Windows VR Notifier

Pipes Windows toast notifications directly into SteamVR, so you never miss a Discord message, email, or system alert while in VR.

Notifications appear as a floating card in your headset — fully positioned, opacity-controlled, and fade-animated. Includes a desktop control panel and an in-VR dashboard tab with clickable settings.

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Images

VR Dashboard in SteamVR

Desktop Dashboard

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Features

Core notification mirroring

• Listens to the Windows notification listener (UserNotificationListener) via the winsdk WinRT projection
• Renders each toast as a styled card and uploads it to a SteamVR overlay
• Queue-based display — one notification at a time, with a "+N more" indicator when backlog grows
• Word-wrapped body text (up to 3 lines) instead of hard truncation

In-VR dashboard tab

• Appears as a clickable button in the SteamVR dashboard
• Tabbed interface with four sections:
  • Home — DND toggle + Send Test Notification buttons
  • Position — X/Y/Z +/- buttons (VR-friendly, no keyboard needed)
  • Appearance — Width/Alpha/Display/Fade +/- buttons
  • History — recent notifications list
• All clicks handled via controller laser pointer
• Changes apply live and sync back to the desktop control panel

Desktop control panel

• System tray app with optional window
• Tabbed interface mirroring the VR dashboard:
  • Controls — DND checkbox, Test, Preview buttons
  • Position — X/Y/Z sliders for fine control
  • Appearance — Width, Alpha, Display duration, Fade duration sliders
  • History — scrollable notification log
• Preview Overlay button — shows a static card in VR for adjusting position/alpha live
• Status indicator (connecting / running / DND active / error)
• Settings saved to config.json automatically

SteamVR integration

• Auto-generates and registers the .vrmanifest on first launch
• Auto-enables auto-launch with SteamVR — starts automatically when SteamVR starts
• Paths with spaces work correctly (URL-encoded in the manifest)
• No manual manifest editing required

Reliability

• Background-thread SteamVR init (window never freezes during startup)
• Auto-restarting listener with exponential backoff if the event loop crashes
• WinRT collection access via index (not iteration) — avoids the iter() returned non-iterator crash
• Timeouts on all WinRT async calls — no more event-loop deadlocks
• Debounced dashboard rendering — rapid clicks won't crash SteamVR's overlay subsystem
• Thread-safe DND flag with proper Tk marshaling

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Requirements

For users (running the pre-built exe)

• Windows 10 or later (uses WinRT notification APIs)
• SteamVR installed and a VR headset connected
• Notification listener access granted in Windows Settings

For developers (building from source)

• All of the above, plus:
• Python 3.10+
• Dependencies listed in requirements.txt

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Installation

1. Download the latest WN2SVR.exe from Releases
2. Place it anywhere on your PC (folders with spaces are fine)
3. Run it once — it will auto-register with SteamVR
4. Grant notification access (see below)
5. Done — it will auto-start with SteamVR from now on

Moving the exe

If you move the exe to a different folder:

• Run it once from the new location — it will re-register with SteamVR automatically
• Your settings (config.json) stay in the old folder. Copy config.json to the new folder if you want to keep your saved position/alpha/appearance settings.

Granting notification access (one-time)

1. Open Windows Settings
2. Go to Privacy & security → Notifications
3. Enable "Let apps access your notifications"

If you skip this step, the app will run but never receive any notifications.

