Introduction to the

MacOS has a handy feature called “trigger Angle.” Through this function, you can set the trigger event when the mouse moves to the four corners of the screen, such as the trigger to start the screen saver, display the desktop and other functions. In contrast to the hotkeys we’re used to, macOS calls them “Hot Corners.” The software “HotCorner” that I’m going to introduce next is designed to give Windows a macos-like trigger Angle to achieve the effect shown in the following GIF:

When the mouse moves to the top left corner of the screen, the Windows timeline automatically opens to try to achieve a quick switching task.

The application originated from a small project called HotCorner by Tavis Ormandy, an information security engineer at Google. He created the project because he was used to a Linux operating system desktop: GNOME 3, which can trigger a task view when the mouse moves to the top left corner. He found that whenever he used Windows 10, he forgot that it didn’t exist in Windows, and that he couldn’t find an alternative, so he hand-rubbed a small program in C to do it himself. But this little program only has one function: the top left corner of the screen triggers the Windows Timeline view. And software installation, uninstall all need to be through the command line or manual implementation, very inconvenient.

The author made the following changes on the basis of the original project:

  1. Use the lower left corner of the screen to trigger the Start menu
  2. Package the software as an installation bootstrap (installation package)
  3. Add ICONS to software
  4. Software boot can be selected during installation
  5. Writing Chinese documents

The following GIF demonstrates the feature I added to trigger the start menu in the bottom left corner

Software functions

  • The Windows 10 timeline view is displayed when the mouse moves to the upper left corner of the screen
  • The Windows Start menu is displayed when the mouse moves to the lower right corner of the screen

download

Github address: download address

Code cloud address: download address

If you do not plan to participate in the development of this software, just download the hotCornerInstaller. exe installer. It is recommended to use the code cloud address to download it quickly, but if you need to submit an issue, please go to Github address.

The installation

Download the hotCornerInstaller. exe file and double-click it to install it.

uninstall

Find the installation location of the software (default is C: Program Files (x86)\HotCorner) and double-click unins000.exe in this folder to complete the uninstallation. Stop the software before uninstalling it (press Ctrl+Alt+C at the same time).

use

After the software is installed, it will be automatically added to the list of applications in the start menu. Find the HotCorner and click it to run the software in the background. If you use the screen zoom shown in the figure and the zoom is not 100%, you need to do the following configuration

Under normal circumstances, the software can automatically obtain the height of the screen, but when the system uses the screen zoom, the software will not obtain the true height of the screen, so you need to edit the config. TXT file under the software installation path (default is C:\Program Files (x86)\HotCorner). In this file, write the true height of the screen, such as 1080 (in units), and restart the software. (The default value in config.txt is 0, indicating that the screen height is automatically obtained.)

Press Ctrl+Alt+C while the software is running to close the program

License

The code is open-source using THE GPL3 protocol. If you need to use the code, follow the CPL3 protocol.

The author

  • Tavis Ormandy @taviso – Original Author
  • Ahmed Samy @asamy – HotKey support
  • Yuchao Huang @misterchaos – Application Package

FAQ

  • Q: Timeline view can be triggered in the upper left corner of the screen, but not in the lower right corner of the screen?

  • A: You may have used zooming to see the configuration instructions

  • Q: I want to modify the events triggered by the corner of the screen. What should I do?

  • A: At present, I can only download the source code for modification, and then recompile and run.

  • Q: How do I close the software after it runs?

  • A: Press Ctrl+Alt+C while the software is running to close the program

  • Q: How do I make the software run on startup?

  • A: You can choose boot during the installation process. If you do not choose boot during the installation, you can manually implement it (the method can be found by yourself).