Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Answers to the most common questions about installing, updating, SlyPilot Pro, privacy, speech, AI actions, meeting notes, hardware and AI agents. AI dictation, the phone remote, natural voices and meeting notes are part of SlyPilot Pro and are marked so; everything else is free.

Downloads are not public yet, and SlyPilot is not in the Microsoft Store. Where a question mentions the setup program or the zip, it describes what you get from the author.

🚀 General & Installation

Q: Does SlyPilot require administrator privileges to install or run?

No. SlyPilot runs under a standard user account. The setup program installs for your user only, into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\SlyPilot, and the portable zip runs from any folder you can write to (a OneDrive folder or a USB stick included). No UAC prompt is needed. (One limit: Windows does not let a normal program control a window that runs as administrator. Check my setup tells you when the program in front is one.)

Q: Do I need AutoHotkey installed to run SlyPilot?

No. SlyPilot.exe is a standalone program. The AutoHotkey runtime and the helper library it needs are inside it.

Q: Which Windows versions are supported?

64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11. The virtual desktop helper needs Windows 10, or Windows 11 24H2 (build 26100.2605) or newer. If a future Windows update changes Microsoft's undocumented desktop interfaces, SlyPilot says so in plain words instead of failing silently, and everything that does not depend on them (Touch Bar buttons, snapping, voice commands, dictation, timers, the agent interface) keeps working.

Q: Why does Windows say "Windows protected your PC"?

The setup program and the exe are not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen warns about any unsigned program it does not know. Choose More info, then Run anyway, but only for a file you got from the author. Code-signing is not in place yet.

Q: How do I update SlyPilot?

Tray menu -> Help and Backup -> Check for Updates... asks api.github.com once, when you click it, whether a newer release exists. It downloads and installs nothing. To update, run the newer setup program over the old one (your settings, workspaces and downloaded models stay), or, for the zip, exit SlyPilot, replace SlyPilot.exe and SlyCtl.exe, and start it again. After an update, one message tells you the version changed, and Help and Backup -> What's New... lists the highlights. The weekly automatic check is off until you tick it.

Q: Where does SlyPilot keep my settings, and can I back them up?

In SlyPilot.ini next to the program (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\SlyPilot for the setup program). Help and Backup -> Backup Settings... and Restore Settings... save and load a copy. SlyPilot also keeps a daily copy (the newest 7) in %LOCALAPPDATA%\SlyPilot\Backups and repairs the file by itself if it is damaged, for example by a sync program writing it at the same moment; the damaged copy is kept. Open the folder with Help and Backup -> Open Settings Backups Folder. See Troubleshooting.

Q: Can I run it from a OneDrive or Dropbox folder?

Yes, it is a normal single file and works from there. A sync client that grabs SlyPilot.ini while SlyPilot writes it is the one thing that can go wrong, which is why the automatic repair and daily backup exist. If saving settings fails repeatedly, pause the sync of that folder (Check my setup says so).

Q: How do I remove it?

Setup program: Windows Settings -> Apps -> Installed apps -> SlyPilot -> Uninstall; it asks whether to delete your settings and downloaded models too (the default keeps them). Zip: exit SlyPilot, untick Start with Windows if it was on, and delete the folder. Downloaded engines and voices are in %LOCALAPPDATA%\SlyPilot. See Getting Started.

💎 SlyPilot Pro

Q: What is free and what is SlyPilot Pro?

SlyPilot is a free, open core (MIT, source included) program: virtual desktops, the Touch Bar, radial menu, snap layouts, workspaces, the command palette, over 550 offline voice commands, AI actions on selected text, the MCP / agent interface, SlyMute, text expander, clipboard and OCR tools, and screenshots (history, pins, Quick Redact). There is no licence, no trial and no time limit. SlyPilot Pro is an optional one-time purchase that unlocks five proprietary parts: AI dictation (38 languages), the phone remote (Android, Chrome), natural voices (45 offline English voices), meeting notes and the screenshot editor and screen recorder (with scrolling screenshots and guides), plus the Home Link preview. Without Pro, the dictation button opens Windows Voice Typing and spoken feedback uses the Windows voices.

Q: What does SlyPilot Pro cost, and what do I get?

US$39, one time, for up to 3 personal PCs of your own. The version you bought keeps working (offline for up to 30 days between lease renewals, or with an offline .lic file). 1 year of updates is included; after that the installed version keeps working, and newer versions need a renewal at a reduced price. There is a 30-day refund, by e-mail with your licence id.

