Windows & pages
On by default- Repeated checking
- Quick glances
- Tab bouncing
Anything on your Ignore list is left completely alone.
Free · Windows 10/11 · can run completely offline
Notice the loop while you’re still in it.
Urge Pause sits quietly in your system tray, notices compulsive checking as it happens, and interrupts with a calm pause. Everything stays on your device.
No account. No cloud. No telemetry.
Gmail — Inbox
15
Breathe
You’ve been checking the same page over and over — that’s 5 times.
Feel your feet flat on the floor.
False alarm — this wasn’t a compulsion
What it catches
Four families. You control every one.
Keyboard
Opt-in · off by default- Repeated key
- Type-delete-type — letters
- Type-delete-type — words
- Refresh storms — F5 · Ctrl+R
- Your own patterns
Resets to off on every launch. Keystrokes are never stored.
Mouse
Opt-in · off by default- Click mashing
- Re-click checking
- Menu checking
Resets to off on every launch. Click contents are never stored.
“I caught myself”
Manual- Ctrl+Alt+R, anywhere
- Urge rating 1–5
- Optional note
Log a catch the app didn’t see. Kept in its own series — see the dashboard.
Every detector’s sensitivity is adjustable — tune it to your actual habits.
How it works
Notice. Pause. Choose. Learn.
Notice
It watches window and page switching in real time — locally, on your device.
Pause
A full-screen breathing ring counts down while the specific pattern is named.
Choose
Acknowledge and continue — rate the urge 1–5 if you’ve turned that on. A false-alarm escape exists, with guardrails.
Learn
Every event becomes local data: trends, triggers, exportable reports.
Awareness
A heads-up you can dismiss instantly.
Friction Default
A fixed pause — 15 seconds — then continue.
Hard Block
An escalating pause that eases as you stay calm.
The dashboard
See the pattern you’ve been inside.
- Today Resists vs your daily goal, longest calm stretch.
- Trends Resistance over 7, 30, or 90 days — by type, total, or urge.
- When Time-of-day breakdown.
- Where The specific sites and apps that fire most.
- Log A per-day list of each event, with urge ratings — and your note on the ones you caught yourself.
- Streak Good days — at or under your goal — add up.
For clinicians
What this tool is — stated plainly.
If a client brings Urge Pause data to a session, here is what it measures, how it exports, and what it does not claim.
What the data is
Counts, timestamps, and the window title or web address involved (domain and page path) — never page content or messages. Events can carry a client-entered urge rating (1–5); self-caught events can carry a note.
Self-reported catches are recorded as a separate series, not mixed into app-detected trends unless deliberately included.
How it exports
PDF report or CSV, from the app’s Reports tab, over 1 week to all time. When self-catches exist, trend charts appear twice — app-detected only, and combined.
Per-event rows with notes export in the CSV. Built to be handed across a desk.
What it does not claim
A self-monitoring tool — not a medical device, not a treatment, no diagnosis. It can support ERP homework: a built-in delay between urge and action, and an urge-intensity record over time.
Privacy
Private by architecture, not by policy.
Urge Pause has no server. These aren’t promises — they’re properties of the software.
Local only
Runs entirely on your PC. No account, no sign-up, no cloud.
Nothing is sent
No telemetry, no analytics, no server. It checks for its own updates, and you can switch even that off — then it never touches the network at all.
What’s recorded
Counts, timestamps, window titles and web addresses (like mail.google.com/inbox), your ratings and notes. Never page content.
Matched in memory
Opted-in keyboard and mouse patterns never store keystrokes — only “a pattern fired.”
Off means off
Keyboard and mouse watching reset to off on every launch. Opting back in is always a conscious choice.
You export, or nothing leaves
Data leaves your machine only as a PDF or CSV you create yourself.
Events live in a local SQLite database and age out on a schedule you choose — 7, 30, or 90 days, or kept forever. Daily summaries survive, so trends remain.
Download
Download Urge Pause.
Download for Windowsurge-pause-setup-5.5.7.exe · 94 MB
- Download the installer and run it — it installs at user level.
- If Windows SmartScreen appears, click More info, then Run anyway.
- Look for the ring in your system tray — it’s running. Relaunch the app any time to open the dashboard.
By installing, you agree to the license · Terms & Privacy
FAQ
Fair questions.
Is this therapy?
No. Urge Pause is a self-monitoring tool — it can support therapy, like ERP homework, but it doesn’t provide it. If you’re struggling, please reach out to a qualified clinician; the International OCD Foundation keeps a directory at iocdf.org.
What exactly does it record?
Counts, timestamps, window titles and web addresses (domain and page path, like mail.google.com/inbox), optional urge ratings (1–5), and your own notes. Never page content, messages, or keystrokes.
Does anything leave my computer?
Your data, never. There is no server and no telemetry — it leaves only when you export a PDF or CSV yourself. The one request the app makes is checking GitHub for a newer version, which carries nothing you have recorded (though, as with any download, GitHub sees your IP address). The setup walks you through that choice, and you can turn update checks off under Data & privacy at any time — with them off, the app makes no network requests whatsoever and every feature still works.
What if it fires and it wasn’t a compulsion?
Use the false-alarm escape. After several dismissals in an hour — or of the same page — it gently gives way to “let’s sit with this one.” Nothing is ever auto-ignored, and every detector’s sensitivity is adjustable.
What does it cost?
Nothing — it’s a free download for Windows 10/11. An on-device AI tier ($2.99/month) is planned but not available today.