MedReminder

Windows desktop app that reminds the user to request a new prescription from their doctor in time, before a medicine's stock runs out. Built with C# on .NET 10 and WinForms.

MedReminder is an organizational reminder, not a medical device. It does not provide diagnoses, therapy instructions, therapy changes or clinical suggestions. Every therapy decision must be made with your doctor.

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Purpose

Keep track of the stock of medicines you take regularly and warn you, with a configurable lead time, when it is time to ask your doctor for a new prescription. The app computes days left and estimated run-out date from the therapy schedule, suspensions and schedule changes; it sends a Windows notification and/or an email when the stock falls below the threshold. Optionally, it also reminds the user at each scheduled dose time.

Features

Medicines and stock

• Medicines list with remaining quantity, daily consumption, days left, estimated run-out date, colored status badge.
• Dose, frequency, start/end date, warning threshold, reference doctor, notes.
• Complex regimens: fixed daily, weekly pattern, on/off cycles, linear or stepped tapering, as needed (PRN). Daily deductions follow the regimen day by day; days left and the run-out date divide the stock by today's quantity (no estimate on a day with nothing due).
• Optional per-medicine administration slots (time + free-form label such as "before sleep", "on empty stomach").
• Stock movements: initial load, new package, manual addition, positive/negative correction; full history preserved (no destructive quantity edits).
• Automatic materialization of daily consumption.
• Mid-therapy dose/frequency changes with versioned schedule (history preserved).
• Temporary therapy suspensions with open/closed dates.
• Individual intake registration (taken / skipped / cancelled) with automatic stock adjustment when "taken".
• Reference catalogue for medicine look-up (Italy, EU centralised authorisations, Spain, France), with links to the official leaflet for Italian medicines. At startup and once a day while the app stays open, with the update check on, the catalogue of the reference country and the EU one are refreshed from the monthly remote feed published in this repository (data only, nothing is executed).
• Printable therapy report for the doctor.
• Italian medicines in shortage: the AIFA list is downloaded with the catalogue and a listed package is marked in the list (start, expected end, reason) and notified once; no substitute is suggested.
• Prescriptions followed from the request to the pharmacy: requested, issued (code, packages, valid until), collected; a reminder before an issued prescription lapses uncollected.
• Administrative deadlines: therapeutic plans, exemption renewals, check-ups, optionally tied to a medicine and recurring every N months, with a reminder from a notice period set by the user.
• Calendar export (.ics): the day to request each prescription, the run-out dates, the last day to collect a prescription and the administrative deadlines, for Outlook, Google Calendar or a phone; generic titles unless the user asks for the names. Low-stock emails carry the run-out date as a calendar attachment.
• Supply planner: for a period chosen by the user (a trip, the days until the next pharmacy visit) the quantity each active medicine needs, the stock left when it starts and the packages to get; print, PDF or clipboard.

Notifications

• Per-medicine configurable alerts, with independent channels (Windows / Email / Both / None).
• Optional dose-time reminder per medicine (toast and/or email at each timed slot, at most once per slot per day).
• Optional caregiver email address per profile: receives a copy of the kinds of email the profile chooses (all by default) and, if asked, a weekly stock summary without dose data.
• Second warning at half of the warning threshold when the stock has not been replenished since the first one.
• Structural notification de-duplication via StockEpoch: a new package, a manual addition, a positive correction, or a stock count that raises the stock above the warning threshold restarts the warning cycle; intakes and negative corrections do not.
• Actions in Windows notifications: open the app on the medicine, prepare the prescription request from a low-stock warning, snooze a dose reminder by 15 minutes (scheduled with Windows).
• Internal scheduler with configurable periodic check (default 30 minutes); "Check now" for an on-demand run.

Profiles

• Several people on one installation, each with a separate database; administrator and user roles; optional PIN per profile.

