A native desktop app that lives at the edge of your screen

Most apps want you to come to them. You switch windows, find the right tab and lose your place. Barside works the other way: it is a free native desktop app at the edge of your screen, for Windows, Linux and Mac. Dock it to the left, right, top or bottom of any monitor, and it folds into a slim tab until you need it. Double-click the tab, and your notes, tasks and bookmarks slide out beside the work you are doing. Its desktop bar even reserves a strip of the screen, so maximized windows make room for it, as they do for the taskbar.

This guide shows what docks, how to set it up, how edge tabs behave, and what differs on Windows, on Linux and in Barside for Mac.

Why a native desktop app at the edge of your screen

A browser tab or a full-size window competes with your work for the same space. The edges of your screen are mostly empty, and Barside uses them. A folded tab is small (224 × 56 pixels, or 56 × 224 when it stands up), and it opens to full size only when you ask. That suits the things you look at many times a day: a checklist, a call script, meeting notes, a reading list, or the links for one project.

Barside is installed on your computer. It is built with Electron, and it uses your system's own features where they matter: the Windows AppBar to reserve a screen edge, the system tray, global hotkeys that work in any app, and your system's protected storage for passwords and keys. Your library lives on your own drive, with no account and no internet needed to take notes.

What docks: the main window, notes and the desktop bar

Three kinds of windows can dock, and each one docks on its own. Docking one never moves the others.

• The main window. Barside calls it the main panel: your workspaces, notes, tasks, Reading and the rest of the app.
• Pinned notes. Pin to desktop on any note opens it in its own window. Pin notes from different workspaces at the same time, on any monitor. Switching workspaces leaves them pinned, and every change shows in the workspace at once. Barside sets no limit on pins.
• The desktop bar. A thin bar, 40 pixels high at the top or bottom of a monitor, or a 44-pixel rail on a side. Docking or removing it leaves your edge tabs where they are.

What the desktop bar holds

• A button for each workspace, in its color. Click one for a searchable menu of that workspace's notes and bookmarks, where you can also save the page open in your browser to the workspace or to one note.
• Search Barside, Hotkeys and aliases (point at it to see them, click to change them) and the mode menu, so you can switch to the tools you need from any app.
• Spaces, with the number of unread messages, Library & daily briefing, Passwords, Manage workspaces, Create, Open assistant, Transcribe a call, Settings and Undock desktop bar.

From any app, those buttons take you straight to Spaces for team chat and communities, the Library with your daily briefing, the built-in password manager and the AI assistant, which uses the AI you connect.

How to dock Barside to a screen edge

To dock the main window or a pinned note:

1. Drag the window by its top bar toward any edge of any monitor. Within 32 pixels of the edge, it snaps there.
2. Or click Dock main panel to an edge in the window's top bar (on a note, Dock this note to an edge). Choose the monitor and the edge, then click Dock main panel or Dock note. Keep floating leaves it as a normal window.
3. Move the pointer away. With Tuck away when you leave on, which is the default, the window folds into a labeled tab.
4. Double-click the tab to open it again. Hovering never opens a tab, and you can also move to a tab with the keyboard and press Enter.

To dock the desktop bar:

1. Click Dock desktop bar in Barside's top buttons, or type bar in the search bar.
2. Choose the Monitor, the Screen edge (Top, Bottom above the taskbar, Left or Right) and the Monitor behavior.
3. Click Dock bar. Later, Undock desktop bar at the end of the bar gives the space back.

