Free · Open source · Windows

Drag. Drop. Convert.

Hold Shift while you drag any file, and a format wheel opens under your cursor. Release on the format you want. No app window, no upload, no browser tab.

Download for Windows View source on GitHub

v0.1.1 · 262 MB · portable ZIP · Windows x64 · English and 简体中文

    Try it: drag a file and release it on a petal.

    Three moves. No windows.

    ZestDrop lives in the system tray and wakes up only when you need it, in the middle of a drag you were already making.

    1. 1

      Start dragging

      Select one or more files on the desktop or in File Explorer and start dragging, as if you were moving them.

    2. 2

      Press a shortcut

      Shift opens formats, Ctrl + Shift opens tools. F8 and F9 work too. Once the wheel is open you can let go of the keys.

    3. 3

      Release on a petal

      Drop on the format or tool you want. The new file appears next to the original, which is never overwritten.

    One gesture for every file on your desktop

    The wheel only shows what makes sense for the files you are holding. Pick a file type to see its menus.

    333

    Conversion options

    Input-to-output format pairs across images, video, audio, documents, Office files and archives. 145 of them use your installed Microsoft Office.

    27

    Advanced file tools

    Compress, trim, crop, redact, join, split and more, many with a live preview.

    Image tools

    JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF, AVIF, BMP and SVG. Convert, compress, crop to any ratio, redact, adjust colour, add a background or strip metadata.

    Shift

    Convert formats

    CtrlShift

    Advanced tools

    Real tools when you need them

    Tools that need settings open in their own window with a live preview. Every audio and video tool has a player with a seek bar, and trimming gives you draggable start and end handles.

    The ZestDrop trim tool window, with a video preview, a timeline with orange start and end handles, playback controls and start and end time fields.
    The trim tool: preview, timeline handles, exact times, then save a new file.
    Three stacked progress cards: one processing with Pause, Cancel and Hide buttons, one paused with Resume, and one waiting for a running job to finish.

    Every job has its own controls

    • Pause and resume. Pause freezes the whole job, including FFmpeg, and stops the clock. Resume carries on exactly where it stopped.
    • Cancel. Stops the job and removes its unfinished files. Your originals are never touched.
    • Hide. Tucks the card away while the job keeps running, and a tray notification tells you when it finishes.
    • Two at a time. Two jobs run in parallel and the rest wait their turn. Long encodes are never cut off.

    Your files stay on your PC

    Online converters ask you to upload your photos, contracts and recordings to someone else's server. ZestDrop does all of the work on your own machine.

    • Nothing is uploaded. Every conversion runs locally and works offline.
    • Originals are never overwritten. Outputs get a clear suffix, and duplicates get a number.
    • Everything is included. FFmpeg, Python, 7-Zip and .NET ship inside the download.
    • It stays out of the way. No main window, no installer, no startup entries. Quit from the tray at any time.

    Get ZestDrop

    Free for personal and commercial use. Unzip and run.

    Download for Windows

    v0.1.1 · 262 MB · portable ZIP

    1. Download the ZIP and extract the whole folder.
    2. Run ZestDrop.exe. It appears in the system tray.
    3. Drag a file and press Shift.

    Release notes & SHA-256 checksum All versions

    Requires Windows x64. The interface is in English or Simplified Chinese; switch any time from the tray menu. Layout-exact Office exports need desktop Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint.

    Questions

    Windows says “Windows protected your PC”. Is it safe?

    ZestDrop isn't code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen warns about any new download from an unknown publisher. Click More info and then Run anyway. To check that your download is the official file, compare it with the SHA-256 checksum published on the release page. The full source code is on GitHub.

    Is it really free?

    Yes. ZestDrop is open source under the MIT License, with no ads, accounts or paid tiers. Bundled components keep their own licenses. For example, FFmpeg is included as a GPLv3 build, and its exact source code is attached to the v0.1.0 release.

    Are my files uploaded anywhere?

    No. Everything is processed on your computer by the engines bundled in the download, and ZestDrop works with no internet connection.

    Why is the download about 260 MB?

    It includes everything it needs to run: the .NET runtime, a portable Python with its libraries, FFmpeg and 7-Zip. You don't have to install anything else.

    Where do the converted files go?

    Into the same folder as the original, with a suffix such as photo-converted.jpg. If that name is taken, a number is added. Originals are never changed. Right-click the tray icon to open the folder of your latest output.

    Is the app available in English?

    Yes. Since v0.1.0 the interface is available in English and Simplified Chinese. It starts in your Windows display language; right-click the tray icon and choose Language / 语言 to switch.

    Do I need Microsoft Office?

    Only for layout-exact exports of Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, such as PDF or images. ZestDrop drives your installed Office to do these. Without Office, you can still extract text and table data from modern Office files.

    How do I update or uninstall it?

    Quit ZestDrop from its tray menu. To update, extract the new version into a fresh folder. To uninstall, delete the folder. ZestDrop adds no installer entries or startup items.

    Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue on GitHub. Please don't attach private files.