Several devices

• Sync of a profile between PCs through an end-to-end encrypted group on OneDrive, Google Drive or a shared folder (no server): medicines, stock, intakes, profile name and recipients; conflicts listed, lost or stolen devices removed with a key change.
• Shared circle: profiles, roles, PINs, email account, cloud backup policy and reference country replicated to every device; each device holds only the profiles an administrator gives it; devices join with a short-lived code or the circle passphrase.
• One master device sends every email and runs the cloud backup; planned handover with a wizard, takeover of a lost master, device removal with new circle and profile keys.

Backup, export and restore

• Daily automatic backup of every profile's database to a local folder (preferred time and retention configurable), one-click restore with auto-restart.
• Encrypted export / import of a profile's data (.mrz, Argon2id + AES-GCM, user passphrase) for moving to another PC. Format documented in docs/EXPORT-FORMAT.md.
• Optional encrypted daily snapshot into a folder synchronized by the user's own cloud client (OneDrive, Google Drive Desktop, Dropbox, iCloud Drive), and Restore from cloud folder on a second PC. This is a backup, not real-time sync.
• Manual database backup / restore to a local file.

Application

• Main window with a summary of empty, running-low and suspended medicines (click to filter), a navigation pane and a search box (Ctrl+F).
• Settings, Sync and Circle windows list their sections on the left; dialogs share one layout, with errors shown under the fields.
• Per-profile appearance (same as Windows, light, dark; Windows high-contrast themes respected) and text size (normal, large, extra large).
• UI localized in English, Italian, French, Spanish and German, including message and confirmation buttons.
• User guide integrated in the app (F1), rendered with WebView2, in the same five languages.
• System tray icon with Open / Check now / Settings / Exit menu; closing the window minimizes to tray.
• Optional automatic startup with Windows (per-user, no UAC).
• Update check against GitHub Releases (at startup, can be turned off; a new version is never downloaded or installed automatically). The same setting governs the remote catalogue refresh (at startup and once a day).
• Optional "Support Development" dialog opening Stripe or PayPal hosted payment pages; hidden unless configured.
• Structured rolling log (daily, 30-day retention); optional, administrator-only logging of database queries for diagnostics.

Requirements

• Windows 10 22H2 or Windows 11.
• To build / run from source: .NET SDK 10.0 or higher.
• To run a framework-dependent published build: .NET 10 Desktop Runtime installed.
• For the self-contained build: no external runtime needed.

Technology stack

Layer	Technology
UI	WinForms on .NET 10 (net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0)
Application / Domain	C# 12+, nullable + implicit usings
Persistence	SQLite via EF Core 10
SMTP	MailKit 4.x
Local credentials	DPAPI (Windows Data Protection API, CurrentUser scope)
Export / cloud snapshots	Argon2id (Konscious.Security.Cryptography) + AES-GCM
Auto-start	Registry HKCU\...\Run
Local notifications	Modern Windows toast via CommunityToolkit + tray balloon fallback
In-app help	WebView2 + Markdig (MD → HTML)
Barcode scan	USB scanner as keyboard input; webcam via Windows.Media.Capture + ZXing.Net
Localization	JSON dictionaries per language, hot-reloadable from disk
Logging	Serilog + daily rolling file
Tests	xUnit + FluentAssertions
Hosting	Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting (generic host + BackgroundService)

6 projects + 6 test projects — details in docs/ANALYSIS.md.

Repository layout

MedReminder.sln
src/
  MedReminder.Domain/           pure entities and calculations  (net10.0)
  MedReminder.Application/      use cases and ports             (net10.0)
  MedReminder.Infrastructure.Portable/  SQLite/EF Core, archive cipher, localization, MailKit (net10.0)
  MedReminder.Infrastructure/   DPAPI/registry/export           (net10.0-windows)
  MedReminder.UI/               WinForms + host                 (net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0)
  MedReminder.DataImporter/     reference-catalogue import tool (net10.0)
tests/
  MedReminder.Domain.Tests/
  MedReminder.Application.Tests/
  MedReminder.Infrastructure.Portable.Tests/
  MedReminder.Infrastructure.Tests/
  MedReminder.UI.Tests/
  MedReminder.DataImporter.Tests/
assets/
  medreminder.ico               app icon (pill, multi-resolution)
  localization/                 JSON dictionaries (en, it, fr, es, de)
docs/
  ANALYSIS.md                   technical analysis + architecture
  EVOLUTION.md                  open evolution backlog
  EVOLUTION-DONE.md             shipped evolutions
  EXPORT-FORMAT.md              public .mrz archive format
  CATALOGUE-DATA.md             reference-catalogue sources and refresh
  SYNC-FORMAT.md                sync and circle storage format
  PACKAGING.md                  publishing and distribution
  USER_GUIDE.<lang>.md          user guide (en, it, fr, es, de)
  analysis/                     per-feature design documents
  prompt/                       implementation prompts

