so they never double-fire into the focused app.
- Hold your zoom-in bind - zoom in (smooth ramp). Hold zoom-out - zoom back.
- Release - zoom stays at the current level.
- Quick zoom (default Ctrl + a zoom key, or a dedicated hotkey) - toggle between 1x and your remembered level.
- Inspect mode (optional bind) - freeze the cursor and free-look with the crosshair.
- Ctrl+Alt+Q - quit from anywhere (also restores the cursor); or use the tray icon.
Download Wind-Setup-x64-<version>.exe from the
Releases page and run it.
Setup installs per-machine to C:\Program Files\Wind and asks for administrator rights.
That location is not a preference: Windows only grants UIAccess to a signed binary in a
"secure location", and UIAccess is what lets Wind's shortcuts keep working while an elevated
window has focus, and what enables the desktop zoom path. Setup also offers to start Wind when
you sign in, and installs the WebView2 runtime if Settings has no browser engine to run in.
Your settings, profiles and logs stay in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Wind, and uninstalling keeps them
unless you say otherwise.
Signing. The installer package itself is currently unsigned, so Windows SmartScreen will warn on first run, and that is also why some browsers, and most managed work computers, refuse the download outright. A certificate for that is being arranged.
That does not cost you UIAccess, though. Setup generates a one-time local signing certificate on each PC it installs to, trusts it there, signs the UIAccess build with it, and deletes the private key right away - so a normal install gets UIAccess (elevated-window shortcuts keep working, and the desktop uses the transform engine) without needing a purchased certificate. If that per-PC signing step ever fails, Setup falls back to the ordinary, non-UIAccess build.
The release pipeline also signs with a real certificate when one is configured, via
WIND_SIGN_THUMBPRINT, or WIND_SIGN_PFX plus WIND_SIGN_PASSWORD:
pwsh -File tools\release.ps1
With a certificate it signs both executables and the installer up front and skips the per-PC
step entirely. src\version.h is the only place the version is declared.
Requires Visual Studio 2022+ Build Tools (Desktop development with C++). From any shell:
build.bat- buildsWind.exe(runs from anywhere).build.bat test- builds and runs the unit tests.build.bat uiaccess- builds the UIAccess variant (signed-install prerequisite).build.bat config- builds the Settings app (WindConfig.exe+ the Svelte UI).build.bat installer- compiles the setup program (needs NSIS:winget install NSIS.NSIS).
Run elevated:
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File tools\uiaccess_setup.ps1
This builds the UIAccess variant and the Settings app, self-signs them, and installs to
C:\Program Files\Wind. Launch C:\Program Files\Wind\Wind.exe from a normal (non-elevated)
window so UIAccess engages. Settings (and the ini) live per-user under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Wind.
Note on shell coverage: covering the Start menu / taskbar / tray flyouts additionally requires
the opt-in zorderBand=16 (UIAccess build only). It ships off (zorderBand=0) because the
high band puts Wind under the Snipping Tool's capture overlay, which costs the cursor entirely
during Win+Shift+S - a deliberate trade-off (issue #162).
The Settings app (tray -> Open Settings) is the comfortable way to edit this file; it keeps the everyday settings front and center (the rest sit behind "Show advanced settings") and closes itself if the magnifier exits. Every ini key below keeps working even when it has no Settings row. Profiles (tray -> Profiles, or the Settings titlebar) snapshot the whole file per activity.
zoomInButton/zoomOutButton(mouse side-buttons) andzoomInVk/zoomOutVk(keyboard) - hold to zoom; all ship unbound until the guided setup. Alternates:*2variants.maxLevel,zoomInSpeed/zoomOutSpeed,smoothZoom*- zoom range and feel.cursorSensitivity,cursorSmoothing- pan speed and inertia.bilinear,sharpness,cursorConstantSize(default 0: the cursor grows with the zoom),cursorVisibility- image and cursor rendering.brightness,hdrTonemap- output tuning.- Pacing/perf:
vsync(default on),dwmFlush(default 0),gameFpsCap,gpuPriority. model-hybrid(default) /render/transform/magnify. Restart to switch.multiMonitor- 0 (default, primary only) or 1 (follow the cursor's monitor per zoom-in).desktopTransform- default 1: use the game (compositor) engine on the desktop too (primary monitor only, Auto model), whenever UIAccess is available; every normal install gets that from the per-PC signing described above. Set it to0to keep the desktop on the render engine.lockApps- per-app zoom lock detection (Settings > Cursor > "Zoom lock detection");warpLock=1extends the detection heuristics to unlisted games.trackCaret(default 1) /trackFocus(default 0) - follow the text caret or the keyboard-focused control instead of the pointer;trackGlideMs(default 200) sets how fast the view glides to a new target.mouseAlign=1switches ordinary mouse tracking to an edge mode where the pointer may approach the view's border instead of staying centered. Settings > Tracking.- Advanced:
zorderBand,transformExclude,noSwallowApps,profile,launchQuiesce(default 1; 0 disables the ~1.5s write hold on a freshly launched fullscreen cover - a test knob for issue #247, it unguards the #187 DWM crash class, do not ship it off).
Primary monitor by default (multiMonitor=1 follows the cursor's monitor). Covers the desktop,
normal apps, and borderless / windowed-fullscreen games. Exclusive-fullscreen games are out
of scope (set the game to borderless).
Wind is proprietary. Copyright (c) 2026 Max Aubert, all rights reserved. The source code
may not be used, copied, modified or redistributed without written permission; official
binaries are free to install and use, personally or inside an organisation. See LICENSE.
Releases published on or before 2026-08-31 (up to v0.6.1) were issued under the MIT licence,
and that grant still covers those versions. It does not extend to anything after them.
Third-party components and their licences are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.
Commercial licensing enquiries: aubert@post.com