A strict, beautiful focus timer for Windows that actually blocks distractions —
websites, browser tabs, apps and folders — and helps you keep yourself honest.
Most focus apps are a timer with good intentions. You start a session, get bored, open YouTube "for one minute"… and the timer politely keeps ticking.
FocusShield is built around friction. Once a focus session starts:
- 🚫 distracting websites stop resolving, system-wide;
- 🛡 a tab guard closes YouTube tabs even through a proxy or VPN;
- 🔒 chosen apps get closed and chosen folders can't be opened;
- 🎯 if you wander away from your work apps, they come back to the front;
- ⏳ ending a session early means waiting 10 seconds and typing a phrase.
When the session ends, everything unlocks automatically — and you get a real break.
A compact floating timer sits on top of every window: progress ring, time left, your intention and one-click controls. Drag it anywhere — it remembers the spot. Show it always, only during sessions, or never.
Turn on the optional mascot (Settings → On-screen timer) and a little sprout sits next to the timer. It grows through your pomodoro series: the stem stretches during each focus, new leaves appear with every finished session, a bud forms near the end — and it blooms on the long break. Then a new sprout starts.
It reacts to what you're doing, too: frowning with concentration during focus, sweating in the last minute, relaxing on breaks, napping while idle. Click it and it jumps.
Every session starts with what exactly will be done. When it ends, FocusShield shows the intention back to you and asks: did you make it? Your answers build an honest history.
Blocking lifts and a break window guides you through micro-practices: 4-7-8 breathing with an animated circle, the 20-20-20 eye rule, a stretch and a glass of water. Long break after every N sessions.
| Layer | What it does | Survives proxy / VPN? |
|---|---|---|
| Websites | Domains from your list resolve to 0.0.0.0 via the hosts file; DNS-over-HTTPS servers are blocked too, so the browser's "secure DNS" can't sneak around it |
❌ |
| Tab guard | Watches browser window titles and closes a tab whose title contains a keyword (YouTube by default). Exact segment matching — a search for "how to block youtube" or a file called youtube.py is never touched |
✅ |
| Apps | Processes on your list are closed during focus (Telegram, Steam, Discord…) | ✅ |
| Folders | An NTFS deny-read rule on the folder — Explorer and every other program get "access denied"; open Explorer windows close | ✅ |
System processes and critical folders (Windows, Program Files, drive roots, your whole profile) are refused on purpose — FocusShield can't brick your PC.
Pick the apps you work in. Choose when FocusShield brings you back: when the app is minimized, when it's not in the foreground (you switched to something else), or both. Its own windows never count.
A webcam photo and/or a screenshot every N minutes, only during focus, stored locally in one folder per day. Browse them by day, open a day's folder in one click. Old captures are deleted automatically.
Minutes in focus, sessions, day streak, distractions caught, a 7-day chart and every intention with its outcome.
Pomodoro lengths, strict mode, auto-continue, blocked sites, tab keywords, blocked apps and folders, focus apps and triggers, captures, theme (light / dark / follow Windows) and language (English / Русский).
- Grab FocusShield.exe from the latest release — one file, no Python needed.
- Run it and accept the administrator prompt.
- That's it — FocusShield adds itself to Windows startup and lives in the tray.
SmartScreen: the exe isn't code-signed, so Windows may show "Windows protected your PC". Click More info → Run anyway. Every release is built from source by GitHub Actions and ships with a
.sha256checksum.
Tip: Windows 11 hides new tray icons. Drag the FocusShield icon out of the
^overflow area so it's always visible.
Requires Python 3.10+ from python.org (with tkinter — the default).
git clone https://github.com/bigdevwhale/focus-shield.git
cd focus-shield
python install.py # run from source, with autostart
python build.py # …or build your own dist\FocusShield.exe- Press ▶ on the floating timer (or left-click the tray icon).
- Pick a duration, write your intention, hit Start focus.
- Work. FocusShield does the rest.
Right-click the tray icon or the timer for Statistics, Photos by day and Settings.
FocusShield.exe --uninstall # or, from source: python uninstall.pyRemoves autostart and lifts all blocks. Your stats and photos stay in
%LOCALAPPDATA%\focus-shield — delete the folder if you don't need them.
FocusShield is a small Python app: a system-tray icon (pystray), a Windows 11
style UI (tkinter + the Sun Valley theme), toasts (winotify) and plain
WinAPI via ctypes for windows, processes and folder permissions.
- Single-file exe built with PyInstaller. On first run it registers a Task Scheduler entry at logon with highest privileges, so there's no UAC prompt on every boot. Launching it again just brings the running instance forward.
- Crash-safe. Session state is written atomically with absolute end times. On every start, FocusShield removes all of its blocks and then resumes an unfinished session — nothing stays blocked by accident.
- Strict by design. If the app is killed mid-session, blocks stay until it restarts (the scheduled task restarts it automatically).
- One UI thread. The tray thread only posts events into a queue; a one-second tick drives the state machine, timer, guards and captures.
| File | Responsibility |
|---|---|
main.py |
orchestrator: event queue, tick, session lifecycle, recovery |
hosts.py |
marked section in the hosts file, DNS flush, debug CLI |
blocker.py |
blocked apps (processes) and folders (NTFS deny rules) |
focus_apps.py |
window tracking: focus apps and the tab guard |
session.py |
pomodoro state machine with an atomic state.json |
webcam.py |
webcam photos and screenshots, folders per day, cleanup |
stats.py |
SQLite: sessions, distractions, streaks |
theme.py, i18n.py |
design system and translations |
ui_*.py |
timer widget, dialogs, break, stats, settings |
autostart.py |
Task Scheduler registration (used by the exe and install.py) |
build.py |
builds dist/FocusShield.exe; CI runs it for every v* tag |
I use a proxy / VPN (v2rayN, xray, Clash…) and YouTube still opens
With a SOCKS/HTTP proxy, domain names are resolved by the proxy, so the hosts
file is never consulted. That's exactly what the tab guard is for: it works
on window titles, so it doesn't care how traffic is routed. Keep it enabled in
Settings → Tab guard.
Something stayed blocked — how do I unblock manually?
Run FocusShield.exe --unblock (it asks for admin rights). From source, in an
administrator terminal:
python hosts.py --unblock # websites
python blocker.py --unblock # foldersOr uninstall completely with FocusShield.exe --uninstall. A backup of your original hosts file is
kept next to it as hosts.focus-shield.bak.
Is anything sent anywhere?
No. There are no network calls in the code. Photos, screenshots, stats and logs
live in %LOCALAPPDATA%\focus-shield and captures are deleted after the
retention period you set (14 days by default).
Can I cheat?
Of course — anyone with an admin terminal can kill a process. FocusShield is friction, not armor: it makes the distracted path slow and deliberate, which is usually all it takes.
What are the known limitations?
- The tab guard sees only the active tab of each browser window; a background tab is closed as soon as you switch to it.
- A folder block applies to the folder itself — a file inside can still be opened by its exact path (e.g. from Recent files).
- DNS-over-HTTPS pointed at a raw IP bypasses
hosts(the tab guard still works). - Windows only.
If FocusShield helps you ship, give it a ⭐ — it helps others find it.