SwitchCast

Seamless Windows Screen Sharing & Presentation Management

Capture applications and displays, queue your presentation sources, and switch seamlessly in a single stable output window without interrupting your meeting stream.






---

Overview

During virtual presentations and live screen-sharing sessions (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Discord, OBS), presenters frequently need to transition between slide decks, IDE code editors, terminal windows, browser tabs, and application demos. Standard conferencing tools require stopping screen sharing, selecting another application window, and restarting screen sharing—disrupting the meeting flow and risking accidental exposure of private desktop content.

SwitchCast solves this problem.

Presenters share one dedicated, stable Presentation Output window in their meeting software. Inside SwitchCast, presenters queue multiple applications or monitors and switch between them instantly using the Control Dashboard, the lightweight Floating Presenter Dock, or Global Keyboard Shortcuts—all while the meeting audience sees a continuous, uninterrupted live video feed.

---

Key Features

• Live Window & Monitor Capture: Hardware-accelerated desktop capture via Windows.Graphics.Capture and Direct3D 11.
• Dedicated Shareable Output Window: Clean 16:9 audience-facing presentation canvas titled "SwitchCast Presentation Output", directly selectable by all major conferencing platforms.
• Instant Seamless Source Switching: Switch between queued application windows and physical monitors in milliseconds with latest-request-wins concurrency serialization.
• Three Source Switching Modes:
• Live Only (L) (Default): Switches the shared output stream without changing your active desktop focus.
• Active + Live (A+L): Switches the shared output stream and simultaneously brings the selected application window to the foreground.
• Active Only (A): Brings the application to your desktop foreground for private interaction without altering the live audience feed.
• Floating Presenter Companion Dock: Ultra-slim, always-on-top draggable floating toolbar offering on-air status, fast source switching, pause/blackout toggles, and switching mode selection.
• System-Wide Global Hotkeys: Direct shortcut control across Windows even when SwitchCast is in the background.
• Live Presentation Controls: Instant Pause / Freeze-Frame and 100% opaque Blackout / Privacy Curtain controls.
• Dynamic True-Color Native Icons: Automatically extracts and displays authentic 32-bit Windows application icons (Chrome, Visual Studio, File Explorer, IDEs) in the Sources picker.
• Modern Fluent Design Shell: Custom dark title bars, DPI-aware geometry centering, theme synchronization (Dark & Light modes), and Windows 11 Snap Layouts.
• Safe Window Lifecycle & Exit Confirmation: Prevents accidental meeting terminations with clear prompts, independent secondary window lifecycle, and clean resource teardown.
• 100% Privacy & Zero Telemetry: Operates entirely offline on your local device. No network requests, analytics, or cloud dependencies.

---

Technology Stack

• Language & Runtime: C# / .NET 8.0 (net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0)
• UI Framework: WinUI 3 (Windows App SDK 1.5)
• Capture Engine: Windows.Graphics.Capture (WinRT Interop) & Direct3D 11 swapchain pipelines
• Diagnostic Capture: Win32 GDI PrintWindow (PW_RENDERFULLCONTENT) and BitBlt fail-safe fallbacks
• Architecture: Clean Architecture MVVM (CommunityToolkit.Mvvm, Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection)
• Target OS: Windows 10 (version 1809 / build 17763 or later) & Windows 11 (x64)

---

Getting Started

System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1809 or higher) or Windows 11 64-bit
• Architecture: x64
• Graphics: Direct3D 11 compatible graphics hardware or WARP software rasterizer

Installation

1. Download the latest SwitchCast-v1.0.0-win-x64.zip release from Releases.

2. Extract the archive to any folder on your computer.

3. Run SwitchCast.exe.

Note: SwitchCast is configured as a standalone, unpackaged desktop application.

---

Basic Usage

1. Discover & Queue Sources:

• Open SwitchCast and navigate to the Sources tab.
• Check the boxes next to the application windows or displays you want to include in your presentation.

2. Open Presentation Output:

• Click Open Output Window from the Dashboard or Presenter Dock.

3. Share in Meeting:

• In Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet, choose Share Window and select "SwitchCast Presentation Output".

4. Start Presenting:

• Click Start Presenting on the Dashboard or Presenter Dock.

5. Switch Between Sources:

• Use the Floating Presenter Dock, Dashboard, or Global Hotkeys (Ctrl+Shift+Right / Ctrl+Shift+Left) to switch smoothly between your queued sources.

---

Default Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcuts can be viewed and configured in the Settings > Shortcuts panel.

---

Known Platform Behaviors

• Minimized Application Windows: In accordance with standard Windows OS graphics compositor policy, minimized application windows suspend DirectX frame generation. SwitchCast retains the last captured frame until the window is restored.
• OS Protected Windows: Windows with elevated DRM or display affinity flags (WDAMONITOR / WDAEXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE) cannot be captured by third-party software by design.

---

Creator & Attribution

Created by John Christopher King Zamora

• GitHub: @jczamora-git
• Repository: https://github.com/jczamora-git/SwitchCast

---

Releases

Official builds and release packages are published on the GitHub Releases page.