Apex

Ultra-fast, ultra-lightweight launcher for Windows. Raycast, but native.

• Pure Win32 + Direct2D. No Electron, no webview, no runtime.
• Single small binary. Minimal RAM. Instant startup.
• One dependency: the windows crate.

Status

v0.6.4, pre-release. Working today: global hotkey (runs elevated so it works over admin windows), fuzzy app search with icons (desktop + Store apps), frecency ranking, quicklinks, apex commands, a tray icon, aliases, an actions panel, and a live acrylic backdrop. See ROADMAP.md for what's shipped and what's next.

Install

cargo install apex-launcher

The crate is apex-launcher because apex was taken; the binary is apex. For the latest commit rather than the last release:

cargo install --git https://github.com/shivajreddy/apex

From source

cargo build --release

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Apex" -Force
Copy-Item .\target\release\apex.exe "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Apex\apex.exe" -Force
Start-Process "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Apex\apex.exe"

Install somewhere stable rather than running from target\release\: cargo clean wipes that directory, and a running apex holds a lock on its own exe that makes the next build fail.

Running apex is what installs it. setup::ensure runs on every launch and registers, idempotently, from the [general] flags:

Flag	Effect
start_menu	Start menu shortcut, pointing at the running exe
start_on_startup	Apex value under the HKCU Run key

Both point at wherever the exe currently is, and both are removed on the next launch if you set the flag to false.

Upgrade

cargo build --release
Get-Process apex -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force
Copy-Item .\target\release\apex.exe "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Apex\apex.exe" -Force
Start-Process "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Apex\apex.exe"

Usage

Key
Ctrl+Esc	toggle the launcher (configurable)
Esc	dismiss; in a quicklink's argument field, back to the query
↑ ↓	move selection
Enter	open
Ctrl+K	actions for the selected result
← → Home End	move the caret; Ctrl jumps by word, Shift selects
Ctrl+A	select all
Ctrl+X Ctrl+C Ctrl+V	cut, copy, paste - in the query and in any field
Tab Shift+Tab	into and between a quicklink's argument fields; next field, in forms

The mouse works too: hover to highlight, click to launch, wheel to scroll, drag the scrollbar (or click its track to jump), click in the query to place the caret.

Summoning apex with an empty query lists your most-used entries under Suggestions, then everything else - every app, quicklink and command - under Commands. The list scrolls, so the window stays the same height whether you have ten entries or three hundred. Suggestions is omitted entirely until you have launched something.

Note: Ctrl+Esc normally opens the Start menu. Apex claims it with a low-level keyboard hook, on its own thread so a busy moment never makes it miss the chord - before the shell sees it, so it wins even over reserved combos (the Win key still opens Start).

If summoning is unreliable, another app is almost certainly intercepting the key first. Ctrl+Esc is a shell chord, and tools that install their own keyboard hooks - a tiling window manager, Windhawk, remappers - sit in the same hook chain and can swallow the real keypress before Apex sees it. The robust fix is a chord nothing else claims:

[hotkey]
modifiers = "ctrl"
key = "space"

Tiling window managers also try to manage the popup. Tell yours to leave it alone - in GlazeWM, a window_rules ignore on window_process: 'apex'.

If the Start menu is open when you summon apex, apex closes it first: Start sits in a shell layer above every other window and would otherwise cover the launcher.

Aliases

Ctrl+K on any app or quicklink, Set Alias…, and type a short name. Typing that alias afterwards puts it first. Aliases live in [aliases]; a quicklink's alias points at its key (gh = "github"). Esc in a form or prompt opened from the actions panel steps back to that panel.

Quicklinks

A quicklink opens a link, folder or program by name. Type create quicklink to make one, or Ctrl+K on an existing one to edit or delete it.

A placeholder in the link makes the quicklink take an argument, filled in right in the search bar, the way Raycast does it. Select the quicklink and a field for each argument appears after the query: Tab moves into them (Shift+Tab back, and ← → carry on from either end of one), Esc returns to the query, and Enter opens the link with the values substituted in - percent-encoded when the link is a URL. Typing the quicklink's alias and then a space jumps straight into its first argument, and Backspace in an empty one steps back out. Enter with a required argument still empty puts the caret there instead of opening anything.

[quicklinks.gify]
name = 'Gify'
link = 'https://giphy.com/search/{argument name="search"}'
open_with = 'chrome'        # optional; defaults to the system handler

Raycast's syntax works as written, so links copy straight across:

Placeholder
{argument name="search"}	an argument; placeholders sharing a name share one field
{argument}	an unnamed argument, a field of its own each time
{argument name="lang" default="en"}	optional: left empty, the default is used
{argument name="repo" | raw}	substituted as typed, not percent-encoded
{query}	apex's original form, named by the word inside

A link takes up to three arguments. The modifiers raw, percent-encode, trim, uppercase and lowercase chain after a |; any other is ignored, and options="..." is accepted but shown as a plain text field. Raycast's other placeholders, such as {clipboard} or {date}, are not filled in automatically: each becomes an argument of that name. A {GUID}, as in shell:::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}, is left alone.

Prefer 'single quotes': they keep Windows paths like C:\tools\x.exe literal, with no escaping, and Raycast's double quotes as they are.

Curating what shows up

Commands lists every installed application, which usually includes uninstallers and bundled helpers you will never launch. Ctrl+K on any row offers Hide from Apex; Apex: Manage Hidden Entries lists what you hid, with Unhide to put it back.