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Usage

Basic operation

1. Start SteamVR
2. WN2SVR starts automatically (if auto-launch is enabled)
3. Put on your headset
4. When a Windows notification arrives, it appears as a card in VR

Accessing the in-VR settings

1. Press the system button on your controller to open the SteamVR dashboard
2. Find the VR headset icon in the button list at the bottom
3. Click it — the settings panel appears
4. Use the tabs and +/- buttons to adjust everything without leaving VR

Desktop control panel

• Click the tray icon to show/hide the window
• Use the tabs to adjust position and appearance
• Click "Preview Overlay" to see a static card in VR while you drag sliders
• Right-click the tray icon for quick actions (Open, Quit)

DND mode

• Toggle from VR: Click the DND button on the Home tab
• Toggle from desktop: Check the DND checkbox on the Controls tab
• When active, notifications are still logged to history but not shown in VR

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Configuration

All settings are stored in config.json next to the executable (not in a temp folder or user profile):

Setting	Description	Default
pos_x	Overlay X position (-1.0 to 1.0)	0.25
pos_y	Overlay Y position (-1.0 to 1.0)	0.20
pos_z	Overlay Z distance (-2.0 to -0.1)	-0.75
overlay_width_m	Overlay width in meters (0.1 to 1.5)	0.45
overlay_alpha	Overlay opacity (0.1 to 1.0)	0.9
display_seconds	Seconds each notification stays visible (1.0 to 15.0)	5.0
fade_duration	Fade in/out duration in seconds (0.0 to 1.0)	0.25
dnd_enabled	Do Not Disturb flag	false
history_max	Max notifications kept in history	50

You can edit this file manually (while the app is closed) or use the GUI. The file is created automatically on first save.

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How it works

WN2SVR runs as a background process that hooks into two Windows subsystems:

• Windows Notification Listener — polls for new toast notifications via the WinRT UserNotificationListener API
• SteamVR Overlay API — renders each notification as a texture and displays it on a floating card in VR

It also registers a dashboard overlay with SteamVR, which gives you an in-VR settings panel with tabbed controls (no need to take off the headset to tweak things).

The desktop control panel and system tray icon provide an alternative way to configure everything from your PC.

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Troubleshooting

"SteamVR error" in status

SteamVR isn't running or the headset isn't connected. Start SteamVR and restart the app.

No notifications appearing

Grant notification access in Windows Settings (see Installation above).

Dashboard tab doesn't appear in SteamVR

Restart SteamVR once. The tab should appear after that. If not, run the app once from the desktop to re-register the manifest.

Settings reset to defaults

The app looks for config.json next to the executable. If you moved the exe, either copy your old config.json to the new location or reconfigure via the GUI.

App doesn't auto-launch with SteamVR

If the exe was moved, SteamVR's registration points to the old path. Run the exe once from the new location — it will re-register automatically.

Overlay stuck visible / dashboard vanishes

This was a bug in earlier versions caused by file corruption from concurrent read/write. It's fixed — if you're still seeing it, make sure you're on the latest version.

Tray icon shows as a random color

This was a bug in earlier versions (RGB vs RGBA mode for the icon). It's fixed in the latest version.

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Building from source

Prerequisites

1. Install Python 3.10+ (ensure it's in your PATH)
2. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/WN2SVR.git
   cd WN2SVR

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Option A: Run directly with Python

python WN2SVR.py

Useful for development — you can edit the code and re-run immediately.

Option B: Build a standalone exe with PyInstaller

1. Install PyInstaller:

   pip install pyinstaller

2. Build the exe:

   pyinstaller --noconsole --onefile --collect-all openvr WN2SVR.py

3. The exe will be in dist/WN2SVR.exe

4. Copy it anywhere and run it once to register with SteamVR

Build notes

• --onefile bundles everything into a single exe (~40-50MB)
• --noconsole prevents a console window from appearing
• The exe is built on Windows, for Windows — there's no cross-compilation path since winsdk is Windows-only

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

You're free to use, modify, distribute, and sell this software. Attribution appreciated but not required.

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Acknowledgments

Built using:

• openvr — SteamVR Python bindings
• winsdk — Windows Runtime Python projection
• pystray — System tray support
• Pillow — Image rendering

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Roadmap

Potential future features (not implemented):

• Text-to-speech read-aloud via Windows SAPI
• Per-app blocklist/allowlist
• Auto-DND when headset is taken off
• Customizable card themes
• Notification grouping for rapid-fire messages
• System tray quick actions