Q: How do I buy and activate it?

Buy at https://slypilot.com/pro#buy (the Buy button in the program opens it). You receive a licence key (SLY-...) by e-mail. In the program: tray icon -> Help and Backup -> SlyPilot Pro..., paste the key into the box and press Activate (or open / drop an offline SlyPilot.lic file on the window). No restart is needed. Activating a key sends the key, an anonymous one-way-hashed PC id, the PC name, "win32" and the Pro version to slypilot.com and stores a signed 30-day lease (SlyPilot.lease) on your PC, renewed about twice a day while running (no account and no usage telemetry). Remove licence frees that PC so you can move the seat to another computer.

🔒 Privacy & Offline Operation

Q: Does SlyPilot really work offline?

Yes, once its files are on your PC. Voice recognition, push-to-talk dictation and natural voices (both SlyPilot Pro), window management and the agent interface all run on your own PC. Your audio never leaves it. Text goes out only if you set up an optional feature (AI actions with an outside service, the update check, model downloads). The program has no accounts and no usage telemetry; if you activate SlyPilot Pro with a SLY-... key, it gets a 30-day signed lease from slypilot.com (renewed about twice a day while running, and working offline for up to 30 days between renewals; offline SlyPilot.lic files make no network requests).

• The speech models (Whisper and Parakeet) run as small local programs that listen only on 127.0.0.1.
• The network traffic SlyPilot can start is limited to:
  • Model downloads: the one-time download of speech models, voices or the built-in AI model from github.com and huggingface.co, only after you click Yes in a consent window that lists every file, size and source, each checked against a published SHA-256 checksum.
  • Update check: Help and Backup -> Check for Updates... asks api.github.com once, when you click it (or weekly if you tick the optional weekly check, which is off by default). GitHub sees your IP address and SlyPilot/<version>; nothing is downloaded.
  • AI actions: if you set up AI actions, the text you select goes to the model you configure (see the AI questions below).
  • Windows Voice Typing: in the free program the dictation button, the voice command "dictate" and the command line open Windows Voice Typing, which, depending on your Windows settings, may use Microsoft's online speech service. SlyPilot's own AI dictation (SlyPilot Pro) never does.
  • Voice commands such as "ping" run the Windows ping tool, only when you ask.
  • Phone Remote (SlyPilot Pro): off until you switch it on; then it answers only phones you paired, on your own private network. Nothing goes to the internet or to the publisher.

Q: Are my spoken words or dictated text saved or sent anywhere?

Your audio is not: recorded audio is never saved and never leaves your PC. Dictated text is kept in memory only (the last 20 dictations, visible in the dictation settings, gone when you quit). It is sent somewhere only if you set up AI actions or the optional dictation polish with a model, and then only to the model you chose. It is never written to the log unless you switch on [Privacy] LogSpeechText=1 yourself for troubleshooting.

Q: Does SlyPilot log what I say or type?

logs\crash.log records start-up markers, errors and the voice commands that were recognized. What you dictate, what the AI heard, selected text, AI answers, typed text and meeting transcripts are not written to it. The report from Copy diagnostics has your user name, PC name and e-mail addresses replaced, and no setting values. See Troubleshooting.

Q: Are my screenshots or screen recordings uploaded anywhere?

No. SlyPilot has no upload service and no share link.

• Pictures go to Pictures\Screenshots and recordings to Videos\Captures, or folders you choose. Sharing means copying the file or dragging it somewhere yourself.
• Reading text in a picture (copy text, Quick Redact, Find secrets) uses Windows' offline OCR.
• Password managers and private-browsing windows can be painted black in your screenshots, and always are in guides, but not in screen recordings.
• A guide never keeps what you typed.

See the Screenshots guide.

🎙️ Speech Recognition & Dictation

Q: Is dictation free?

AI dictation is part of SlyPilot Pro. The free program has a dictation button and a "dictate" voice command that open Windows Voice Typing (Windows' own feature, which may use Microsoft's online speech service depending on your Windows settings). Voice commands are free and need no licence. See the Dictation Guide.

Q: How does SlyPilot's dictation differ from a cloud dictation service?

SlyPilot's AI dictation (SlyPilot Pro) runs on your own PC with Whisper and Parakeet models you download once. The audio stays on your PC, it works with no internet connection after the download, and it has no account or subscription. It types into whatever window you were in. It does not need a graphics card, though a card makes the large models faster. See the Dictation Guide.

