WinMac Menu

A tiny, fast Win32 application that shows a Windows context-like popup menu. It’s configurable via an INI file, adapts to your light/dark theme, supports a dynamic Recent Items submenu, and can render in either native (legacy) or a modern owner‑draw style.

• Windows 10/11, x86 and ARM64 supported
• No installer, single EXE
• Low-latency popup that exits after the menu closes

Features

• Recent Items: dynamic submenu from %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
• Config-driven items with separators, folders as submenus, URIs, commands, and power actions
• Light/Dark auto-adaptation; immersive dark hint on the invisible owner window
• Styles: Legacy (native popup) or Modern (owner-draw, Win11-like)
• Icons per item (+ default icon); optional icons in legacy style without changing native look
• Placement controls (edges or cursor, with offsets), per‑monitor DPI aware
• First-letter activation, outside-click dismissal, process exits after use
• Folder submenu behaviors: lazy population, max depth, name-only items, single vs double click to open
• Per-config single-instance (separate instance per INI path)

Run

• Move default config.ini file from repository to the root folder of WinMacMenu.exe executable.
• Double‑click the EXE to show the menu.
• The menu closes on selection or outside click and the process exits.
• Use --config to point at a custom INI; each INI path gets its own single‑instance gate.

Examples:

• WinMacMenu.exe --config C:\Tools\menu.ini

Configuration

WinMacMenu reads an INI. If missing, a default is created.

Sections

• [General] global behavior and style
• [Placement] position rules
• [Menu] menu items Item1..ItemN
• [Icons] per-item icon mapping Icon1..IconN
• [Modern] modern-only visual tweaks

Notes

• Environment variables expand in labels, paths, params, and icon paths (e.g., %USERNAME%).
• Indices N in [Icons] map to ItemN in [Menu].
• MenuWidth and [Modern] options apply to Modern style only; Legacy keeps native look.

[General]

• MenuStyle = legacy | modern
• DefaultIcon = path\to\default.ico (optional)
• LegacyIcons = 0 | 1 (show icons in legacy style via MIIM_BITMAP)
• RecentMax = 10 (max items in Recent submenu)
• FolderMaxDepth = 2 (1..4 for nested folder submenus)
• FolderSubmenuOpen = single | double (open folder itself on single/double click)
• ShowHidden = 0 | 1 (show FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN files)
• ShowDotfiles = 0 | 1 (show entries whose name starts with '.')
• PointerRelative = 0 | 1 (place menu near cursor instead of edges)
• MenuWidth = 226..255 (0 or omit = auto; Modern only, DPI‑scaled)
• Corners = rounded | square (Modern only; selection pill corners)

[Placement]

Used when PointerRelative = 0.

• HPlacement = Left | Center | Right
• HOffset = integer pixels from left/right when not centered
• VPlacement = Top | Center | Bottom
• VOffset = integer pixels from top/bottom when not centered

[Menu]

Define items Item1..ItemN as pipe-separated fields:

ItemN = Label | TYPE | PathOrTarget | Params | IconPath

• Label: text shown in the menu (env vars expand)
• TYPE: one of
  • URI (ms-settings:, shell:, http:, etc.)
  • FILE (launch a file or executable)
  • CMD (run a command line; Params appended)
  • FOLDER (open folder directly)
  • FOLDER_SUBMENU (show folder contents as submenu)
  • POWER_SLEEP
  • POWER_SHUTDOWN
  • POWER_RESTART
  • POWER_LOCK
  • POWER_LOGOFF
  • RECENT_SUBMENU (inserts the dynamic Recent items submenu)
• PathOrTarget: meaning depends on TYPE; for URI use the full URI; for FOLDER[_SUBMENU] use the folder path
• Params: optional command-line parameters for FILE/CMD (ignored otherwise)
• IconPath: optional per-item icon (.ico recommended)

You can also use a value in [Icons] to assign an icon to ItemN: IconN = path\to\icon.ico

Separators: use TYPE = SEPARATOR, or leave Label empty with a valid TYPE/Path; the parser also accepts explicit CI_SEPARATOR internally.

[Icons]

• Icon1 = C:\path\to\apps.ico
• Icon2 = C:\path\to\settings.ico
• ... (maps 1:1 to ItemN)

If an item has no IconPath and there is no IconN mapping, DefaultIcon (if set) is used.

[Modern]

Modern style only:

• MenuWidth = 226..255
• Corners = rounded | square

Examples

Minimal

[General]
MenuStyle=modern
RecentMax=12
PointerRelative=1
MenuWidth=240

[Menu]
Item1=Settings|URI|ms-settings:
Item2=File Explorer|FILE|explorer.exe||%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll
Item3=Recent|RECENT_SUBMENU
Item4=Sleep|POWER_SLEEP
Item5=Restart|POWER_RESTART

Folder submenu with visibility and click behavior

[General]
MenuStyle=modern
FolderMaxDepth=2
FolderSubmenuOpen=single
ShowHidden=0
ShowDotfiles=0

[Menu]
Item1=Downloads|FOLDER_SUBMENU|%USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Item2=Documents|FOLDER_SUBMENU|%USERPROFILE%\Documents
Item3=Open Pictures|FOLDER|%USERPROFILE%\Pictures

Placement (edge-based)

[General]
PointerRelative=0

[Placement]
HPlacement=Right
HOffset=16
VPlacement=Bottom
VOffset=24

Behavior details

• First-letter activation: typing a letter activates the first matching item immediately.
• Outside click: clicking away dismisses the menu.
• DPI/scaling: sizes and MenuWidth are DPI-scaled in Modern style.
• Legacy vs Modern: Legacy uses the system popup renderer; Modern uses owner-draw for a Win11-like look. Legacy ignores MenuWidth and Modern-only options.
• Icons in Legacy: if LegacyIcons=1, icons attach via MIIM_BITMAP without changing native look.
• Recent: resolves .lnk targets under the Recent folder; missing targets are skipped.
• Power actions: Shutdown/Restart attempt to enable the shutdown privilege. Sleep uses SetSuspendState; may be blocked by policy.
• Single-instance: one instance per INI path (mutex includes the INI path hash). Launching again forwards the request.

Troubleshooting

• Width doesn’t change in Legacy: by design; only Modern honors MenuWidth.
• Icons look blurry: use 16x16 .ico where possible. Large PNGs in .ico may scale poorly.
• Folder submenus are slow: contents load lazily on first open; deep folders or network paths can still be slow — reduce FolderMaxDepth.

Notes

• Built with standard Win32 APIs: user32, shell32, shlwapi, comctl32, uxtheme, dwmapi, powrprof, advapi32.
• This app uses normal popup menus; exact visual parity with the system Win+X menu isn’t guaranteed.
• It's recommended to use it together with Open-Shell, so the WinMacMenu can be triggered by clicking the Start menu button with the left mouse button or by pressing the Windows key.
• You can also pin shortcuts to taskbar, or add to Links toolbar. Each shortcut can refer to different config.ini files.

Note

Please be informed that this is a beta version - you're using it at your own risk!

Future plans

• Update modern style to look like Windows 11 context menu
• Sub-menus sorting options
• Different depths level for specific folders
• Always hide specific file by the name/extension for every folder submenus
• Possibility to open WinMac menu with right clicking Start button using Open-Shell (#2286)