Windows apps on the sidebar: add and place

Your Windows apps sit on the same rail as your web apps. A click starts one or brings its window forward, and its menu lists its windows, its memory and End task.

#How to add a Windows app

Windows apps are free. They sit on the rail next to your web apps, with the same pins, dividers, groups, folders and drag. Click Add at the bottom of the rail: its field reads Type a site or an app.

• Type its name. Up to four installed apps show under Windows apps, below the web suggestions, each marked Windows app or Store app. Enter adds the highlighted one, and Shift+Enter adds it and keeps the drawer open.
• Pick one that is open now. With the field empty, Open now shows the apps that have a window open and are not on the rail yet, most recent first. A click adds one and keeps the drawer open; a +N button lists them all.
• Browse… adds a program (.exe) or a shortcut to one (.lnk) from a file.
• Drop it from File Explorer. Drag programs or shortcuts onto the rail. An accent line shows where they land, and one drop adds up to 20.
• Type a service's address. When you type the address of a service whose Windows app is on this PC, such as spotify.com, the drawer says Spotify is installed on this PC and offers Add app. It knows Spotify, Discord, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, Notion, Figma and a few others.

The first Windows app makes an Apps group at the end of the rail, and the next ones join it. Move them anywhere afterwards, or turn off Put new apps in an Apps group in Settings. An app already on the rail is never added twice, and only programs on this PC and their shortcuts can go on the rail.

#Open, switch and minimize

• Click starts the app, or brings its last window forward, restored if it was minimized.
• Click again on the app in front to minimize it. Click again to minimize in Settings turns this off.
• Shift+Click or the middle mouse button opens a new window.
• Ctrl+Shift+Click starts it as administrator. Windows asks first.

An app started from the rail is an ordinary Windows app: it keeps running when Side Whisper quits. In Productivity a web app window you left on screen stays where it is. In Productivity On Top and in Gaming, a web app window that would cover the Windows app steps aside, and comes back by itself once nothing of that app covers its place.

#The app's menu

Right-click a Windows app's tile, or press Shift+F10 or the Menu key on it. The header names the app with its state and, while it runs, its memory, counted as Task Manager counts it: for example Windows app · Running · 412 MB, Running in the background, Running as administrator, Not responding or Not running.

• Its windows. With several windows open, each has a row: click it to bring that window forward, or × to close it.
• New window opens another window. An app that is not running offers Open instead and, for a desktop program, Run as administrator.
• Place (Beside, Fill or Free) and Width decide where its window goes and how wide it is. Beside, Fill and Width are part of the Windows apps desk, which is Pro; Free, which leaves the window where you put it, works on every plan.
• Start with Side Whisper (Pro) opens the app when Side Whisper starts.
• Notifications off stops its badge, its Inbox entries and the Inbox ring. While they are off, Also turn off in Windows opens the Windows Settings page where the app's own banners are turned off.
• Edit…, Pin to top, Divider, Move and Group work as they do for a web app.
• Open has File location and Task Manager.
• Close window, or Close all windows, closes them as their own close button does, so the app may ask you to save.
• End task stops the app at once. It asks once more in the row, End now?, with the focus on Cancel, and the header says that unsaved work is lost and how many processes stop. A toast then says the app ended, with Open again. End task never stops File Explorer, Windows' own processes, Side Whisper or another app the app started.
• Remove takes it off the rail, with Undo.

When an app does not respond, the header turns to a warning and End task is the first row. Memory in the header and End task in the menu each have a switch in Settings.

Edit a Windows app

Edit… opens a drawer with the app's Name (1 to 120 characters), Use the app's current icon, Always run as administrator for a desktop program (Windows asks for your permission each time it starts), a Shortcut (Pro) that opens the app or brings it forward from anywhere, and Keep its taskbar button, which keeps its button when rail apps are hidden from the taskbar.

#What a tile shows

• A small mark on the rail's inner edge while the app runs, and the accent drop while it is in front, as for a web app.
• While it opens, for up to 20 seconds, that mark draws itself and waits for the first window.
• An amber chip when Windows says the app is not responding.
• An accent dot when the app flashes for your attention.
• A dimmed icon when the app is not installed on this PC.
• An unread count, as on a web app's tile (see Notifications and unread counts).
• With Mark Windows apps on (off by default), a small window in the corner of the icon tells a Windows app from a web app.

Rest the pointer on a tile for its label, such as Discord · Windows app · Running · 2 unread. The state it names is the most urgent of Not installed on this PC, Not responding, Opening, Wants your attention, In front, the number of windows and Running.

#Show only web apps or only Windows apps

Once a Windows app is on the rail, the lens appears in the rail's head, under the Inbox tab. Each press moves from All apps to Web apps, to Windows apps and back to All apps, and an accent dot says a filter is on. Each view keeps its own dividers: a divider you add while the lens shows only web apps or only Windows apps shows only in that view. The rail goes back to all apps when you add something the lens would hide. Turn off Show the lens in Settings to hide the lens.

#Find apps with Quick Search

Quick Search finds the Windows apps on your rail by name, and up to four installed apps that are not on it, under Installed. Enter opens one and Ctrl+Enter adds it to the rail. Its Task Manager action opens Task Manager. See Find anything with Quick Search.

#Settings for Windows apps

Open Settings, then General, then Windows apps. Each switch applies at once and stays on this PC. The section also has Task Manager, with an Open button.

#The taskbar

Hide rail apps from the taskbar (Free, off by default) takes the taskbar buttons of the apps on the rail off the taskbar while Side Whisper runs. Their windows, Alt+Tab and the rail stay as they are, and Keep its taskbar button in an app's Edit drawer keeps one app's button. The first Windows app you add asks once, Also hide them from the taskbar?, with Hide.

