A tool to prevent the loss of all work due to accidental power outages/blue screens, with no way to recover it. It can only provide some recovered impressions, not restore windows.
English · 简体中文
Window Chronicle periodically records what you had open — every visible window, its process and command line, its position, a screenshot of each one, a full-desktop screenshot, and the path behind every File Explorer tab. After a crash or a forced restart it shows you the last session it saved, so you can put everything back.
| Edition | Built with | Requires | Runtime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Window Chronicle | C# / WinUI 3 | Windows 10 2004 x64 or later | Self-contained single file; .NET and the Windows App SDK are embedded |
| Window Chronicle Lite | C++ / Win32 x86 | Windows 7 SP1 or later | No .NET, WinUI, Windows App Runtime or VC++ Redistributable |
Executables are on the Releases page.
- Scheduled capture — every N minutes, configurable from 1 minute to 24 hours.
- Record browser — pick a snapshot, pick a window, see its screenshot and its structured metadata side by side.
- Crash recovery — if the previous run did not exit cleanly, the last saved session opens automatically on the next launch.
- Close to the notification area — closing the window keeps recording in the background instead of exiting. Right-click the tray icon to capture, pause or quit.
- Bilingual interface — English and 简体中文, following the system language by default and switchable at any time without a restart.
- Follows the system theme — light and dark, using your Windows accent colour.
- Automatic cleanup — drop records older than a retention period you choose.
- Start at sign-in — keep recording in the background from the moment you log in.
Everything stays on this computer. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.
- WinUI edition:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\WindowChronicle\Records - Lite edition:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\WindowChronicleLite\Records
Each record is one folder containing desktop-full.jpg, snapshot.json,
windows.txt and windows\window_*.jpg.
The WinUI edition needs the .NET 8 SDK:
cd WindowChronicle
.\build.ps1The Lite edition needs the Visual Studio 2022 C++ Build Tools:
cd WindowChronicleLiteNative
.\build.ps1"Block shutdown, restart and sign-out" can only refuse an ordinary Windows end-session request. It cannot stop a forced shutdown, a power loss, a bug check or a critical system shutdown. Command lines of some protected processes, DRM-protected content and the secure desktop may not be readable or capturable.