A little guidance

Getting started, one step at a time.

Everything you need to install Still, protect your focus, and put things right if they ever go wrong.

Install

Download Still-Setup-1.0.2.exe from the download page.
Run it and choose Install Still. It installs for your Windows account in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Still, adds a Still Focus Start menu shortcut (and optionally a desktop shortcut), and needs no administrator approval.
The build isn’t code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may say it “protected your PC”. Choose More info → Run anyway.

Closing the window hides Still in the system tray. Quitting the app never stops Windows protection or an active session.

Your first session

Choose Add applications. Still discovers desktop apps, running windowed apps, and eligible Microsoft Store packages. You can also browse directly to one or more .exe files. Select a game’s executable as well as its launcher.
Set a duration of 1–1,440 minutes and, optionally, a release delay of 1–120 minutes. Save selections as reusable groups in the library.
Enable Windows protection once (see below).
Save your work in the selected apps, then choose Start focusing. Selected running apps are closed. The selection, duration and release delay can’t be changed during a session.

Timers and release requests are saved and survive restarting Windows. When a session finishes on its own, everything is released, even if a release wait would have lasted longer.

Windows protection

Choose Set up protection (or Settings → Enable Windows protection). Windows asks for administrator approval and installs Still Guard in Program Files as an automatic Windows service.

Desktop apps get exact path and file-hash rules; Store apps use package rules for your Windows account.
Apps already running are closed when you start. Save your work first.
Still verifies the effective policy before it reports a successful start.
Still adds explicit allow rules for everything else before its temporary deny rules, so nothing unrelated is blocked.

Reopening Enable Windows protection reconnects an existing stopped guard belonging to the same account. To remove it, finish any session and choose Settings → Remove protection service.

Domain-joined and MDM-managed PCs, and PCs with existing application-control rules, are refused to avoid changing an organisation’s security policy. Read the honest limits.

Ending early

Choose Request early release. Apps and websites stay blocked while you wait.
Wait for the release delay you set before starting.
Choose End focus session. Waiting alone doesn’t end the session. You decide.

Choosing Keep focusing cancels the request and restores the lock. A new request starts a new full wait. Try the demo.

Website blocking

Website selections work everywhere app selections do: Focus space, the library, saved groups, alerts and history. Paste a URL or enter a domain in Add website; the whole domain and its subdomains are blocked. Up to 100 apps and websites can be selected together, including website-only sessions.

Set up the browser companion (Chrome & Edge)

Finish any active session. Choose Settings → Set up browser companion. This updates Still Guard, registers the browser’s native messaging host, and opens a stable copy of the companion folder.
Open chrome://extensions or edge://extensions, enable Developer mode, select Load unpacked, and choose that folder.
Open the Still extension’s Details and enable Allow in incognito (Chrome) or Allow in InPrivate (Edge).
Repeat in every browser profile you use, then restart those browsers. The extension’s tooltip should say it’s connected and ready.

Keep at least one connected browser open when a website session or scheduled alert starts. Still waits for the companion to confirm its rules; without confirmation the start fails safely and rolls back.

Block screens

In Settings → Website block screens, choose Quiet garden, Evening calm or A clean page; create your own with a headline, text and a JPG/PNG/WebP image; or redirect blocked visits to an HTTPS page outside your blocked websites. The screen is fixed for the length of each session.

How it’s enforced

The companion uses the browser’s own declarative request rules to redirect visits and block matching resources, and turns already-open blocked tabs into your block screen. As a separate fallback, Still Guard writes temporary Chrome/Edge URL blocklist policies and restricts guest and private browsing. It journals and removes only its own values. No TLS interception, certificates, proxies or DNS changes are used.

Time limits & bedtime

Open Time limits in the sidebar. Add any website, or one of the recommendations (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, X), choose how long it gets each day, and switch bedtime on or off per website.

One bedtime window, 22:30–07:00 by default, applies to every website with bedtime on.
Time counts while a limited website is open in any browser tab, focused or not, checked every 30 seconds.
When time runs out, or bedtime starts, open tabs go to a block page and new visits are redirected until midnight or the end of bedtime.
Limits work outside focus sessions and can be changed at any time. They need the browser companion.

