Anchor for Windows

Drop anchor.
Launch anything.

A native glass dock for the apps, files, folders and links you actually reach for. It stays out of the way until you whistle for it.

Get it from Microsoft Store View changelog

Free & open source · Windows 11 · x64 and ARM64 · Version 1.2.3

The Windows 11 desktop with Anchor floating as a slim dark glass strip just above the taskbar, holding two folders, a website and the Microsoft Store.
Anchor

Windows already has a taskbar. Anchor is the strip you build for the handful of things you actually launch, then it gets out of the way.

0Accounts, trackers or ads
7Kinds of thing you can pin
8Languages, switched live
2Native builds, x64 and ARM64

Get the highlights.

Take a closer look

Glass that is glass

Real desktop acrylic.
Not a fake blur.

The same material as the Windows 11 taskbar, kept translucent even when the dock isn't the focused window. Light, Dark, or follow Windows.

One dock per ocean

A strip for every screen.

Each monitor gets its own pins, its own edge and its own hide behaviour.

A harbour, not a list

Groups fly out like a second dock.

Same glass, same cells. Not a menu.

A group's fly-out bar opening above the dock with five more apps in it.

Summon it

From anywhere.

One global shortcut slides every dock out and gives it focus. Rebind it to anything.

Ctrl Alt A

Speaks your language

Search every pin, in eight languages.

A glass card filters every item on every dock. Anchor follows your Windows display language, or pick one, with no restart.

Out of sight

Tucks behind any edge.

Snap it to a side and it slides away, leaving a small notch. Behind the taskbar, if you like.

Anchor snapped vertically to the right edge of the screen, just above the clock.

Yours, on this PC

No account. No telemetry. No admin rights.

Out of the box, a pinned website's icon is the only thing Anchor ever fetches.

Take a closer look

Everything you pin, one glance away.

The Add to Dock window with seven type buttons: App, File, Folder, Web Link, Shortcut, Separator and Group.

Seven kinds of thing, one window.

Apps are just the start. Pin a file, a folder, a web link, a shell shortcut, a separator or a whole group. Browse picks the target; the name fills itself in. Or skip the window and drag straight from Explorer.

  • App
  • File
  • Folder
  • Web link
  • Shortcut
  • Separator
  • Group

Magnification

Go on. Give it a hover.

Icons swell under the cursor, macOS-style. Or leave it off and get the Windows 11 taskbar's quiet highlight. Your call, one switch.

A live demo. Hover the icons.
Close-up of a group fly-out above the main dock.

Groups & folder stacks

Club related things into one icon.

Groups and folders open as a second dock growing out of their icon: the same cells, glass and spacing as the strip itself.

  • Drag to groupDrop an icon onto a group, or use Move to group. Ungroup puts everything back where it was.
  • Folder fly-outsTurn on Show folder contents and a folder lists what's inside it, macOS-stack style. Click a subfolder to drill in.
  • Drop onto an iconDrop a file on an app to open it with that app, or on a group to file it there. The target swells to tell you which.

Docks & edges

Float it. Snap it. Forget it's there.

Drag the dock's background and drop it at any edge of any monitor to snap and auto-hide, or anywhere else to float.

  • Several docksAdd a dock per monitor. Each has its own items, edge, auto-hide and always-on-top.
  • Off the taskbar and Alt-TabReveal a hidden dock from its edge or notch, the tray icon, or Ctrl+Alt+A.
  • Move items between docksRe-home an item without losing its custom icon, arguments or shortcut.
Anchor Search filtering pinned items.

Keyboard first

Every pin can have its own shortcut.

Give any icon a system-wide key combination, even one tucked inside a group. It's off by default, behind one master switch.

  • Record, don't typeClick the shortcut button and press the combination. Esc cancels, Backspace clears.
  • No silent clashesAnchor tells you if another app already owns that combination.
  • Quick-launch searchIts own shortcut, plus a spot on the dock and tray menus.

Settings

Six pages. Zero guesswork.

Anchor and the taskbar

Not a replacement. A companion.

