Pearipherals is a free, open-source Windows tray app for the Apple Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad 2. It adds Mac-style function keys, three-finger trackpad gestures, battery levels, natural scrolling, and display brightness controls in one portable EXE.
Windows can pair Apple's Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad, but support is limited. The Magic Keyboard function row does not behave like it does on a Mac, Windows cannot reliably recognize three-finger gestures from the Bluetooth Magic Trackpad 2, and peripheral battery levels are hard to find. Pearipherals fills those gaps without a subscription or proprietary driver.
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| "Tragic" Keyboard | Mac-style function row for an Apple Magic Keyboard on Windows |
| "Tragic" Trackpad | Three-finger swipes or drag for Magic Trackpad 2 on Windows |
| "Moodio" Display | Brightness keys for Apple Studio Display and other monitors |
| Battery monitoring | Separate Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad battery levels in the tray |
| Portable Windows app | One EXE, local configuration, no account, no telemetry |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| F1 / F2 | Display brightness down / up through "Moodio" |
| F3 | Task View (Mission Control) |
| F4 | Windows Search (Spotlight) |
| F5 / F6 | Passthrough |
| F7 / F8 / F9 | Previous / Play-Pause / Next |
| F10 / F11 / F12 | Mute / Volume down / Volume up |
Hold Ctrl, Alt, Shift, or Win to send the original F-key. Shortcuts such as Alt+F4 and Ctrl+F5 continue to work. You can turn the entire layer on or off from the tray menu.
The Magic Trackpad 2 Bluetooth driver reports contacts one at a time. That stops Windows from reliably detecting native three-finger gestures. "Tragic" Trackpad reassembles the Raw Input contact data and provides three modes:
- Swipes
- swipe down to minimize all windows
- swipe up to restore minimized windows
- swipe left or right to open Task View
- Drag for macOS-style three-finger dragging and text selection
- Off to disable Pearipherals' custom three-finger handling
Two-finger scrolling and normal pointer movement remain with the Windows Precision Touchpad driver. Pearipherals also has a natural-scrolling toggle. Windows reads that setting when the trackpad connects, so reconnect the trackpad or reboot after changing it.
F1 and F2 try three brightness methods in order:
- Apple Studio Display USB HID control
- DDC/CI for compatible external monitors
- GPU gamma-ramp dimming as a fallback
This gives the brightness keys a useful fallback on displays that do not expose normal DDC controls. A video-only USB-C-to-DisplayPort cable cannot carry the Studio Display's USB control data, so Pearipherals uses the available fallback in that setup.
Pearipherals shows the Apple Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad battery levels as separate entries in the tray menu. Battery polling is slow and isolated, and the app reopens devices for each poll instead of keeping Bluetooth HID handles open while a device sleeps.
- Windows 10 or Windows 11
- Apple Magic Keyboard connected over Bluetooth
- Apple Magic Trackpad 2 connected over Bluetooth
- For trackpad pointer movement and two-finger scrolling, install the free, signed mac-precision-touchpad driver once
The keyboard mappings, battery display, and monitor controls do not require that trackpad driver.
- For Magic Trackpad 2, install the mac-precision-touchpad driver.
- Download the latest build from GitHub Releases. Unsigned downloads are identified in their release title, notes, and EXE filename; check the applicable release notes before downloading.
- Put it anywhere you control, such as
C:\Tools\Pearipherals. - Run it. Pearipherals enables autostart and applies the touchpad settings its gestures need on first launch, then shows a notification explaining what changed and where to undo it.
Pearipherals is portable. Its configuration and optional error log sit beside
the EXE as pearipherals.json and pearipherals.err.log.
An unsigned prerelease has no Authenticode signature, so Windows cannot verify its publisher identity. Windows may identify it as an unknown or untrusted publisher, Microsoft Defender SmartScreen may warn about it, and Smart App Control may block it completely. Smart App Control does not offer a per-app Run anyway exception. Do not disable a system-wide Windows security feature just to run an unsigned build.
