This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle
What I Built
I built Hyper Island, an interactive, iOS-inspired Dynamic Island for Windows, written in C++ using the Windows APIs and designed to run as a Windhawk mod.
The idea is simple: instead of switching between different Windows panels and utilities, bring useful information and everyday controls together in one compact, animated island at the top of the screen.
Hyper Island features a Liquid Glass-inspired interface, smooth spring animations, translucent backgrounds, and swipeable pages that combine system controls with productivity tools.
Key Features
- Interactive Liquid Glass UI: Translucent glass effects, customizable appearance, and spring-based animations.
- Notification Center: Notification previews, history, dismissal, and clear-all controls.
- Universal Media Controls: Media information, playback controls, album artwork, and a live audio waveform, with fallback support for apps that do not expose standard Windows media controls.
- Per-App Volume Mixer: Adjust or mute individual applications.
- Quick Settings: Volume, brightness where supported, battery information, and useful Windows actions.
- Calendar, Tasks & Expenses: View calendar events from an Outlook-published ICS feed and organize tasks and expenses by date.
- Quick Notes & File Shelf: Create notes, copy their contents, and temporarily pin file or folder references for quick access.
- Focus Mode: Full-screen Pomodoro timer with configurable focus and break sessions.
- Wellness Tracker: Track daily water intake, habits, and streaks.
- Connectivity Alerts: Get Bluetooth device and battery notifications, along with Wi-Fi and Ethernet connection alerts.
- Clipboard History: Quickly reuse recently copied text, stored in memory rather than written to disk.
The project currently has ten swipeable pages: Home, Alerts, Sound, Calendar, Plan, Notes, Shelf, Wellness, Focus, and Tools.
Who is it for?
Hyper Island is designed for Windows users who want a more interactive desktop experience, especially developers, students, productivity enthusiasts, and people who enjoy customizing their operating system.
As a side-hustle idea, it could eventually serve users who want a unified desktop companion without paying for multiple separate utilities. The current project is an open-source mod, not a paid product, and I have not established paying customers yet.
Demo
Project status: Windows desktop mod.
- GitHub profile: https://github.com/TANMAY-Tiwaricyber
A short recording showing the island expanding, switching pages, controlling media, and displaying notifications would be the best way to demonstrate the project.
Code
Source code: Hyper Island on GitHub
The project is implemented in C++ and integrates with Windows functionality through native APIs and Windows Runtime components. It runs as a Windhawk mod in a dedicated process and draws its own overlay rather than modifying Windows Explorer.
The current source identifies the project as version 2.6.0 and declares an MIT license. It also describes the project as a modified derivative of an original MIT-licensed source, so the repository should preserve the required upstream copyright and license notices.
Before publishing, replace the profile link above with the direct repository URL and make sure the README, source attribution, and license are complete.
How I Built It
I built Hyper Island in C++ with Windows-native technologies, including Windows APIs, Direct2D, DirectWrite, Windows Composition, and Windows Runtime components.
The implementation brings together several systems:
- Rendering and animation: A custom overlay with translucent backgrounds, Liquid Glass-inspired highlights, and spring-based transitions.
- Windows integration: Media sessions, audio controls, notifications, battery status, network connectivity, and brightness controls where supported.
- Productivity modules: Calendar parsing, task and expense tracking, notes, file references, focus sessions, and wellness tracking.
- Configurable behavior: Settings for appearance, placement, monitor targeting, opacity, notifications, and other features.
For this submission, I am documenting the technologies verifiable in the project source. The source alone does not establish which open-source AI model, agent harness, or local inference framework was used. If I used an eligible AI tool during development, I will identify the actual model or framework and explain its contribution here rather than claim AI integration that the project does not demonstrate.
Why Does Open Innovation Matter?
Open innovation matters because desktop customization benefits from experimentation, transparency, and community contributions.
Windows users have different workflows, hardware configurations, accessibility needs, and design preferences. An open-source project makes it possible for contributors to inspect the implementation, report bugs, suggest improvements, and build new capabilities around a shared foundation.
It also creates opportunities for community-driven extensions, such as developer-focused widgets, more notification rules, new visual themes, and integrations with other Windows utilities.
For a project like Hyper Island, open innovation can help turn a personal customization experiment into a useful tool shaped by real users. Contributors can also learn from the C++ implementation and help improve its maintainability, compatibility, and performance.
Open innovation is especially valuable when combined with transparent development practices: documenting limitations, crediting upstream work, and sharing reproducible demonstrations of new features.
Built by Tanmay Tiwari.
If you enjoy Windows customization, C++, and open-source desktop tools, check out Hyper Island and consider contributing ideas, testing the mod, or helping improve the experience.
Rise. Build. Contribute.
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