Anchor lives beside the taskbar, not instead of it, and holds the things the taskbar can't.

Windows taskbar Anchor
What you pin
Apps
Apps, plus files, folders, web links, shortcuts, separators and groups
Where it lives
One bar, bottom or a side
Floats, or snaps to any edge of any monitor
Hiding
Auto-hide the whole taskbar
Tucks behind its own edge, even behind the taskbar, with a small notch
Density
One row of apps
Groups open a fly-out dock; folders stack macOS-style
Presence
Always on the taskbar and in Alt-Tab
Off both, summoned from the tray or Ctrl+Alt+A
Search
Start menu
A glass card that filters every pin on every dock
Your data
Microsoft's
%AppData%\Anchor, exportable, no cloud

Privacy isn't a setting.
It's the whole design.

Anchor runs entirely on your PC. There's no server to send anything to, because we never built one.

No account

No sign-in, no profile, no email. Install it and it works.

No telemetry

No analytics, no advertising, no tracking of any kind. Not even anonymised.

Stays local

Your docks live in dock.json under %AppData%\Anchor. Export them any time.

Every network request Anchor can make. All of them.

● GET https://<site>/favicon.ico — once per pinned web link, then cached

● GET https://icons.duckduckgo.com/ip3/<site>.ico — only if the site has no icon; sends the domain, nothing else

○ GET api.github.com/…/releases/latest — update check, portable build only, off until you turn it on

// Never pin a web link and Anchor makes no network requests at all.

Read the privacy policy

And so much more

The little things, done properly.

Running-app indicators

A dot under open apps. A click brings the window forward; Shift+click starts another.

Tray icon

Left-click to raise every dock. Right-click for Search, Add, Settings and Quit.

Separators

A thin divider you can drop and drag anywhere on the strip.

Custom icons

Point any item at a PNG, ICO, JPG, BMP or GIF, or pick a built-in glyph.

Three icon sizes

Small, Medium and Large. Medium matches the Windows 11 taskbar exactly.

Item names

Tooltips on hover, or keep a label under every icon.

Accent tint

Wash the glass in your Windows accent colour, restrained, never garish.

Gear at either end

Put the settings button at the start or the end of the strip.

Import & export

Save every dock, item and setting to a file. Restore it on another PC.

Start with Windows

Per-user, no admin prompt, visible in Task Manager's Startup apps.

High Contrast aware

Accessibility themes always override Anchor's own colours.

Opt-in update check

Portable build only, off by default. It never downloads or installs anything.

Get Anchor

Free. On your desktop in a minute.

Two ways in. Same dock either way.

Recommended

Microsoft Store

One click to install. The Store keeps it up to date for you.

  • Automatic updates from the Store
  • Clean uninstall removes your data with it
  • Starts with Windows via the packaged startup task
Get it fromMicrosoft Store
Alternative

Microsoft Store

The recommended install path for most users: simple, clean, and automatically updated by Windows.

  1. Open the Microsoft Store listing.
  2. Choose Install and wait for the app to download.
  3. Launch Anchor from the Start menu or your tray icon.
  4. Use Settings ▸ General ▸ Start with Windows if you want it to launch at sign-in.
Open Microsoft Store

The Store version is the supported install path. The GitHub release remains available for advanced/manual scenarios, but the Store keeps Anchor current and simplifies support.

Using it

You already know how.

Anchor behaves like the rest of Windows. Here's the whole manual on one screen.

Click

Launch

Opens the item. If the app is already running, brings its window forward instead.

Shift+ click

New instance

Starts another copy anyway, just like the Windows 11 taskbar.

CtrlAltA

Summon

Brings every dock to the front and gives it focus, from anywhere. Rebindable.

Drag an icon

Reorder or group

Along the strip to reorder, onto a group to file it, out of a group bar to bring it back.

Drag the background

Move or snap

Drop at a screen edge to snap and auto-hide, anywhere else to float.

Drag from Explorer

Add or open with

Onto the dock to pin it, onto an app to open it there, onto a group to file it.

