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Atul Srivastava
Atul Srivastava

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I Built 6 Free Windows Desktop Apps with Tauri + Rust + React — Here's What I Learned

#rust #tauri #react #windows

Over the past few months I shipped 6 free productivity utilities for Windows, all built with Tauri v2 + Rust + React 18 + TypeScript. Here's what the suite looks like and what I learned building it.

The Apps

All 6 are live on the Microsoft Store under my publisher name Illusanato:

App What it does Link
🐢 WhySlowPC System Monitor & slow-down analyser Download
🌐 NetDiag Network diagnostic & speed tester Download
🖨️ PrintFix Printer troubleshooter & fix tool Download
📁 FileMemory Smart file search & recent-files manager Download
🔄 SmartReboot Safe scheduled restart with open-app detection Download
⌨️ UniversalKeys Global keyboard shortcut manager Download

Why Tauri Instead of Electron?

I've used Electron extensively (my SA ERP project is built on it), but for these utility apps I needed something lighter:

  • Bundle size: Tauri apps ship at ~3–8 MB vs Electron's 100+ MB
  • Memory: Tauri uses the system WebView (WebView2 on Windows), not a bundled Chromium
  • Rust backend: Native performance for system calls — reading CPU metrics, querying printers, scanning files

The Stack 

Frontend:  React 18 · TypeScript · Vite · Tailwind CSS
Backend:   Rust (Tauri v2 commands)
Packaging: MSIX via Tauri bundler → Microsoft Store
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Key Tauri Concepts

Tauri commands let you call Rust functions from the React frontend:

#[tauri::command]
fn get_cpu_usage() -> f64 {
    // system metrics via sysinfo crate
    let mut sys = System::new_all();
    sys.refresh_cpu();
    sys.global_cpu_info().cpu_usage() as f64
}
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import { invoke } from '@tauri-apps/api/tauri';
const usage = await invoke<number>('get_cpu_usage');
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What I'd Do Differently

  1. Share more Rust utility code across apps from the start — I ended up duplicating window-management helpers
  2. Use Tauri's updater plugin for auto-updates instead of relying on MS Store updates alone
  3. Add more telemetry (crash reports) — diagnosing Windows-specific bugs without user logs is hard

Try Them

All apps are free, no account required. If you're on Windows, give one a try and let me know what you think in the comments!

👉 See all apps on MS Store

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