For the whole picture, Apex: Sources & Commands lists every source apex draws from - its own commands, quicklinks, each source folder, and the applications - as sections, with each entry marked On or Off. Enter flips the highlighted entry (turned-off rows are drawn faded), and Ctrl+K also offers Turn Off All / Turn On All for that source. It is the same switch as hiding: an entry that is off never appears in results.

Source folders

Portable apps and loose scripts never get a Start Menu entry, so apex cannot see them by default. Apex: Add Source Folder takes a folder and indexes what is in it - .exe, .lnk, .bat, .cmd and .ps1, one level deep. Apex: Manage Source Folders lists what you have added, with Remove Source Folder behind Ctrl+K; removing reindexes immediately.

[sources]
1 = 'D:\PortableApps'

Scanning is deliberately not recursive: a source pointed at a deep tree, or at a drive root by mistake, would stall indexing. The keys are just indices - a bare TOML key cannot hold a Windows path.

Apex commands

Type apex to list them all; each is also reachable by its own word, and by hidden synonyms (startup finds Toggle Start at Login, exit finds Quit).

Command
Apex: Reload	re-read apps, quicklinks, aliases and config from disk
Apex: Restart	relaunch, the only way to apply [hotkey] / [general]
Apex: Quit	exit
Apex: Open Config	open config.toml in your editor
Apex: Open Config Folder	reveal %APPDATA%\apex
Apex: Toggle Tray Icon	show/hide the tray icon, and remember the choice
Apex: Toggle Start at Login	flip start_on_startup and apply it now
Apex: Clear Launch History	reset frecency ranking
Apex: Add Source Folder	index an extra folder of apps and scripts
Apex: Manage Source Folders	review source folders, and remove them
Apex: Manage Hidden Entries	review what you have hidden, and restore it
Apex: Sources & Commands	every source and its items, each with an on/off switch

Reload picks up hand-edits to config.toml, so editing it in your dotfiles and reloading is enough. [general] and [hotkey] still need a restart.

Configuration

%APPDATA%\apex\config.toml - auto-created with commented defaults on first run. Symlink it into your dotfiles if that's how you roll.

[general]
start_menu = true        # Start menu entry, refreshed each launch
start_on_startup = true  # run Apex at sign-in (HKCU Run key)
tray_icon = true         # tray icon: Open / Reload / Open Config / Quit

[appearance]
backdrop = "acrylic"     # blur what's behind the window; "none" for solid
theme = "system"         # follow Windows' light/dark setting; or "dark", "light"
opacity = 0.5            # tint over the blur: 0.0 clear .. 1.0 solid
animation = true         # fade in on summon; false shows it instantly

[hotkey]
modifiers = "ctrl"       # ctrl, alt, shift, win, joined with '+'; or "none"
key = "escape"           # a-z, 0-9, f1-f24, space, escape, tab, grave, enter

[plugins]
search = true            # disabled plugins are never constructed: zero cost
quicklinks = true
commands = true

The frosted background is Windows 11's own system backdrop (DWMWA_SYSTEMBACKDROP_TYPE, the same material Flow Launcher and PowerToys use), composited live by DWM behind an ordinary window: a video, a window change or a workspace switch behind apex blurs through as it happens, and it is there on the very first frame of every summon. opacity is the tint apex paints over it. On Windows before 22H2 (22621) apex falls back to the older blur-behind; with "Transparency effects" off, Windows draws it as a flat tint.

Apex only ever rewrites the sections it owns - [aliases], [quicklinks.*], [sources], [hidden], and single [general] keys - by line surgery. Every other section, and every comment, is preserved byte-for-byte.

Launch history is not kept here. It lives in %LOCALAPPDATA%\apex\frecency.tsv, because it rewrites on every launch and is machine-local - the config file is yours, and often lives in a git repo.

The application index lives beside it, as index.bin. A helper process (apex --index, the same exe) enumerates installed apps and extracts their icons, writes the file, and exits, so the shell's enumeration and imaging libraries never load into the launcher itself. Apex reads the last index at startup and refreshes it in the background; Apex: Reload refreshes it on demand. It is safe to delete.

Runs as administrator

Apex requires administrator (its manifest asks for it). This is deliberate: the global hotkey is a low-level keyboard hook, and while an elevated window (Task Manager, an installer, regedit) has focus, Windows UIPI hides keyboard input from a medium-integrity process - so a non-elevated apex simply cannot be summoned over those. Running elevated is the only way the hotkey works everywhere.

• First launch prompts for UAC. After that, start-at-login uses a scheduled task with highest privileges (Apex Elevated Logon), so apex starts elevated at sign-in with no prompt. start_on_startup = false removes the task. (The HKCU Run key can't launch an elevation-required exe, so it is no longer used.)
• Apps you launch still run unelevated. An elevated process would otherwise start everything as administrator - Windows never consults the target's manifest. So apex hands each launch to Explorer, which forwards it to the desktop shell running as you, and the app comes back at normal integrity. The one exception is a quicklink with open_with: Explorer can't forward a program-and-argument pair, so those launch elevated.
• Run as Administrator on demand. Ctrl+K on any app offers Run as Administrator, which starts it with apex's own elevated token - no UAC prompt, since you already answered one for apex. Not offered for Store apps, which cannot be elevated.
• To stop apex running elevated, uninstall this build and the task: schtasks /delete /tn "Apex Elevated Logon" /f.

Known limitations

Aliases are machine-specific. Desktop apps get an AppUserModelID of the form Microsoft.AutoGenerated.{GUID}, generated per machine, so an alias set on one box will not resolve on another. Quicklinks have no such problem.

License

MIT