PommeBar

A modern, lightweight Windows 11 taskbar companion and mini-player for Apple Music and Spotify.

Built with .NET 8 and WPF, PommeBar brings instant playback controls, album art, interactive timeline scrubbing, master volume control, and native favorite/like integration right to your taskbar.

Compact Taskbar Mode	Expanded Flyout View
Discreet taskbar pill with live metadata and controls	Upward expanding flyout with full timeline and volume slider

• Apple Music and Spotify Dual Support: Automatically detects the active media session and dynamically switches branding, metadata, album artwork, and accent colors in real-time (Apple Red #FF3B30 or Spotify Green #1DB954).
• Dual Display Modes:
  • Floating Island Mode: Floats 10 pixels above the Windows taskbar with smooth 16px rounded acrylic corners.
  • Embedded Taskbar Mode: Rests directly against the taskbar edge with zero gap, blending seamlessly as a native Windows 11 taskbar widget.
• 3-Stage Smart Locking:
  • Free: Freely movable anywhere across your monitors via mouse drag.
  • Taskbar Locked: Fixed in place on the taskbar to prevent accidental repositioning.
  • Super Locked (Game and Overlay Mode): Enforces HWND_TOPMOST z-order priority so full-screen borderless games and media applications never obscure the widget.
• Native Favorite and Like Automation: Dedicated heart button toggles favorites directly inside Apple Music (via UI Automation) or Spotify (via desktop client automation).
• Smooth Flyout Animations: Expands upward with 60fps easing animations to reveal full album art, track duration scrubbing, and volume control.
• System Tray Integration: Native tray icon beside the Windows system clock. Left-click toggles widget visibility; right-click opens the context menu.
• System Media Transport Controls (SMTC): Directly binds to Windows media sessions for low-latency playback events, track metadata, and timeline synchronization.
• Master Volume Control: Scroll with your mouse wheel anywhere over the widget or use the slider in the expanded flyout view.
• Automatic Startup: Optional silent startup on system boot configured through the Windows Registry.

1. Navigate to the Releases page.
2. Download the latest PommeBar-win-x64.zip release archive.
3. Extract the folder to a permanent location (e.g., C:\Program Files\PommeBar or C:\Tools\PommeBar).
4. Launch PommeBar.exe.

• Windows 10 (Build 19041 or higher) or Windows 11
• .NET 8.0 SDK

PommeBar is built with C# and .NET 8. In the .NET ecosystem, dependencies are managed via NuGet rather than Python's pip or Node's npm.

Running dotnet restore is the .NET equivalent of pip install -r requirements.txt or npm install:

• It inspects PommeBar.csproj for required packages.
• It downloads and caches all required external libraries and framework references (such as Wpf.Ui for modern Windows 11 Fluent styling and Windows SDK projection packages).
• It verifies package integrity and prepares the workspace for compilation.

You can restore dependencies using any of the following methods:

1. Via Command Line:

   dotnet restore

2. Via One-Click Batch Script: Double-click install_dependencies.bat in the repository root.

3. Requirements File: For developers familiar with Python environments, a requirements.txt file is included in the project root documenting all package versions, SDK requirements, and Windows API references.

Once dependencies are restored, you can build or publish PommeBar:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/blosny/PommeBar.git
cd PommeBar

# Restore all NuGet package dependencies
dotnet restore

# Build debug binary
dotnet build

# Compile a self-contained, standalone single-folder release
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true -o ./publish

The compiled standalone executable and all runtime assets will be generated in ./publish/PommeBar.exe.

pomme-bar/
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── release.yml             # Automated GitHub Actions CI/CD release pipeline
├── docs/
│   ├── demo.gif                    # Animated demonstration for documentation
│   ├── preview_compact.png         # Compact mode screenshot
│   └── preview_expanded.png        # Expanded flyout screenshot
├── Models/
│   └── AppEnums.cs                 # Domain enums (DockMode, LockMode, MediaAppType)
├── Services/
│   ├── MediaController.cs          # Windows SMTC session manager and media event listener
│   ├── VolumeController.cs         # Windows CoreAudio COM wrapper (IAudioEndpointVolume)
│   ├── SettingsManager.cs          # Configuration manager (%APPDATA%\PommeBar\settings.json)
│   ├── StartupManager.cs           # Windows Registry Run key manager for auto-start
│   ├── TrayIconManager.cs          # Native Win32 system tray notification icon handler
│   ├── AppleMusicAutomation.cs     # UI Automation engine to toggle favorites in Apple Music
│   └── SpotifyAutomation.cs        # Desktop client automation for Spotify
├── Views/
│   ├── MainWindow.xaml / .cs       # Primary widget UI, flyout animations, drag & lock logic
│   └── PositionDialog.xaml / .cs   # Dock mode and position configuration dialog
├── App.xaml / App.xaml.cs          # WPF application lifecycle and Fluent theme resources
├── PommeBar.csproj                 # .NET 8 project definition and NuGet dependencies
├── requirements.txt                # Requirements and dependency specification file
└── install_dependencies.bat        # One-click dependency restoration script for Windows

• Target Framework: .NET 8.0 Windows Desktop (net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0)
• UI Architecture: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) with Wpf.Ui Fluent design controls
• Media Integration: Windows Runtime GlobalSystemMediaTransportControlsSessionManager
• Audio Interface: CoreAudio Endpoint Volume (MMDeviceEnumerator, IAudioEndpointVolume)
• Window Positioning: Direct Win32 Interop (SetWindowPos, FindWindow, Shell_TrayWnd)

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.