The cure for budget builds with one fast drive.
No install, no .NET required — download the .exe, double-click, done.
Your apps at a glance — green is on the fast drive, blue is frozen on the big one.
Got a small fast SSD (C:) and a big slow drive (D:)? Stowbyte lets you install programs wherever you like, then freeze the ones you're not using over to the roomy drive — leaving a transparent link behind so every shortcut, launcher, and registry path still works. When you want one back, defrost it to the fast drive in a click. Heavy apps can ride in Shuttle mode: pulled to C while you use them, frozen back to D when you close them.
It lives in your system tray as a little grid of your apps' real icons:
- 🟢 thawed on C — alive on the fast drive
- 🔵 frozen on D — parked on the big drive, still launches (via a directory junction)
- 🟡 moving — with a live % over the icon
Stowbyte uses Windows directory junctions. When you freeze an app:
- Its folder is robocopied to your offload drive (D:).
- The copy is verified (file count + byte total must match).
- Only then is the original moved aside and replaced with a junction pointing at the D: copy.
Because the junction sits at the exact original path, everything that referenced the app keeps working — it just reads from the slower drive while frozen. Defrosting reverses it: copy back, verify, then remove the junction (link only — your data is never touched).
- Never moves a running app. Stowbyte checks for live processes under the folder before and
during a move, and aborts cleanly if anything is in use. Running apps show a
● runningbadge and their Freeze button is disabled. - Verify-before-replace. The original is only removed after the copy is confirmed byte-for-byte.
- Rename-aside, not delete. A locked file makes the move fail atomically — nothing is lost.
- System-tray grid of real app icons, one-click launch
- Freeze (C→D) / Defrost (D→C) with a live progress %
- Shuttle mode — auto-defrost on launch, auto-freeze on close (great for ComfyUI and other heavy apps)
- Per-app move timings + a hover clock so you know how long a freeze/defrost will take
- Configurable offload location and install zone
- Add an app by picking its folder — Stowbyte auto-detects the launch .exe
- Start with Windows (silent, elevated, no UAC nag — via a Scheduled Task)
- No telemetry. Nothing ever leaves your PC.
- Windows 10/11
- .NET 8 (Windows Desktop runtime)
- Runs elevated (admin) — directory junctions into
C:\Program Filesrequire it, so Stowbyte self-elevates via UAC on launch.
dotnet build
Output: bin/Debug/net8.0-windows/Stowbyte.exe
MIT — see LICENSE. Short version: this is my code, but share it freely and modify it as you like. If you get rich with it, toss me a bit please :)
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