ScreenSearchOverlay

Press Ctrl+Alt+F, search any text visible on screen with OCR, click to copy. Like Ctrl+F for the whole screen.

Shortcuts

Ctrl+Alt+F	Open overlay (global hotkey)
Type	Highlight matching text
Click match	Copy word to clipboard
Mouse wheel	Scroll the app underneath; overlay re-captures when you stop
Escape / Right-click	Close overlay
↑ / ↓	Search history
Enter	Save current search to history
Drag search bar	Move it (position persisted)

Right-click inside the search box itself still opens the native paste menu.

Features

• OCR search — Windows.Media.Ocr, multi-language (pick from tray icon)
• Scroll-through — wheel anywhere on the overlay scrolls the app below natively (works with Chromium/Electron). Overlay reappears with a fresh capture when you stop.
• Regex — toggle .* button
• Copy all / copy matched — hamburger menu
• Zen mode, highlight size, search bar size — hamburger menu, persisted

Install

Download ScreenSearchOverlay.exe from the latest release. Self-contained, portable.

Build

.\build.ps1 -Run       # build + launch
.\build.ps1            # build to dist/
.\build.ps1 -Release   # build + GitHub release

Version lives in ScreenSearchOverlay.csproj (<Version>).

To enable diagnostic logging at %TEMP%\ls-ocrlayout-scroll.log, add <DefineConstants>LS_DEBUG_LOG</DefineConstants> to the csproj. Off by default — [Conditional] strips the calls completely in release.

Code layout

MainWindow is split into partial files by concern:

File	Responsibility
MainWindow.xaml.cs	ctor, lifecycle, fields, log
MainWindow.Scroll.cs	scroll state machine + global hook handler
MainWindow.Capture.cs	screen capture, WriteableBitmap swap, OCR pipeline + cache
MainWindow.Search.cs	search box, regex, hamburger menu, highlights
MainWindow.SearchBar.cs	drag, position, size, key nav, close handlers
MainWindow.NativeInterop.cs	Win32 P/Invoke + helpers (SetClickThrough, InjectMouseWheel, …)
LowLevelMouseHook.cs	WH_MOUSE_LL on a dedicated thread (per MSDN guidance — UI-thread hooks risk silent detachment past LowLevelHooksTimeout)
App.xaml.cs	global hotkey, tray icon, settings/history persistence

Scroll-through architecture

State machine Idle ↔ Scrolling. On the first wheel, the window goes WS_EX_TRANSPARENT (click-through Win32) and injects the wheel via SendInput so it lands on the app below. Subsequent wheels go natively to that app — Chromium-friendly because we never use synthetic WM_MOUSEWHEEL. A WH_MOUSE_LL hook on a dedicated thread keeps the debounce alive while we don't receive any events. After 400 ms of wheel silence: re-capture, refresh OCR, restore the overlay.

Files written

• settings.json — zen mode, highlight size, search bar size & position
• search-history.json — last 50 searches

Both live next to the .exe.

Requirements

Windows 10 build 19041+ or Windows 11. At least one OCR language pack (your system language is usually pre-installed).