A lightweight Windows utility that dims everything on your screen except the window you choose — helping you stay focused without closing or minimising anything else.
- Press the activation hotkey (default
Ctrl + Alt + F) - Your cursor changes to a crosshair
- Click any window — everything around it turns black
- Press the exit hotkey (default: same combination,
Ctrl + Alt + F) to restore the screen
The dark overlay tracks the focused window in real time — if you move or resize it, the overlay follows.
- Fullscreen overlay covering all monitors simultaneously
- Transparent hole precisely cut around the target window — click-through so you can interact with the app normally while in focus mode
- Overlay tracks window position and size live (drag, resize, snap — all followed)
- Automatically exits focus mode if the focused window is closed or minimised
- Fade in / fade out animation
- Configurable overlay opacity
- Configurable activation and exit hotkeys
- Settings saved to
settings.jsonnext to the executable - Runs silently in the system tray — no taskbar entry
No installer needed. Grab the latest UltraFocusMode.zip from the Actions tab (or Releases if available), extract, and run UltraFocusMode.exe.
Requirements: Windows 10 or 11 (x64). No .NET installation required — the runtime is bundled.
Run UltraFocusMode.exe. A crosshair icon appears in your system tray (bottom-right corner, near the clock). The app runs entirely from there.
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Press the activation hotkey (Ctrl + Alt + F by default) |
| 2 | Cursor becomes a crosshair — a hint banner appears at the bottom of the screen |
| 3 | Left-click the window you want to focus on |
| 4 | Everything else goes dark |
Press the exit hotkey. By default this is the same combination as the activation hotkey (Ctrl + Alt + F), acting as a toggle.
You can also cancel the window-selection step (crosshair mode) by pressing Escape.
Right-click the tray icon and choose Settings, or double-click the icon.
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Activation hotkey | Key combination that triggers the crosshair cursor | Ctrl + Alt + F |
| Overlay opacity | How dark the background dims (20 % – 100 %) | 85 % |
| Use same combination to exit | When checked, the activation hotkey also exits focus mode (toggle behaviour) | Enabled |
| Exit hotkey | Separate combination to exit focus mode — only available when the checkbox above is unchecked | Ctrl + Alt + F |
- Click the hotkey text box
- Press the desired key combination (e.g.
Ctrl + Shift + F) - The box updates immediately to show the recorded combination
- Press Save
Press Escape while the box is focused to cancel recording without changing the hotkey. Click Clear to remove the hotkey entirely.
Settings are stored in settings.json in the same folder as the executable. You can edit it manually if needed.
{
"HotkeyKey": "F",
"HotkeyCtrl": true,
"HotkeyAlt": true,
"HotkeyShift": false,
"HotkeyWin": false,
"OverlayOpacity": 0.85,
"UseSameHotkeyToExit": true,
"ExitHotkeyKey": "F",
"ExitHotkeyCtrl": true,
"ExitHotkeyAlt": true,
"ExitHotkeyShift": false,
"ExitHotkeyWin": false
}| Option | Action |
|---|---|
| Settings | Opens the settings dialog |
| Exit | Closes the application |
Double-clicking the tray icon also opens Settings.
| Shortcut | Context | Action |
|---|---|---|
Ctrl + Alt + F |
Anywhere | Enter focus mode (show crosshair) |
Ctrl + Alt + F |
Focus mode active | Exit focus mode (when using same combo) |
Escape |
Crosshair visible | Cancel window selection |
All shortcuts above reflect the default configuration and can be changed in Settings.
Requires .NET 8 SDK.
git clone https://github.com/socarpl/UltraFocusMode.git
cd UltraFocusMode
dotnet build -c ReleaseTo produce a self-contained single executable:
dotnet publish UltraFocusMode.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true -p:PublishSingleFile=true -o ./publishEvery push to master automatically builds a self-contained UltraFocusMode.zip via GitHub Actions. Download the latest build from the Actions tab.