Working with edge tabs

• Move a tab. Drag it along its edge, or to another edge or monitor. Drag it away from every edge, and it floats as a normal window.
• Fold it again. While a docked window is open, Collapse main panel to its edge tab (or Collapse this note to its edge tab) folds it at once.
• Undock. Detach main panel from edge (on a note, Detach this note from edge) in the title bar turns a docked window back into a floating one.
• Minimize. Minimizing an open docked window, with its button, Win+Down or the taskbar, folds it back into its tab on the same edge. Show desktop and Win+M leave docked windows on their edge.
• The X. Every edge tab has an X. On a note tab it unpins the note, which stays in its workspace. On the Barside tab it hides Barside in the tray. Either way the window leaves its edge, so it opens as a normal window next time.
• Full screen. Expand to full screen in the title bar fills the screen, and the same button brings back the old size. Double-clicking the title bar does the same.
• Sizes. Barside remembers each window's size across docking, undocking, monitor changes and restarts. Quitting Barside keeps each window on its edge.
• Tab direction. Settings → Collapsed tab orientation makes tabs Horizontal or Vertical. A note's … menu can change it for that note alone, and Use app setting undoes that.

When an edge fills up, a new tab finds an empty place in another column or row. Each tab shows the note's title and its workspace, in the workspace's color, so you can tell projects apart at a glance.

Multiple monitors

Barside works on every connected monitor at once.

• It uses each monitor's work area, so tabs stay clear of the taskbar.
• Monitors with different scaling, monitors placed left of or above the main one, and unplugged monitors are all handled. When a saved monitor is missing, its windows come back on one that is connected.
• The desktop bar can Stay on selected monitor (the default) or Follow active monitor. Following moves the bar to the monitor of the app you are using, on the same edge, and gives the old monitor its space back. Moving the pointer alone does not move it, and neither do Barside's own windows or the taskbar.
• In Stay mode, the bar waits for a disconnected monitor to come back.
• Settings lists Your monitors, with each display's name and size, so you know which one is Display 1.

Settings for the desktop app

These settings are in Settings, under Windows & docking.

Close Barside's main window and it keeps running in the tray, so reminders on your notes still arrive on time. Right-click the tray icon for Open Barside, Search & commands, Reminders, Tasks, Passwords, Assistant, New note, Show pinned notes, Hide all windows, Settings, App updates… and Quit Barside. Ctrl+Shift+Space shows or hides Barside from any app.

Barside also updates itself. It checks for a new version shortly after it starts and every six hours, downloads it in the background, and checks its integrity. You choose when to restart, and an ordinary quit never installs anything. Automatic checks and downloads can be turned off in Settings → App updates, where Check now still works.

Windows, Linux and Mac: what differs

Every feature is on every system, including Barside for Mac. Where Linux or macOS does not allow what Windows allows, Barside does the closest thing.

Barside runs on Windows 10 and 11 (x64) and on 64-bit Linux, as an AppImage for most distributions or a .deb for Ubuntu and Debian, and on Mac. The Mac version is one universal app for Apple silicon and Intel, and needs macOS 12 or later.

Who it suits

• Laptop users with one screen. Dock the main window to the right edge as a tab. Double-click it to check a note while you write in another app, then let it fold away.
• Two-monitor desks. Dock the desktop bar to the top of your main monitor with Follow active monitor on, and pin today's checklist to the left edge of the second screen.
• Sales and support calls. Pin a call script or a customer's note to an edge during calls, and use Transcribe a call on the desktop bar to write the call into a note.
• Students and researchers. Keep one workspace per course or project on the desktop bar, and save the page you are reading into that workspace with one click.

Privacy: what stays on your computer

Docking is local. Window positions, pinned notes, tab directions and the desktop bar's monitor and edge are saved in your library on your computer, and they travel in ZIP backups, so a restore brings your tabs back. Cloud sync, part of Barside Plus, leaves window places and pins on each computer, because a desktop window belongs to one screen. Barside counts which features are used, by name only, and you can turn that off in Settings. Read how Barside stores your data, and the guide to local-first storage and private backups.

How it compares

Most notes apps, and most launchers, are a window you switch to. Barside has a search bar that works from any app too, but its tabs and desktop bar stay in place, one double-click away. If you are choosing a keyboard launcher for Windows, read the Raycast alternative for Windows. If what you want most is a library on your own drive, compare the best local-first apps, or see how Barside works as a Notion alternative.

Works well with