Hide the Windows taskbar (Pro, off by default) turns on the taskbar's own auto-hide while Side Whisper runs. Turn on Clock on the rail to keep the time in view.

Turning either one off, or quitting Side Whisper, puts everything back. If Side Whisper ends abruptly, a small restore helper that comes with the app gives the buttons and the auto-hide back a moment later. A button you pinned to the taskbar stays pinned: Side Whisper never unpins it.

#In On Top and over a game

In Productivity On Top and in Gaming, a Windows app you bring forward through Side Whisper (its tile, its menu, Quick Search, its shortcut or Peek) stays above other apps and the game, as web app windows do there. It goes back to a normal window when you minimize it, when another rail app comes forward, when you take it off the rail, when you go back to Productivity and when Side Whisper quits. This is free.

• Bringing a Windows app forward in Gaming never takes the keyboard from the game.
• In Gaming View only the rail's Window mode control takes a click, so bring an app forward with the Quick Search shortcut or the app's own shortcut (Pro).
• A Windows app kept above the game takes its own clicks, and a click in it gives it the keyboard, as Windows does for any program. Click the game to give the keyboard back.
• Over a game in exclusive fullscreen, Windows keeps the app behind the game.

#The Windows apps desk

• Beside puts the window next to the sidebar, where web apps open. Fill gives it the rest of the screen beside the sidebar. Free leaves it where you put it. Choose for the app under Place in its menu, or for one window in that window's row of the menu or in Peek. The app's new windows take the app's place, whatever opened them.
• Width, under Place in the app's menu, sets the app's own width beside the sidebar, from 30 to 100% in steps of 5%. Windows app width, under Settings, then Appearance, sets it for every Windows app placed Beside; its first choice, Same as browser width, is the default.
• Where new apps open, in Settings, chooses Where it was, Beside or Fill for the apps you add.
• Peek on hover, off until you turn it on: rest the pointer on a running app and a card beside the rail shows up to four live previews of its windows, drawn by Windows and never captured or saved. Each has Beside, Fill, Free and ×, a click on a preview brings that window forward, and a line shows the app's CPU, memory, GPU and processes.
• A shortcut for each app, set in its Edit drawer: it opens the app or brings it forward from anywhere. Keyboard shortcuts lists it as Open “name”.
• Start with Side Whisper, in the app's menu: once per session, when the sidebar first shows, Side Whisper starts the apps you marked in the background, minimized, without taking the keyboard. An app that already runs is skipped, and none starts as administrator.
• Open all, in a group's divider menu, starts the group's Windows apps that are not running.
• Hide the Windows taskbar, see The taskbar.

A placed window follows the sidebar to another edge, monitor or width. Maximized, a Beside or Fill window stays clear of the rail while Keep sidebar apps beside the sidebar when maximized is on (the default, under Settings, then General). Move or resize it yourself and it becomes Free.

#Notifications and unread counts

A Windows app's unread count comes from one of two places.

• In the Microsoft Store version, once you allow it: Settings, then General, then Windows apps, Notifications from Windows apps, then Allow (Windows asks you first). Each notification Windows shows for an app on the rail is one unread on its tile, on the Inbox tab and in its Inbox row, with a preview there. Opening the app, Mark read or Mark all read clears it, and one you dismiss in Windows leaves within two seconds. Side Whisper reads only the rail apps' notifications, keeps them in memory and never stores, syncs or sends them.
• Otherwise, and for an app that shows no notifications, the count is the one the app writes in its own window title, such as (3) Discord or Slack - 2 new items, less what the title showed when you last looked at the app. File Explorer, web browsers and document apps show no count.

Notifications off, in the app's menu or its Inbox row, stops its badge, its Inbox entries and the Inbox ring, and Side Whisper stops reading its notifications. Windows still shows the app's own banners: Also turn off in Windows opens the page where you turn them off. Pause notifications covers Windows apps too. See The Inbox, notifications and pauses.

#What stays on your PC

Windows apps stay on this PC. They never go into Sync, sidebar or full backups, or templates made from your sidebar, and a synced sidebar, a template switch or a restored backup leaves them where they are. Groups that hold only Windows apps, and the dividers of the lens's views, stay with them. Side Whisper reads the list of installed apps, window titles, process names and their memory, CPU and GPU use on this PC only when it needs them, and sends none of it anywhere. See Privacy, security and permissions.

#When Pro ends

Nothing is deleted. Beside, Fill, Width, Peek, the app shortcuts, Open all, Start with Side Whisper and the hidden taskbar stop, and the taskbar's auto-hide is turned back off. Your places, shortcuts and settings stay saved and work again when Pro returns. Adding apps, opening them, the menu, End task, the lens, staying above in On Top and Gaming, and hiding their taskbar buttons keep working on Free. Settings, then Account, lists what waits for Pro.

#Limits

• A window of a fixed size, one you cannot resize, goes next to the sidebar at its own size when you choose Beside or Fill.
• An app that is not on this PC (uninstalled, or moved) reads Not installed on this PC. Its tile dims, and a click says so in a toast with Remove.
• Store apps cannot use Always run as administrator.
• Previews of a Windows app's notifications need the Microsoft Store version of Side Whisper: Windows' notification listener works only for a packaged app. Elsewhere the count comes from the window title.
• The installed apps are listed through Windows PowerShell. When it is blocked or does not answer within 20 seconds, the installed list is unavailable, while Browse… and a drop from File Explorer still work.

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