NoteControl

A self-hosted, multi-user notes app for Windows. Notes are plain markdown files on disk, one folder per vault — open them in any editor, sync them with any tool, back them up by copying a folder. The app is just a friendly UI on top.

http://notecontrol.dk Login: NoteControl Password: NoteControl4321

Start page — pinned widgets and quick links.

Markdown code blocks with syntax highlighting, including ST keywords.

Most notes apps lock your data inside their database, sync service, or proprietary file format. Move on, lose access. The cost of "I'll just try this app" is high.

NoteControl tries the opposite trade: every note is a .md file in a folder you own, attachments are stored next to their note in a {name}.assets/ sibling folder, and backups are folder copies. If this project disappears tomorrow, your notes are still there in plain text, indexed by Windows Search like any other folder.

The app adds: a TipTap-based WYSIWYG editor with live markdown round-trip, multi-user access over HTTPS, full-text search via SQLite FTS5, daily-notes templates, RSS feed widgets, and a Windows tray for admin/server-control without a browser.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Windows host                                         │
│                                                      │
│  ┌────────────────┐       ┌──────────────────────┐   │
│  │ Tray           │       │ Server               │   │
│  │ (WPF +         │       │ (ASP.NET Core 8 +    │   │
│  │  H.NotifyIcon) │──────►│  EF Core + SQLite +  │   │
│  │ Admin windows  │ HTTP  │  Serilog)            │   │
│  └────────────────┘       │ runs as Windows Svc  │   │
│                           └──────────┬───────────┘   │
│                                      ▼               │
│                     C:\ProgramData\NoteControl\      │
│                       NotesData\                     │
│                         users\<name>\<vault>\        │
│                         shared\<vault>\              │
│                       logs\                          │
│                       .server\  (db, csrf key, etc.) │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
            ▲
            │ HTTPS via Caddy (optional)
   ┌────────┴────────┐
   │ Browser (any device on the LAN) │
   └─────────────────────────────────┘

The frontend is React + Vite + TipTap, built into a static bundle and served from the same Kestrel process that runs the API. One URL, one port, no separate dev servers in production.

The fastest way to try NoteControl on a Windows machine.

1. Go to Releases and download NoteControl-<version>.zip.
2. Extract anywhere (e.g. your Downloads folder).
3. Open an elevated PowerShell (right-click PowerShell → Run as administrator) and run:

   cd path\to\extracted\NoteControl-<version>
   .\installer\install.ps1

4. The installer:
   • Copies binaries to C:\Program Files\NoteControl\
   • Registers NoteControlServer as a Windows service (auto-start)
   • Adds the tray to HKLM Run (launches at login for any user)
   • Creates an Add/Remove Programs entry
   • Probes http://127.0.0.1:8080/health to verify the service is up
5. Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser. Default login is created from the tray (right-click tray icon → Users…).

Once installed, the tray polls GitHub Releases once per day. When a newer version is published, you'll see "Update available: X.Y.Z" in the tray menu. Click it → release notes + Install button → elevated PowerShell runs the new installer → service restarts → new tray launches. About 30 seconds end-to-end, no reboot needed.

You can also re-run a fresh installer\install.ps1 from a newer release zip; the installer detects the existing install and performs an in-place upgrade. Vault data under C:\ProgramData\NoteControl\ is never touched by the installer.

• Add/Remove Programs → NoteControl → Uninstall, OR
• Elevated PowerShell: & "C:\Program Files\NoteControl\uninstall.ps1"

By default, vault data is preserved. Pass -RemoveData to also delete C:\ProgramData\NoteControl\ (you'll be asked to type "DELETE" to confirm).

You'll need:

• Windows 10/11
• Visual Studio 2022 with the .NET desktop development and ASP.NET and web development workloads
• .NET 8 SDK (comes with VS2022)
• Node.js 20+ and npm

Then:

git clone https://github.com/<your-fork>/NoteControl.git
cd NoteControl
git submodule update --init --recursive  # if any (currently none)

Open NoteControl.sln in Visual Studio. The four projects are:

The frontend is a separate npm project; see src/NoteControl.Frontend/README.md for its dev workflow.

From the repo root, in PowerShell:

.\publish.ps1 -Version 0.1.0 -Zip

This builds the frontend, publishes the server (self-contained win-x64) with the frontend inlined into wwwroot/, publishes the tray, copies the installer scripts, and produces dist\NoteControl-0.1.0.zip. Upload that as a release asset on GitHub and the in-app updater will pick it up.

See docs/NoteControl-Spec.md for the full design document, and CHANGELOG.md for feature history.

Inside each vault:

MyVault/
├── note-at-root.md
├── note-at-root.assets/
│   └── pasted-image.png
├── Subfolder/
│   └── another-note.md
└── .notesapp/
    ├── index.db                 (per-vault search index, regenerable)
    ├── templates/
    ├── trash/                   (deleted notes, kept for recovery)
    ├── startpage.json           (RSS blocks + task areas)
    └── config.json              (optional per-vault config)

A backup is xcopy MyVault MyBackup /e. Restore is the reverse. The .notesapp/index.db is rebuildable from the markdown files — deleting it triggers a full re-index on next vault open.

• Project maturity. Actively developed, tested by one person. Solid for personal use, but not battle-tested across many machines. Bug reports are welcome via GitHub Issues.
• Windows-only. Server, tray, and installer all assume Windows. No plans for cross-platform.
• Desktop-first UI. The frontend works on phones but isn't tuned for touch. Keyboard + mouse is the design target.
• Single-machine deployment. No cluster mode, no shared storage, no replication. One Windows host runs the server; clients are browsers on the LAN.
• HTTPS via Caddy. The server itself only speaks HTTP. For HTTPS / Let's Encrypt, drop a Caddy reverse proxy in front (see deploy/).
• Self-signed code. The installer scripts and exes aren't code- signed. Windows SmartScreen will warn on first run. Expected for a free, self-hosted app — you wrote (or read) the scripts, so trust them on that basis.

MIT — see LICENSE.

See CHANGELOG.md for the per-feature ship history. The full design document is in docs/NoteControl-Spec.md.