ClearStart

A see-through taskbar on every monitor and a start menu you can shape,
in one small app for Windows 11.

ClearStart draws its own taskbar and its own start menu. By default it runs as an ordinary program, and closing it brings the Windows taskbar back. An optional, experimental early-startup loader loads a guard inside Explorer before its taskbar is created. It is built separately, is not in the installer, and is disabled by default. It has passed sign-in tests on one PC; its failure recovery still needs desktop testing.

Important

This is an early preview. Get the signed installer from the latest release, or build it from source. It has been run on two PCs so far, in both preview mode, which runs next to the Windows taskbar and hides nothing, and live mode, where ClearStart takes the Windows taskbar's place. Start with the preview. Where it stands has the full list.

Version 0.3.0 starts with Windows from a sign-in task and hides the Windows taskbar earlier. It gives a newly started Explorer a moment first, so Win+arrow window snapping keeps working, and raises the bars with the start menu over fullscreen apps. A Windows taskbar on the top or a side of the screen, where Windows 11 cannot auto-hide it, is moved to the bottom while ClearStart runs and put back afterwards. The bars dock again after Explorer restarts or monitors wake from sleep. ClearStart still cannot guarantee that the Windows taskbar is never drawn at sign-in; see startup limits. The separate early-startup candidate targets that gap. Pinned icons appear together by default, with an optional animated startup reveal.

Contents

• What it does
• A quick look
• Try it
• Two ways to run it
• Getting the Windows taskbar back
• Guides
• Privacy
• Built on
• License

What it does

A taskbar on every monitor	Each monitor gets its own bar, set up on its own: top, bottom, left or right, any thickness, or no bar at all.
See-through, your way	Clear, blurred or frosted, with a transparency slider and any color laid over it.
Only that screen's windows	A bar lists the windows that are on its own monitor.
One button per app	All of an app's windows sit behind one button. Rest the mouse on it for live previews.
Start where you want it	With the apps, in the corner, at the far end, or hidden, monitor by monitor. Fifteen designs, including a word or a picture of your own.
Pinned apps, bar by bar	On every bar, on the main bar only, or a chosen few on each.
A start menu that is yours	Search, all apps, pinned tiles, and a list of places you can edit line by line.
Weather on the bar	Temperature and conditions next to the clock, with a five-day panel. No account needed.
Sound and network menus	Switch the output device or open the mixer from a right-click. The network glyph shows wired, Wi-Fi or no connection.
A real settings window	Everything in one place, and changes show on the bars as you make them.

A quick look

Put the bar anywhere

Top, bottom, or either side, and each monitor can differ. Drag a bar's edge to make it thinner or thicker; the icons follow.

The default bar
Thin, 28 pixels
Thick, with the day on the clock
Start in the corner
Start at the far end
Window titles, apps at the start

Make it look like yours

Pick how see-through the bar is, what shows behind it, its color, and the Start button's design.

The start menu

Type to search, click a tile, or jump to a place. The column of places is yours to edit: folders, programs, files, web addresses, Windows settings pages.

Weather, colors and settings

The weather panel

The color wheel

_{These pictures are drawn by the app itself (ClearStart.exe --screenshots) with stand-in content: the default settings, apps that come with Windows, a made-up name and a sample forecast, over a plain gradient in place of a wallpaper.}

Try it

You need 64-bit Windows 11.

1. Install it

Download ClearStart-Setup-<version>.exe from the latest release and run it. It is one file of about 55 MB, signed by C-Tech Solutions LLC, and carries its own copy of .NET, so the PC needs nothing else. It installs for you alone, by default into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\ClearStart, without administrator rights, and uninstalls from Windows' list of apps. If you choose another folder in Setup, use it in the commands below.

Setup's last page has Start ClearStart now ticked, which starts live mode. To start with the preview, untick it.

2. Start the preview

& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\ClearStart\ClearStart.exe" --preview

ClearStart's bars appear next to the Windows taskbar. Nothing of Windows' is hidden or changed.

3. Look around

• Click Start to open the start menu, or the magnifier next to it for Windows Search.
• Right-click an empty part of a bar to move it, hide it, or open Settings.
• Drag the edge of a bar that faces the desktop to resize it.

4. Close it

Right-click a bar and choose Exit ClearStart, or run:

& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\ClearStart\ClearStart.exe" --exit

Getting started goes through this step by step. An installed copy keeps itself up to date from the releases here: see Updates.

Or build it from source

This needs the .NET 10 SDK.

git clone https://github.com/C-Tech-Solutions/ClearStart.git
cd ClearStart
dotnet build src/ClearStart.csproj -c Release
src\bin\Release\net10.0-windows\ClearStart.exe --preview

src\bin\Release\net10.0-windows\ClearStart.exe --exit closes it. A copy built this way says when a newer version is out, but does not install it.

Or build the installer yourself

installer\build-installer.ps1

This makes artifacts\installer\ClearStart-Setup-<version>.exe. Building it needs Inno Setup 6 as well. It is not signed unless you sign it, so Windows warns before running it, and the copy it installs does not update itself. See the installer.

Two ways to run it

	Preview	Live
Command	ClearStart.exe --preview	ClearStart.exe
Windows taskbar	Stays where it is	Hidden while ClearStart runs
Tray icons from your apps	Not shown	Shown on the bars
Windows key	Opens the Windows start menu	Opens ClearStart's start menu
Has it been run?	Yes, on a four-monitor desktop	Yes, on the same desktop

Getting the Windows taskbar back

Closing ClearStart puts the Windows taskbar back. If a copy was ended without the chance to clean up (from Task Manager, say) and the Windows taskbar stays hidden, run:

& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\ClearStart\ClearStart.exe" --restore

For a copy you built from source:

src\bin\Release\net10.0-windows\ClearStart.exe --restore

Uninstalling does the same before it removes anything. None of this can happen in a preview, because a preview never hides the Windows taskbar.

With ordinary startup, signing out with Start with Windows enabled leaves Windows' taskbar on auto-hide to reduce its visibility at the next sign-in. Normal Exit and --restore restore its previous setting. See sign-out and recovery.

Guides

Guide	What is in it
Getting started	Installing or building it, the first run, closing it, the installer, starting with Windows, removing it
The taskbar	Moving and resizing bars, app buttons, pinned apps, the search button, the clock, sound, network and weather
The start menu	Searching, pinned tiles, and the list of places
The settings window	Every page, the Start button designs, colors, and clear, blurred and frosted
The settings file	Every key in settings.json, with its default
Updates	How ClearStart checks for a new version, what it sends, how it checks a download, which copies install updates, and how to turn it off
Where it stands	What works, what is missing, and what has not been tried yet
Development	How the code is laid out, the self-test, how the pictures here are made, and building, signing and publishing the installer

Privacy

ClearStart has no account and no telemetry. It fetches two things:

• The weather, from Open-Meteo, and only after you choose a location: the place name you type is sent once to look it up, and after that only the place's coordinates, rounded to about half a mile, and the units. Windows' location service is not used. Turning the weather off stops the requests.
• Whether there is a newer version, from GitHub, about once a day. The request carries ClearStart's version and nothing about you or the PC. Updates are only installed when you click Install, or when you have turned on installing them automatically. Turning the check off in the settings stops the requests. See Updates.

Built on

• ManagedShell (Apache-2.0) for docking the bars, the window list and the tray icons.
• Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

See THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.

License

ClearStart is released under the MIT License. The libraries and data it uses keep their own licenses; see THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.

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_{If you have used tools such as TranslucentTB or StartAllBack, ClearStart covers the same ground in one program. It is an independent project and is not affiliated with those tools or with Microsoft. Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.}