Accentra

What's new in 2.0

• Accent sections — accent maps are now organized into named sections (Latin, Slavic, Nordic, …). Enable or disable entire groups from the new Sections… dialog without editing JSON.
• Seamless upgrades — when a new version of Accentra ships with updated default maps, your existing file is backed up automatically and the new defaults are installed. No data loss, no manual steps.
• Sections dialog — a proper settings window replaces the old inline submenu, with checkboxes for each section and OK / Cancel.

Full changelog on GitHub

How it works

Accentra sits in your system tray and watches your keyboard. When you hold a key a little longer than usual, it enters accent mode — no popup, no overlay, purely keyboard-driven.

Works in Discord, Messenger, browsers, Notepad — everywhere. No administrator rights required.

Because accent maps are fully customizable, you can go beyond language accents. Add Greek letters, math operators, or any Unicode symbol — and type them with the same hold-and-cycle gesture:

Installation

Tray menu

Right-click the ā icon in the system tray for options:

• Start with Windows — toggle whether Accentra launches automatically on login (enabled by default after install).
• Pause accent input — temporarily disable accent mode without quitting; all keystrokes pass through normally until you unpause.
• Sections… — open the Sections dialog to enable or disable individual accent groups (Latin, Slavic, Nordic, …).
• Edit accent maps… — opens the accent maps folder in Explorer so you can edit accent-maps.json directly.
• About Accentra… — opens this web page.
• Quit — stop Accentra until the next login (or until you run it again).

Running as Admin

By default Accentra runs in non-privileged mode, so by Windows design it can't intercept keystrokes within apps running elevated.
To work around this limitation, open a command window as admin and run Accentra. Because Accentra is on your PATH, it will start elevated and become available in elevated apps.

Limitations

• ⚠ Touch / soft keyboard: Accentra intercepts physical keyboard input only. The Windows on-screen keyboard and touch input use a different path that bypasses the hook entirely.
• ⚠ Elevated apps: Accentra does not intercept keystrokes in apps running as Administrator. See Running as Admin for a workaround.
• ⚠ Key auto-repeat: While Accentra is running, holding a key enters accent mode instead of producing repeated characters. Auto-repeat is not available for keys that have accent variants defined.

Accent reference

These are the default accent sequences. Hold any base key to enter accent mode, then tap to cycle through its variants.

These are the defaults. Right-click the tray icon and choose Edit accent maps... to customize variants for any key.

Customizing accent maps

Accentra's accent sequences are fully configurable. To open the accent maps folder, right-click the ā tray icon and choose Edit accent maps.... Open accent-maps.json with Notepad or any text editor — each entry maps a base letter to a string of variants:

Each character in the string becomes one step in the cycle. The last character is typically the plain letter itself, which lets you cycle back to the start. You can add new base keys, remove ones you never use, or reorder variants to put your most-used accents first. Changes take effect immediately — no restart needed.

System requirements

• ✓ Windows 10 or Windows 11
• ✓ No .NET runtime to install — everything is bundled in the single EXE
• ✓ No administrator rights required
• ✓ Works with any application running at normal privilege (Discord, Messenger, browsers, Office, Notepad, …)

Privacy Policy

Accentra does not collect, store, or transmit any personal data.

• ✓ No keylogging: Keystrokes are processed locally in real time solely to detect long-press timing and inject accented characters. They are never recorded or stored.
• ✓ No network access: Accentra makes no network connections of any kind.
• ✓ No telemetry: No usage data, crash reports, or analytics are collected.
• ✓ No third-party services: Accentra has no dependencies on external services or APIs.
• ✓ Local data only: The only file written to disk is accent-maps.json, which contains your accent configuration and nothing else.

Known issues

The list below reflects problems that have been reported and are being tracked. If you've encountered something not listed here, submit a problem report.