Q: What hardware do I need for the local AI speech models?

The AI speech engines are free to install and make voice commands more accurate; they are also what AI dictation (SlyPilot Pro) runs on. Set up automatically for this PC picks the engine for your hardware:

• NVIDIA graphics card (CUDA): Whisper Large v3 Turbo on the graphics card.
• AMD or Intel graphics card (Vulkan): Whisper Small on the graphics card, through CrispASR.
• Strong CPU (12+ threads, 16+ GB RAM): Whisper Small on the CPU.
• Ordinary laptop or Surface: Whisper Base on the CPU plus the fast Parakeet first pass.
• Very weak PC (2 threads, or under 5 GB RAM): Whisper Tiny, the smallest model.

You can change every choice in AI Speech Settings. The window shows each file's size and source before anything is downloaded.

Q: Which languages does dictation support?

AI dictation (SlyPilot Pro) supports 38 languages plus automatic detection. Some of them (for example Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic) need a multilingual Whisper model; Dictation Settings and Check my setup tell you when the installed model does not speak the language you chose. The default language is English.

🧠 AI Actions

Q: What are AI actions?

Select text in any program and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+A (or type a fix, a shorten, a translate german ... in the command palette). A language model you choose fixes, rewrites, translates or explains the text, and the answer appears on a small card with Replace selection, Insert after, Copy and Discard. It is off until you set it up (tray menu -> AI and Meetings -> AI Actions Setup...). See AI Actions and the AI Actions Guide.

Q: Does AI actions send my text to the internet?

Only if you point it at an outside service. The model is yours to choose:

• A model on your own PC (the built-in model, Ollama or LM Studio on 127.0.0.1): the text stays on your PC.
• An outside service (for example Ollama's cloud or OpenRouter) is refused until you tick a box that names its host and says your selected text will be sent there. The answer card shows the host every time. What that service does with the text is governed by its own policy, not SlyPilot's. Free OpenRouter models may keep or learn from prompts, depending on your OpenRouter settings.
• Dictation polish (SlyPilot Pro; an optional clean-up of dictated text by the same model) is a separate switch, and a service outside your PC needs its own second tick.
• SlyPilot sends nothing to its publisher. Your API key is stored encrypted for your Windows user and is never logged or exported. The selected text, the instruction and the answer are never written to the log. The model's answer is only ever pasted as text; it is never run as a command. Password-manager and private browsing windows are never read.

Q: Is there a built-in model, so I need no server or account?

Yes, optionally. AI Actions Setup -> Local model... downloads a small model that runs on your PC (the llama.cpp program, 19 MB, and the Qwen3.5 0.8B model, 508 MB). The window lists every file, size and source first, and nothing is downloaded before you say Yes. It starts when you ask for something, uses about 0.9 GB of memory while it runs, and stops after a quiet period (10 minutes by default). It answers in English only and is best at fixing grammar and cleaning text; shortening and rewriting in another tone are weaker than with a large model, and very long selections are refused. If you have Ollama or LM Studio and a graphics card, they are much faster.

Q: Can the AI read my screen or clipboard?

Only when you ask: end a request with @screen (you drag a rectangle; offline OCR reads the text), @clip (the clipboard text, never a clipboard marked private) or @meeting (your newest meeting notes). If that text would go to a model outside your PC, SlyPilot asks first.

📝 Meeting Notes (SlyPilot Pro)

Meeting notes are part of SlyPilot Pro and stay locked until you enter a licence.

Q: Does SlyPilot record my meetings by itself?

No. Meeting notes are off until you agree in a consent window, and after that you start them yourself, every time (tray menu -> AI and Meetings -> Meeting Notes, or Ctrl+Alt+Win+T). No program, voice command or script can start a recording for you.

Q: What does it record, and what is kept?

It records your microphone ("You", unless you untick Include my microphone) and the sound your PC plays ("Them", the other people in a call), and turns it into text with the speech engine on your PC. The audio is cut into short pieces that are deleted as soon as they are read: no audio is kept and nothing is sent anywhere. The transcript is a plain text file in %LOCALAPPDATA%\SlyPilot\Transcripts. It never goes into the log or a diagnostics report. You can open the folder, delete all transcripts from the tray menu, or set [SlyMeeting] RetentionDays=N to delete old ones automatically. It needs a speech engine (AI Speech) to be set up.

