Getting started, one step at a time.

Install

1. Download Still-Setup-2.0.1.exe from the download page.
2. 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.
3. The build isn’t code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may say it “protected your PC”. Choose More info → Run anyway.

Your first session

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Enable Windows protection once (see below).
4. 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.

Ending early

1. Choose Request early release. Apps and websites stay blocked while you wait.
2. Wait for the release delay you set before starting.
3. 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)

1. Finish any active session. Choose Settings → Set up browser companion. This updates Still Guard, registers the browser’s native messaging host, and opens the extension in the Chrome Web Store.
2. Add Still · Website focus from the Chrome Web Store. In Edge, allow extensions from other stores when it asks.
3. Open the Still extension’s Details and enable Allow in incognito (Chrome) or Allow in InPrivate (Edge).
4. Repeat in every browser profile you use, then restart those browsers. The extension’s tooltip should say it’s connected and ready.

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.
• The extension also has its own limits and bedtime, for when you use it without the Windows app. When both limit a site, the stricter one applies.

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.

• 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). Drop files into the AlertSounds folder (the alarm editor has a button that opens it) and they appear in the sound list.
• 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.

To-do list

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

Something new

Something new asks one question: what new thing will you do today? Type it and choose I’ll do it to plan it, or I already did it to log something you have finished. Nothing is blocked and no focus session starts; it is only for keeping track.

A calendar marks every day with something new on it. Choose a day to see its list, tick an item when it’s done, or delete it. Pick an earlier day to log something you did then, or a later day to plan ahead. Your progress shows the same calendar in its own section, and the two always match.

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.

Choose a marked calendar day to see what you worked on. Where your attention went adds up focus time per intention, and an intention typed with different capitals or spaces still counts as one task. Choose a task’s dot to change its colour.

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. Alarms that block apps count through the session they start; turn on Reminders count as focus in Settings and pressing Let’s focus on a reminder-only alarm counts the rest of its focus window too.

Accessibility

At the bottom of Settings, Made to fit you holds options that apply straight away and are saved on this PC:

Text size (100%, 115%, 130%, 150% or 175%) scales everything in Still, not only the words, and the layout rearranges itself to fit. In a small window a large size shows less at once and the sidebar shrinks to icons. High contrast uses black text on white with strong borders. Easier-to-read font switches to Atkinson Hyperlegible, a typeface made by the Braille Institute so letters like I, l and 1 are easy to tell apart. Stronger focus outlines make the keyboard focus easy to follow. A gentler pace reduces motion. Reset accessibility puts everything back. Alarm screens follow these choices too. The Android preview has the same options under the sliders button at the top right of every page.

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.

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.

Android preview

Still for Android is an early test build for Android 11 or newer. It isn’t a finished release yet, so expect rough edges and report what you find.

Install and set up

1. On your phone, download the APK from the download page and open it. Allow your browser to install apps if Android asks.
2. Open Still Focus and tap Turn on app blocking, then switch Still Focus on under Accessibility.
3. If Android says the setting is restricted, open App info → ⋮ → Allow restricted settings and try again.
4. Choose apps and websites, a duration and an optional release delay, then tap Start focus. Allow notifications to see the countdown.

How it differs from Windows

The bar at the bottom holds the same pages as the Windows sidebar: Focus, To-dos, Alerts, Limits and Progress, and Settings (with the accessibility options) is the sliders button at the top right. Sessions, the release delay, time limits, bedtime, alerts and to-dos follow the same rules. Instead of AppLocker, an accessibility service sends blocked apps back to the home screen. Websites are blocked in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Firefox, Samsung Internet and DuckDuckGo, and browsers Still can’t read are blocked during sessions with websites. Protect Still during the session keeps Still’s own Settings and uninstall screens closed until the session ends.

Progress has the same totals, daily chart and Where your attention went list as Windows, with an intention typed in different capitals counted as one task. It has no session calendar or task colours.

Updating and recovery

Updating: install the newer APK over the top; your to-dos, alerts, limits and history stay. If you installed an early debug build, uninstall it once first.

If you’re stuck: restarting the phone in Android’s Safe mode switches off Still’s blocking. With USB debugging, this ends a session straight away and keeps your history:

adb shell am broadcast -n io.github.limpy183dev.still/.Recover

More detail: Still for Android on GitHub.

Build from source

Still is open source under the MIT license. The Windows app is written in Rust: you’ll need Rust with the Visual Studio C++ build tools, and Node.js for the checks.

npm run demo           # interactive preview; never blocks real apps
npm start              # run Still
npm run build          # dist/Still-Setup-<version>.exe
cargo test --workspace --release   # rules, alerts, guard, installer
npm install; npm test  # website rules and the browser companion

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