This warning is about publisher identity and software reputation; it is not by itself a malware verdict. Pearipherals is public so you can inspect the source and build it locally. Official release provenance is documented in the Code signing policy.
The project applied for free open-source signing through SignPath Foundation. The application was not accepted because Pearipherals is still new and does not yet have enough established public usage. We plan to apply again after the user base grows. Until trusted signing is available, every downloadable binary will be labeled accurately. New unsigned downloads published under this policy are GitHub prereleases accompanied by a SHA-256 checksum. The checksum can detect a file mismatch or corruption; it does not authenticate the publisher, establish that the program is safe, or substitute for a digital signature.
- The tray menu controls the function-key layer, gesture mode, natural scrolling, autostart, and touchpad setting recovery.
- Quit stops input hooks, Raw Input handling, and battery polling.
- Original Windows touchpad values are backed up before Pearipherals changes them and can be restored from the tray.
- A single-instance guard makes accidental double launches safe.
- Startup failures are retried and written to
pearipherals.err.log. - Moving the EXE is supported: run it once from the new location and the autostart path updates.
- Pearipherals has no account, analytics, telemetry, or automatic uploads. See the privacy policy.
Run Pearipherals once from its new location. It imports the old
magicsuite.json settings and removes the legacy autostart entry. You can then
delete the old MagicSuite EXE.
- In the tray, untick Start with Windows.
- Select Touchpad settings → Restore original Windows settings.
- Select Quit.
- Delete
Pearipherals.exeand its adjacent runtime files, if present:pearipherals.jsonandpearipherals.err.log.
This removes Pearipherals, its autostart entry, and its local configuration/log. The Restore action replays the Windows touchpad values backed up before Pearipherals first managed them.
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\pip install -r requirements.txt
set PEARIPHERALS_VERSION=1.2.0
build.batThe portable Windows executable is written to dist\Pearipherals.exe. The
release workflow uses a complete hash-locked dependency set and adds Windows
product/version metadata before signing submission.
- Keyboard function row: a low-level keyboard hook (
WH_KEYBOARD_LL) intercepts F1-F12 and injects the chosen media, brightness, or Windows action. Modifier-held presses pass through untouched. Injected events are tagged so the hook cannot loop. - Display brightness: Apple Studio Display USB HID is tried first, followed
by DDC/CI through
dxva2.dll, then GPU gamma-ramp dimming. - Trackpad gestures: Raw Input is registered for the Precision Touchpad usage
(
0x0D/0x05). Pearipherals parses contact data throughHidP_*, filters padding and stale contacts, and feeds stable contacts into its gesture state machine. A low-level mouse hook suppresses leaked pointer motion only while a valid custom gesture owns the input. - Battery monitoring: Apple vendor HID battery reports are queried separately for the keyboard and trackpad, then published to the Windows tray thread.
Pearipherals uses no kernel code and does not require administrator rights.
Yes. The mac-precision-touchpad driver provides normal Windows Precision Touchpad pointer movement and two-finger scrolling. Pearipherals adds the custom three-finger gestures, natural-scrolling control, and battery display that the Bluetooth setup does not provide reliably by itself.
Pearipherals maps F1-F12 to brightness, Task View, Search, media, and volume. Holding Ctrl, Alt, Shift, or Win sends the normal F-key instead.
Pearipherals displays separate battery values for supported Apple Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad devices in its tray menu.
Yes. Pearipherals uses the MIT license, has no paid tier, and does not collect or transmit personal data.
The current EXE is not signed by a publicly trusted code-signing certificate. Windows therefore cannot verify its publisher identity or reputation. Read the Windows security section before downloading it.
- Natural-scroll changes require a trackpad reconnect or reboot because Windows caches the setting when the device initializes.
- Four-finger gestures are not handled yet.
- The Magic Keyboard Fn key is not exposed to Windows over this Bluetooth path, so Pearipherals uses modifiers to access the original F-keys.
- Trusted public code signing is not available yet.
Pearipherals is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple Inc. Apple, Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Studio Display are trademarks of Apple Inc. and are used only to describe supported hardware.