Recently, I needed to run a VLESS subscription on Windows, make it work with my work VPN, and deal with all the associated 'joys.' I tried v2rayN, Nekoray, and Hiddify—and quickly realized I wanted to write my own client.

And so, singbox-launcher was born:
👉 https://github.com/Leadaxe/singbox-launcher

Below are a few details about why and what came of it.

⚠️ IMPORTANT WARNING

This tool is professional software, intended exclusively for network administrators and IT specialists to simplify the administration and management of network connections in corporate and professional environments.

Any illegal use of this tool is prohibited. The developers are not responsible for the improper use of this software and urge users not to violate any applicable laws under any circumstances.

What went wrong with existing clients

The first thing that throws you off is the configs.
They are either hidden deep within the GUI or designed in a way that's impossible to figure out without a shaman.

In the process, a few things became clear:

  • the console-based sing-box I like much more, but on Windows, you have to manually 'prepare' it using wintun;

  • loading a VLESS subscription from a link directly into a 'clean' sing-box isn't possible—it has to be done manually;

  • tray control in common clients is either non-existent or looks like it was designed in 2007;

  • running as a service, separate windows, extra processes... In short, it's all far from minimalist and convenient.

So I did it my way

✔ Minimal interface.
You can work with the config directly; nothing is hidden.
✔ Tray control.
Like a normal VPN client, not a huge panel taking up the whole desktop.
✔ Diagnostics panel.
Instantly see what's going where. Useful when something 'won't connect'.
✔ Tools for UDP testing (STUN).
Few clients have it, but it's constantly needed.
✔ Config templating engine.
Everything is documented and clear. You can build any setup.
✔ Wizard for regular users.
Enable/disable rules without digging into JSON.
✔ Informative icons.
Not from the Windows Vista era.
✔ Downloads and updates all dependencies automatically.
Everything is downloaded from official GitHub repositories.
✔ for Windows
Runs with the necessary permissions by default, requires admin rights because it sets up a full VPN, not just a proxy. (Permissions are needed for sing-box)
✔ Go + Open Source.
The code is open; you can build it yourself, check it, fork it, and improve it.
Documentation is available in both Russian and English, not machine-translated Chinese.

See screenshots here:
https://github.com/Leadaxe/singbox-launcher/blob/main/README_RU.md#-скриншоты

A few technical details

The architecture is as simple as it gets:
GUI → Template Engine → ParserConfig → Sing-Box Core → Wintun → Routing Table
The sing-box engine itself does all the heavy lifting, while the launcher:

  • automates config generation,

  • prepares Wintun,

  • displays the status,

  • manages the sing-box process.

Everything is written in Go, the binary is static with minimal dependencies. The code is open—you can rebuild it yourself.

A brief comparison for context

Client

Memory

Startup

Config Transparency

Tray

v2rayN

~120–150 MB

1–2 sec

low

minimal

Nekoray

~100 MB

~1 sec

okay

minimal

Hiddify

~150 MB

1–2 sec

low

lots of info

singbox-launcher

20–30 MB

<200 ms

maximum

medium

Protocols and what's supported

The client currently works with everything that sing-box supports:

  • VLESS (including Reality)

  • VMess

  • Shadowsocks / 2022

  • Trojan

  • Hysteria / Hysteria2

  • Socks / HTTP

However, the wizard and parser don't support everything yet. I focused on VLESS and tested its subscriptions, but haven't gotten to the rest.
[Upd]: https://sing-box.sagernet.org/configuration/inbound/shadowsocks/ ready [ss:// ]

Invitation

If you need a lightweight, convenient, transparent, and modern VLESS client for Windows — try my singbox-launcher. I'd be happy to receive feedback, bug reports, ideas, and PRs.

👉 GitHub

Update

Guys, I didn't expect such an amazing positive response. A lot of people from Habr reached out to me via private messages and on GitHub. For several days, I've been working on the tasks suggested by new testers. A huge thank you to all of you for your interest in my project. I've created a Telegram group (link is right in the app), so please write there.

Additionally, several VPN service owners have contacted me. For you, I've created a wizard builder: https://github.com/Leadaxe/singbox-launcher/blob/main/docs/CREATE_WIZARD_TEMPLATE_RU.md I hope it solves your problems!