MWBToggle is a lightweight system tray utility designed to control Mouse Without Borders' clipboard and file sharing features with hotkeys or tray icon clicks. It allows users to quickly enable or disable these functionalities for enhanced privacy and performance, particularly when handling sensitive data or large file transfers.
Key Features:
Primary Hotkey: Toggle both clipboard and file sharing with a customizable hotkey (default Win + Ctrl + Shift + F).
Independent Toggles: Control clipboard and file transfer separately via the tray menu.
On-Screen Display: A discreet, pinned bubble confirms each toggle state above the system tray.
Zero CPU Usage: Runs passively without polling or background tasks when idle.
Customization: Configure hotkeys, sound feedback, and pause options for personal preference.
Run at Startup: Toggle startup behavior directly from the tray menu.
Audience & Benefit:
Ideal for PowerToys users seeking precise control over clipboard/file sharing. MWBToggle enhances productivity by preventing lag during large file transfers and protecting sensitive data with quick toggling. It is particularly useful for those requiring directional sharing or temporary pauses without disrupting system performance.
Install via winget: winget install itsnateai.MWBToggle.
README
MWBToggle
Toggle Mouse Without Borders clipboard and file sharing on/off with a hotkey or tray icon click.
A lightweight system tray companion for PowerToys Mouse Without Borders that lets you quickly disable clipboard/file sharing for privacy (passwords, sensitive data) — for when you're doing a lot of local copy/paste and don't want it constantly going to the MWB watcher. Also helps with large file copies not lagging you when you're not using the feature. Since it runs per-machine, you can also disable sharing on one side to create one-way sharing. MWB stays enabled — this only manipulates the clipboard server in the background.
Features
Primary hotkey: Win + Ctrl + Shift + F by default (configurable via menu picker or INI) flips both ShareClipboard and TransferFile at once
Second hotkey for File Transfer alone: Optional — keep the primary as the "turn everything off" button and bind a separate key to toggle only file sharing
Tray icon: Green = sharing ON, Red = sharing OFF. Left-click to toggle. Tooltip shows each channel separately (e.g. Clipboard ON · Files OFF).
Middle-click: Opens the MWB settings window directly
Independent Clipboard and File Transfer toggles: Each channel can be flipped individually from the tray menu, not just together
Pause sharing: Temporarily disable for 5 minutes, 30 minutes, or indefinitely with auto-resume. Survives laptop sleep, and on resume restores the exact pre-pause state instead of turning both back on blindly.
Hotkey picker: Capturing a new key combo suppresses it from the rest of Windows so you don't fire whatever else happens to be listening
Grab MWBToggle.exe from the latest release — single file, self-contained, no .NET runtime needed.
Option 2: WinGet (recommended)
winget install itsnateai.MWBToggle
winget upgrade itsnateai.MWBToggle # later, to update
WinGet installs stay current automatically. The in-app Update button detects WinGet installs and points you back at winget upgrade instead of trying to overwrite the managed binary.
Releases publish a SHA256SUMS file alongside the exe. The in-app Update button downloads it, verifies the hash, and fails closed if anything is missing or doesn't match. A .ok sentinel rolls back to the prior version if the new exe doesn't successfully start.
Customization
Create a MWBToggle.ini file in the same folder as the exe:
It flips the ShareClipboard and TransferFile values in the JSON, copies the current file to settings.json.bak first (for manual rollback), and then truncate-writes the new content in place. The in-place write matters: PowerToys Mouse Without Borders watches its settings file with a FileSystemWatcher that reacts to LastWrite-type Changed events, which in-place writes emit directly. A .tmp + rename dance would preserve data against a power-cut mid-write but doesn't emit the right event, so MWB would never see the change — settings.json would say one thing while the running MWB module kept sharing on the old state.
If MWB has the file briefly locked, the toggle retries a few times before giving up.
Troubleshooting
"Mouse Without Borders doesn't appear to be running"
Make sure PowerToys is running and Mouse Without Borders is enabled in PowerToys settings.
"Settings file not found"
Mouse Without Borders must be run at least once to create its settings file. MWBToggle will detect it automatically once it appears — no restart required.
"Could not write to settings.json"
The file may be locked by MWB or quarantined by antivirus. Wait a moment and try again.
Nothing happens when I press the hotkey
Open the About dialog and click Open log folder — MWBToggle writes a small diagnostic log at %LOCALAPPDATA%\MWBToggle\mwbtoggle.log whenever something goes wrong.
FAQ
How do I uninstall?
WinGet: winget uninstall itsnateai.MWBToggle.
Direct install: exit from the tray menu, then delete the exe and the %LOCALAPPDATA%\MWBToggle\ folder (which holds the log, INI, and pause sidecar). Also remove the MWBToggle shortcut from shell:startup if you'd enabled run-at-startup.
How do I stop it running at startup without uninstalling?
Tray menu → uncheck Run at startup. This deletes the shortcut from shell:startup. Re-check it to restore.
What's the .ok sentinel file I see after an update?
Self-update safety net. The update downloads the new exe as MWBToggle.exe.new, swaps it in, and keeps the prior version as MWBToggle.exe.old. On a successful launch of the new version, MWBToggle writes .ok to confirm the new build started cleanly. If that file is missing next launch, the old exe is restored — so a broken update can't leave you unable to run the app.
What about the settings.json.bak next to MWB's settings?
MWBToggle rewrites settings.json in place on every toggle — same atomic-write pattern the original PowerToys Settings UI uses. Before each rewrite, the current settings.json is copied to settings.json.bak. That means .bak always holds the state from the previous toggle, not your original pre-MWBToggle config. If you need a "restore my original MWB settings" path, keep your own copy before using MWBToggle — the .bak is for recovering from a bad write, not for undoing the tool entirely.
Does this modify PowerToys itself?
No. MWBToggle only reads/writes PowerToys' Mouse Without Borders settings.json — the same file PowerToys already edits when you toggle those switches in its UI. PowerToys keeps running the whole time.
Why does the pause icon stay up after I exit?
It doesn't — if the tray still shows a pause icon after a proper Exit from the menu, the tray cache is stale. Hover the notification area to force Explorer to refresh.
Project Structure
Path
Description
MWBToggle.csproj
.NET 8 project file
Program.cs
Entry point — per-session single-instance enforcement