Alerts

Open Alerts → New alert to schedule a task once, daily or on weekdays, starting on a chosen date. Set a duration of 1–1,440 minutes or an end time; ranges can cross midnight. Each alert can use the current Focus space selection, its own selection, or no blocking.

Style	What happens
Full attention	Covers all displays above regular apps, with sound (required).
Focus card	A smaller window above your apps.
Quiet reminder	A dismissible Windows notification.

Four built-in sounds, silent reminders, volume control, and your own audio/video files (up to 200 MB; MP3/WAV and H.264 MP4 recommended).
Full-screen and card alarms support images, GIFs and muted video banners.
Each alarm has a snooze limit (blank for unlimited, 0 to hide Snooze) and a Show/Hide Dismiss setting. Snooze releases that alarm’s apps and blocks them again after five minutes.
Alarm audio stops after one minute; overlays dismiss after five. Esc dismisses an overlay when Dismiss is shown.

Alerts run while Still is open or in the tray. Enable Ready when you are to resume after restarting. Sleeping PCs aren’t woken; on resume, only a still-active focus window is delivered.

To-do list

Keys	Action
`/`	At the start of a line or after a space: choose a checkbox, tick circle, bullet, numbered item, heading or note. Keep typing to filter.
`↑` `↓` `Enter`	Move through formats and pick one (or click).
`Esc`	Dismiss the format menu.
`Enter`	Create another line.
`Backspace`	On an empty line, remove it.

Edits save automatically, even during focus sessions. The list holds up to 500 lines of 2,000 characters each.

Progress & export

Your progress shows total focus time, completed sessions and this week, plus charts for the last 7, 30 or 90 days, a daily goal, a consistency grid and a session calendar. Search by intention, filter by outcome, archive sessions, and use Export history to save a JSON file.

Time is split across local calendar days; completed sessions count on the day they finish. Archived sessions still count toward progress. The guard keeps up to 500 recent sessions.

Updating & removing

Updating: run the newer setup. It detects the installed version, closes Still for a moment, and replaces it while keeping your preferences, alerts, to-dos and history. Windows protection keeps running during updates, and a browser companion you already set up refreshes itself within a minute.

Checking: Settings → Check for updates contacts GitHub only when you click it.

Uninstalling: Windows Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Still. You can also remove Still Guard (administrator approval; not during an active session) and your data.

Recovery

If the app can’t connect, open Windows Services and check Still Focus Guard. If Windows refuses to release rules, the guard reports the error and retries.

As a last resort, an administrator can run this emergency command in an elevated PowerShell window:

& "$env:ProgramFiles\Still Guard\Still.Guard.exe" --recover

This deliberately overrides a session, stops and unregisters Still Guard, and removes Still’s rules. It doesn’t erase your preferences or history, or touch unrelated application-control rules. --uninstall refuses while a session is unexpired.

If a service is being deleted, close Windows Services before reinstalling. A full disk or damaged Windows application-control components must be repaired before cleanup can succeed.

Troubleshooting

A website session won’t start

Make sure a Chrome or Edge window with the companion is open, that Allow in incognito / InPrivate is on, and that the extension says it’s connected. Restart the browser after setup.

An app still opens

Check you selected the app’s own executable, not only its launcher. Modified or differently identified binaries, other accounts and remote/streamed games are outside protection.

Website rules remain after a session

The companion keeps its last confirmed rules if its connection is lost, and releases only when the guard confirms. Restart Windows protection from Settings.

No alarm after sleep

Sleeping PCs aren’t woken. Expired one-time reminders are marked missed; keep the PC awake for important alarms.

Still stuck? Open an issue on GitHub or browse the FAQ.

Build from source

Still is open source under the MIT license. You’ll need Node.js; the native guard compiles with the .NET Framework compiler already in Windows.

npm install
npm run build:native   # compile the guard + native checks
npm start              # run Still
npm run demo           # interactive preview; never blocks real apps
npm run dist           # release/Still-Setup-<version>.exe
npm test               # IPC validation and preference bounds

See the README for the full test suite and source map.