Right-click an icon

Item menu

Open, Edit, Move to group, Move to dock, Shortcut, Open file location, Hide, Remove.

Right-click the dock

Dock menu

Add new, separator, new group, Search, Snap, another dock, Settings, Quit.

Tray icon

Always there

Left-click raises the docks. Right-click to show/hide, search, add, open Settings or quit.

Tech Specs

Version

1.2.3

Release notes

Operating system

Windows 11 (designed and tested on build 26200)

Windows 10 version 1809 (build 17763) and later should also work. Acrylic, rounded corners and Mica look their best on Windows 11.

Architecture

x64 and ARM64

Separate native builds. There is no x86 build.

Built with

.NET 10 and WinUI 3 (Windows App SDK)

Self-contained. Nothing else to install.

Download size

About 86 MB zipped · about 215 MB on disk

Permissions

No administrator rights, at install or at run time

Start with Windows uses a per-user mechanism in both builds.

Languages

English, Deutsch, Español, Français, हिन्दी, 日本語, Português (Brasil), 简体中文

Follows the Windows display language, or choose one. Switches live, no restart.

Pinnable items

  • Apps (.exe, .lnk)
  • Files and folders
  • Web links (http and https)
  • Shell shortcuts and URIs, like ms-settings:
  • Separators and groups

Data

%AppData%\Anchor\dock.json

Plain JSON, exportable from Settings ▸ General. The Store build keeps it in the app's own package storage.

Network

Favicons for pinned web links only

An update check exists in the portable build and is off by default.

Licence

MIT. Free and open source.

View the source on GitHub

Questions? Answers.

How do I quit Anchor?

Right-click the tray icon and choose Quit Anchor, or right-click the dock's background. The dock deliberately stays off the taskbar, so there's no taskbar close button.

Where did my dock go after I snapped it?

It auto-hides behind that edge. Move the cursor to the edge or onto the notch, press Ctrl+Alt+A, or click the tray icon. Turn off Auto-hide when snapped in Settings ▸ Docks to keep it visible.

The shortcut doesn't work.

Another app almost certainly owns that combination. Settings tells you when it can't register one. Pick a different combination, or switch the shortcut off entirely.

Can I run it on multiple monitors?

Yes. A single dock hides and reveals on whichever monitor you dropped it on. Or give each screen its own from Settings ▸ Docks ▸ Add dock, and each keeps its own items and edge.

Can I use my own icon for an item?

Right-click it, choose Edit…, then Change icon… and pick a PNG, ICO, JPG, BMP or GIF. Use the default icon puts the original back.

Does it need admin rights?

No. Everything, including Start with Windows, is per-user.

Does it work on Windows 10?

The minimum is Windows 10 version 1809 (build 17763). Anchor is designed and tested on Windows 11, where acrylic, rounded corners and the Mica Settings window look their best.

How is it different from RocketDock or ObjectDock?

Those are classic docks that fake transparency, or theming shells around the taskbar. Anchor is a native WinUI 3 app that uses the real Windows 11 acrylic, lives beside the taskbar rather than replacing it, and treats files and links as first-class items, not just apps.

Why does SmartScreen warn me about the zip?

Portable releases aren't code-signed yet. Choose More info ▸ Run anyway. The Microsoft Store version doesn't show this warning.

How do I move my dock to another PC?

Use Settings ▸ General ▸ Export to save every dock, item and setting to a file, then Import it on the other PC. Importing replaces everything, so export first if you want to keep what's there.

Can I add a language you don't ship?

Adding one is a single file. Copy src/Anchor/Strings/en.json, translate the values, and add the code to Loc.Available. The tests tell you if you missed a key. Translation fixes are welcome too.

How do I uninstall the portable version?

Turn off Start with Windows, quit Anchor from the tray, then delete the folder you extracted and %AppData%\Anchor. That's everything.

Still stuck? Open an issue on GitHub

Built in the open.
Free for everyone.

Anchor is MIT-licensed and developed on GitHub. Bug reports, feature ideas and translation fixes are all welcome.

View on GitHub Report an issue

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