Q: How do the other people know?

A red indicator stays on screen the whole time, on every desktop, and cannot be hidden; click it to stop. Before each start SlyPilot also shows a sentence you can read out to the others (you can switch that question off). Recording other people can need their consent where you live: that is your responsibility, and the sentence is there to help.

Q: Can it summarise the meeting?

Yes, when you ask (Summarize a Transcript...), or after each recording if you tick Summarize when a meeting ends (off by default), using the AI model you set up. A model on your PC keeps the transcript on your PC. A model outside your PC is refused unless you allowed outside models, and then you are asked for every single transcript, with the host named. The model can be wrong, and the note says so. See Meeting Notes.

🎤 Microphone Mute & Text Expander

Q: What does Ctrl+Alt+Win+M do?

It mutes or unmutes the Windows microphone, the same mute the sound settings show, so it works for every program at once (Zoom, Teams, a browser, SlyPilot). You can also use the tray menu (Utilities -> Mute / Unmute Microphone), the command palette, or add a Touch Bar button that shows live or muted. If you say "mute microphone", nothing you say can unmute it again (SlyPilot cannot hear you either): use the shortcut or the tray entry.

Q: Can SlyPilot tell me when a program is listening to my microphone?

Optionally. Tray menu -> Utilities -> Show When a Program Uses the Microphone (off by default) shows a small pill at the top of the main screen: red "ON AIR" while a program can hear you, amber "MIC MUTED" while you are muted. It reads the usage records Windows itself keeps for its microphone privacy page; nothing about it is logged or stored.

Q: What is the text expander?

Type a prefix, a short name and Space in any program, and your saved text appears: ;sig then Space becomes your signature. It is off by default (tray menu -> Utilities -> Text Expander, or the Welcome window). Edit your texts under Text Expander Texts.... {date}, {time}, {datetime} and {clipboard} are filled in. Only Space ends an abbreviation (Enter and Tab have already sent or moved on). It never acts in password managers, in private browsing windows or in programs you exclude. SlyPilot cannot tell a password box from another text box, so never choose a name that could be part of a password.

🖥️ Touch & Hardware

Q: Why doesn't touching the Touch Bar or Snap Card steal window focus?

SlyPilot's tool windows are made so that Windows never activates them when you tap them (the WS_EX_NOACTIVATE window style, plus answering the "activate me" message with "no"). Tapping a desktop button, snapping a window or starting dictation therefore does not take keyboard focus or deselect text in your active program. The command palette is the one exception: you type into it, so it takes focus and gives it back before it runs a command.

Q: Can I use SlyPilot without a touch screen or Surface hardware?

Yes. Desktop switching, window tools, the command palette, snap cards, utilities and voice commands all work with an ordinary keyboard and mouse. Surface Pen and Dial support are extras; see the Hardware Setup Guide.

Q: Can I use a Stream Deck or macro pad?

Yes: any button that can start a program with arguments can run SlyCtl.exe /goto 2, /say "snap left" and more. See Command Line & Stream Deck.

📱 Phone Remote (SlyPilot Pro)

The phone remote is part of SlyPilot Pro and stays locked until you enter a licence.

Q: What is the Phone Remote and what do I need?

It turns your Android phone into a trackpad, keyboard, microphone, Touch Bar, window switcher and remote-desktop view for the PC. You need SlyPilot Pro on the PC and a phone on the same Wi-Fi with Chrome on Android (the only browser it was tested with). There is nothing to install on the phone: you scan a code and a web page opens. See the feature page and the guide.

Q: Does it use the internet or a cloud service?

No. The phone talks directly to your PC over your local network. There is no account, no relay server and no cloud. It only answers devices on private network addresses, never the internet, and it is off until you switch it on.

Q: Can someone else on my Wi-Fi take over my PC?

Only a phone that was paired with a one-time code shown on your own screen (valid for 2 minutes). The phone and the PC each prove to the other that they know the code, so a stranger cannot pose as your PC, and the traffic is encrypted. Each phone has its own permissions, you can limit how long it is allowed, and you can remove it at once. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12 pauses every phone.

Q: Why does Chrome say the connection is not private?

Your PC creates its own security certificate, and no public authority has vouched for it. Chrome warns once; tap Advanced then Proceed. The connection is still encrypted, and the pairing code proves you are talking to your own PC.

