A tiny, fast, native Markdown viewer for Windows. Open a folder of .md files without launching an editor.

• Single mdv.exe (~850 KB), starts in about a tenth of a second
• Sidebar with every .md in the folder (subfolders included) and a quick filter
• Top bar to open a folder or a file, plus a clickable path to jump to any parent folder
• Live reload when the file changes, scroll position kept
• Tables, task lists, strikethrough, footnotes
• Links between .md files open inside the app; web links open in your browser
• Light/dark theme follows Windows
• Uses the WebView2 runtime that ships with Windows 11 (no extra install)

Usage

mdv                 # open the default folder
mdv C:\path\docs    # open a folder
mdv notes.md        # open a file (its folder fills the sidebar)

F5 re-reads the folder and the current file.

The default folder is set by DEFAULT_ROOT in src/main.rs, and the WebView2 profile folder by DATA_DIR. Change both to suit your machine and rebuild.

Install

Download mdv.exe from the latest release and put it anywhere on your PATH.

To list it under Open with for .md files (current user only):

$exe = 'C:\path\to\mdv.exe'
$app = 'HKCU:\Software\Classes\Applications\mdv.exe'
New-Item "$app\shell\open\command" -Force | Out-Null
New-Item "$app\SupportedTypes" -Force | Out-Null
Set-ItemProperty "$app\shell\open\command" -Name '(default)' -Value "`"$exe`" `"%1`""
Set-ItemProperty "$app\SupportedTypes" -Name '.md' -Value ''
New-Item 'HKCU:\Software\Classes\.md\OpenWithList\mdv.exe' -Force | Out-Null

Build

Requires Rust (stable).

cargo build --release

The binary is target\release\mdv.exe.

Limitations

• Images with relative paths inside Markdown files are not loaded
• No syntax highlighting in code blocks
• The sidebar scans up to 3 subfolder levels and 1000 files
• Windows only (WebView2)

License

MIT