Windows 10 / 11

Your screen
can wait.

PauseCat lives in your Windows system tray and enforces break intervals — blurring your screen, counting down a glassmorphic overlay, and resuming only when it's done.
Built in Rust. Under 1.5 MB. Always watching.

Download for Windows View on GitHub →

"Increase productivity with paws-itive breaks"

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PauseCat_Installer.msi · — · Apache 2.0 · Requires Windows 10/11 + WebView2

TAKE A BREAK ✦ BUILT IN RUST ✦ WINDOWS NATIVE ✦ APACHE 2.0 ✦ < 1.5 MB ✦ OPEN SOURCE ✦
TAKE A BREAK ✦ BUILT IN RUST ✦ WINDOWS NATIVE ✦ APACHE 2.0 ✦ < 1.5 MB ✦ OPEN SOURCE ✦
TAKE A BREAK ✦ BUILT IN RUST ✦ WINDOWS NATIVE ✦ APACHE 2.0 ✦ < 1.5 MB ✦ OPEN SOURCE ✦
THE BREAK EXPERIENCE

"When it's time, PauseCat takes over."

PAUSE
04:58
TAKE A BREAK
You've worked 1h 0m
SOFT MODE
Hardware Accelerated
Soft Mode — Skippable
Theme-Aware
HOW IT WORKS

"Dead simple to set up."

01

Install

"One MSI. That's it."

Download PauseCat_Installer.msi from GitHub Releases. The WiX installer checks for the WebView2 runtime and registers autostart. Run it, find the cat in your tray.

02

Configure

"Right-click. Settings. Done."

Set work interval (5 min – 4 hours), break duration, break mode (Soft or Hard), custom messages, and 3D text style. Every setting live-previews inside the settings window.

03

Work. Break. Repeat.

"PauseCat handles the rest."

Interval fires → GDI captures your screen → Rust blurs it → WebView2 break overlay appears. Lock your screen? Timer pauses. Playing music? PauseCat pauses it. Sleep? Timer resumes when you're back.

Everything you'd engineer yourself.
Already done.

FULL CONFIG

"Deep Customization"

Soft or Hard mode. Custom break messages, randomized. 3D text behind the overlay: rotation X/Y/Z, float/rotate/swing/pulse animation, opacity, depth, glow. Bubble: size, position, opacity.

Work Interval
60 min
5 min – 4 hours
Break Duration
5 min
1 min – 2 hours
Mode
Soft
Soft / Hard
Autostart
On
On / Off
OVERLAY ENGINE

"GDI Blur Background"

Win32 GDI BitBlt screen capture + a pure Rust Gaussian blur. Instantaneous, zero-flicker. The background you see during a break is your actual screen, not a screenshot-of-a-screenshot.

HARDWARE UI

"WebView2-Accelerated Overlay"

The break bubble runs inside a WebView2 host — the Chromium engine powering Edge. Smooth animations, true backdrop-filter, hardware-accelerated rendering.

SESSION AWARE

"Intelligent Timer Pausing"

WTS session events: screen lock → timer pauses. Wake from sleep → timer resumes. PBT power events for suspend/resume. It never counts idle time as work time.

MEDIA CONTROL

"SMTC Integration"

Windows System Media Transport Controls. Break starts → active media pauses. Break ends → media resumes. Your Spotify keeps playing context, not state.

LIGHTWEIGHT

"< 1.5 MB Binary"

opt-level = 'z', fat LTO, single codegen unit, UPX LZMA compression. The installer is smaller than most browser extension icons.

"How hard should it push?"

SOFT MODE

"Gentle nudge"

The overlay appears with a countdown and a Skip button. You're an adult — PauseCat reminds, never locks you out.

Default mode. Good for most users.

HARD MODE

"Full enforcement"

No Skip button. No dismiss. The countdown runs to zero. You set the interval — PauseCat holds you to it.

For users who know they'll skip soft breaks every time.

SETTINGS.JSON 
{
  "behavior": {
    "mode": "Hard",
    "interval": 3600,
    "break": 300
  },
  "overlay": {
    "blur_radius": 45,
    "theme": "Dark"
  }
}

Easily configured via the tray UI.

APACHE 2.0

"Fully open. Read every line."

Clean Rust architecture: state machine, GDI capture, Gaussian blur, WebView2 host, WinHTTP update engine — all on GitHub. Fork it, audit it, improve it.

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View Source on GitHub →
pausecat — PowerShell

"One file. One click. Running."

1

Download from GitHub Releases

[PauseCat_Installer.msi]

2

Run PauseCat_Installer.msi

WiX handles: WebView2 runtime check, autostart registry entry, file installation.

3

Find the cat in your system tray

Right-click → Settings to configure your intervals, mode, and overlay style.

Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)
WebView2 Runtime (auto-installed by WiX)
~1.5 MB disk space
Download for Windows — Free

— · Apache 2.0

"Built by one. Improved by many."

Report a Bug

Open an issue with the Bug Report template. Include your Windows version and steps to reproduce.

View Issues →

Suggest a Feature

Use the Feature Request template. Explain the use case, not just the solution.

Open Feature Request →

Submit a PR

Branch: feature/<desc> or fix/<desc>. Conventional commits. Main is read-only.

Read CONTRIBUTING.md → 
# Prerequisites: Rust stable · WiX Toolset v4 · WebView2 Runtime

git clone https://github.com/0xarchit/pauseCat
cd pauseCat
cargo run       # development
cargo test      # test suite
Logo

"Your next break is overdue."

Free. Open source. Already running on Windows machines that need it.

Download for Windows

— · Apache 2.0 · Windows 10/11 · < 1.5 MB