Q: Can the phone see or type into my password manager?

Not by default for a careful phone. Protected windows (password managers and similar) are painted black in the screen view, left out of the window list, and cannot be typed into or clicked. A phone with the Unrestricted permission (part of the default "Everything" preset, not of the careful or guest ones) can. You choose per phone.

Q: Can I press my Touch Bar from the phone's screen view?

Yes. In Touch mode the Touch Bar on the picture works like the real one: a hold-to-talk button stays pressed while your finger is down, and toggles toggle on a tap. SlyPilot's settings and approval windows cannot be clicked from the phone.

Q: Does it work away from home, or on mobile data?

No. It is Wi-Fi-only: the phone must be on the same network as the PC.

Q: Is there a phone app, and does it work on an iPhone?

There is no app: it is a web page you can add to your home screen. It is tested only with Chrome on Android. iPhone and Safari are not supported yet.

Q: Is anything recorded?

The log records only that a phone connected or disconnected. Typed text, keys, audio and spoken words are never written to it.

🔍 Magnifier, Presenting & Drawing

Q: Is the Magnifier free?

Yes. The Windows Magnifier remote, SlyPilot's glass, the typing glass, the strip, the pixel loupe, one watched area, profiles, freeze, the panel and the presenter tools are free. SlyPilot Pro adds the Auto-Switcher (a profile for each program), the second-screen view, up to four watched areas, recording what the magnifier shows and editing a frozen view in the screenshot editor.

Q: Is the magnifying glass in my screenshots?

No. The glass is left out of screenshots on purpose (and it never takes a click or the focus). If you record the magnifier on purpose (SlyPilot Pro), it is recorded then.

Q: Does it work on Windows 10?

The glass is built for Windows 11; on Windows 10 it falls back to a simpler, slower capture. Full screen, lens and docked zoom are the Windows Magnifier's own and work on both.

Q: Can I draw on the screen with a pen or a finger?

Yes: the drawing board takes a pen, a finger or the mouse, has a toolbar made for touch, and saves several pages as PNGs and a PDF when you press Done. It was tried on a Surface; other pen displays and projectors may need a look the first time.

Q: Is SlyPilot a replacement for ZoomIt, Epic Pen or ZoomText?

It covers what most talks need from ZoomIt and Epic Pen, and it can run next to them. It is not a replacement for ZoomText or Fusion if you need a full low-vision suite or a screen reader. See the comparison.

Q: Does Presenting mode change my settings for good?

No. It turns on only what it turned on, asks once about silencing Windows pop-up notifications, and puts everything back when you stop, when SlyPilot closes, and after a crash.

🤖 AI Agents & MCP

Q: How do I connect SlyPilot to Claude Code or Cursor?

Run:

.\SlyPilot.exe mcp-config

This prints the one-line command or JSON block to paste into your Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code or Gemini CLI configuration. Agent control is off until you choose a level in the tray menu (Agent Control). See MCP & Agent Automation for the details.

Q: Can an AI agent see my passwords or private browsing windows?

Not by default. SlyPilot has Protected Windows: windows of password managers (1Password, Bitwarden, KeePass and others) and private / incognito browser windows (recognised by their title in known browsers) are hidden from agents and painted solid black in any screenshot an agent gets. You can add your own protected programs or titles under Agent Control -> Protected windows....

Q: Can an assistant draw on my screen?

Yes, once you have given it a level of "control" in the tray menu (Agent Control). Its marks (boxes, rings, arrows, notes, numbered steps, a spot that dims everything else, a tour) never take a click, carry the assistant's name, fade after about ten seconds unless it asks to keep them, and disappear when you say "clear agent drawings" or use the tray item. Opening the drawing board asks for your click the first time. Read more: Assistants that point and draw.

Q: Can an assistant read my meeting notes?

Only the notes files that exist, and only after you click Allow for each file. It cannot start a recording.

Q: Are the command-line switches and /say covered by agent control?

No. SlyPilot.exe /goto 2, /say "..." and the other classic switches are meant for your own buttons, macros and scripts, and any program running as you on the PC can use them, whether or not agent control is on. Agent control, its levels and its approval windows govern the agent commands and the MCP server. See Command Line & Stream Deck.

Q: How do I stop an agent at once?

Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12, use the tray menu, or say "pause agent control". Every agent (and every connected phone) is stopped immediately.