Skip to main content
Windows 10 & 11 · x64

A free posture app for Windows

ErgoSense sits in your system tray, watches for slouching through your webcam, and tracks eye strain alongside posture. No subscription, no account, nothing uploaded.

Windows is under-served compared with the Mac

A surprising amount of this category is macOS-first. Nekoze and Posture Reminder AI are Mac-only. BLiiNK supports Windows but has no free tier. That leaves ErgoSense, SitApp and Zen as the realistic Windows options — and of those, ErgoSense is the only one that is free without a monitoring cap or a trial clock.

SitApp is a strong alternative if you would rather buy once: its $89.99 lifetime licence is genuinely good value in a category that has mostly gone subscription-only. We set out the trade-offs, including where ErgoSense is weaker, in the full comparison.

Install on Windows

  1. 1

    Download the installer

    One .exe installer, built for x64. Windows 10 or later. ARM64 devices run it under x64 emulation.
  2. 2

    Click through SmartScreen

    Windows will show a blue “Windows protected your PC” dialog. Click More info, then Run anyway. The Run anyway button only appears after you click More info, which is where most people stop.
  3. 3

    Allow camera access for desktop apps

    This is the step that catches people out. Go to Settings → Privacy & security → Camera and make sure both Camera access and Let desktop apps access your camera are on. That second toggle is separate from the per-app list and sits at the very bottom of the page — if it is off, ErgoSense sees nothing and Windows gives no error.
  4. 4

    Pin it to the system tray

    ErgoSense runs in the notification area. Windows 11 hides new tray icons by default — click the chevron and drag ErgoSense onto the visible tray so you can reach its controls quickly.
  5. 5

    Start with Windows

    Enable startup in ErgoSense's settings, or check Task Manager → Startup apps to confirm it is enabled.

The camera toggle is the usual culprit. If ErgoSense installs and runs but never detects anything, it is almost always Let desktop apps access your camera being off. It is a separate switch from the main camera permission, it lives at the bottom of the Camera settings page, and Windows surfaces no error when it blocks an app.

Privacy on Windows

All inference runs locally. Frames come off the webcam, get analysed for shoulder and head position, and are discarded — never written to disk, never uploaded. Most webcams light an LED whenever the sensor is active, so you have a hardware signal independent of anything the software claims.

You can revoke camera access at any time from Settings → Privacy & security → Camera, and check outbound connections with Get-NetTCPConnection in PowerShell if you want to confirm the app is not phoning home.

Questions

What is the best free posture app for Windows?

ErgoSense is the only webcam-based posture app in our comparison that is free on Windows with no tier and no cap. SitApp has a free tier limited to one hour of monitoring a day, Zen's free version is effectively a trial, and BLiiNK has no permanent free tier at all. Stretchly is free and cross-platform but is a break timer that cannot detect posture.

Why does Windows Defender SmartScreen warn about the installer?

SmartScreen flags installers that lack an Extended Validation code-signing certificate or that it has not yet seen widely. EV certificates cost several hundred dollars a year, which a free app with no revenue does not carry. The warning reflects reputation and signing status, not an analysis of what the app does. Click More info, then Run anyway — or verify the SHA-256 checksum published with each release first.

Does it work on Windows 11 and on ARM devices?

Yes to Windows 11 on standard x64 machines — Windows 10 is the minimum supported version. On ARM64 devices such as Snapdragon-based Surface tablets, ErgoSense runs through Windows’ built-in x64 emulation rather than as a native ARM64 build, so expect a little more CPU and battery use than on an x64 laptop.

Will it conflict with Teams, Zoom or OBS using the camera?

Modern Windows lets several applications read the same camera simultaneously, so in most cases ErgoSense keeps monitoring during a call. Some webcam drivers and virtual-camera tools do claim exclusive access, though. If monitoring stops the moment a meeting starts, that is what is happening, and the fix is to pause ErgoSense during calls.

Does it need admin rights?

Only the installer, and only to write to Program Files. The app itself runs as your normal user and does not install a service or a driver.

Free, with no trial clock

No Microsoft account, no subscription, no monitoring cap.

Also available for macOS and Linux. See all features.