How to build

dotnet restore MedReminder.sln
dotnet build   MedReminder.sln -c Release

Output: src\MedReminder.UI\bin\Release\net10.0-windows*\MedReminder.exe.

How to run the tests

dotnet test MedReminder.sln -c Release

Integration tests (MedReminder.Infrastructure.Tests) run on Windows only (they use DPAPI and the registry); so do the UI tests. Domain, application, portable-infrastructure and data-importer tests run on any platform with the .NET 10 SDK.

How to publish for distribution

See docs/PACKAGING.md for details. In short:

:: Framework-dependent (~10 MB, requires .NET 10 Desktop Runtime)
dotnet publish src\MedReminder.UI -c Release ^
  /p:PublishProfile=win-x64-framework-dependent

:: Self-contained (~85 MB, no external runtime required)
dotnet publish src\MedReminder.UI -c Release ^
  /p:PublishProfile=win-x64-self-contained

Download

Windows x64

⬇️ Download MedReminder

📦 View all releases

Windows SmartScreen warning on first run

MedReminder's own executables and libraries, and the MSI, are code-signed with a Certum Open Source Code Signing certificate (SHA-256, RFC 3161 timestamp; docs/PACKAGING.md §25). Until the certificate has built up reputation, Windows SmartScreen can still show a blue dialog the first time you launch MedReminder.exe or open the MSI installer:

Windows protected your PC Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting.

Click More info, then Run anyway. Windows remembers your choice for that specific file — subsequent launches do not prompt again. The UAC dialog raised by the MSI shows the verified publisher.

The binaries are built by the public GitHub Actions workflow dotnet-desktop.yml from the tagged source in this repository, then rebuilt locally from the same tag and signed (publish-signed-release.ps1); the signed files replace the release assets.

Where data is stored

Everything the app writes lives under %LOCALAPPDATA%\MedReminder\. Since Increment 15 the database is per-profile — the root holds admin-managed shared files and the profile registry, while each profile has its own subfolder under profiles\. See docs/analysis/ANALYSIS-MULTI-USER.md §3 for the full layout.

Shared, admin-managed:

File	Content
profiles.json	Profile registry (admin/user, PIN hash, LastUsedAt hint)
smtp.settings.json	Shared SMTP transport (no password, no recipient)
smtp.protected	SMTP password, DPAPI-encrypted (CurrentUser scope)
backup.settings.json / backup.state.json	Automatic backup config (local and cloud-folder targets) + last-tick state
cloud-backup.protected	Cloud-folder backup passphrase, DPAPI-encrypted (CurrentUser scope)
donations.settings.json	Optional public Payment Link URLs for the Support Development dialog
user.settings.json	UI language, reference-catalogue country, update-check preference, database-query logging (this device only)
onedrive.protected / googledrive.protected	OneDrive / Google Drive sign-in tokens, DPAPI-encrypted
household\	Shared circle: operation log, settings, circle and device keys (DPAPI)
catalogue\staging\	Remote catalogue archive while it is imported; emptied every run
logs/medreminder-YYYYMMDD.log	Daily rolling log, 30-day retention

Per-profile, under profiles\<profile-id>\:

File	Content
medreminder.db (+ -shm, -wal)	This profile's SQLite database
notifications.settings.json	This profile's email recipient, optional caregiver and doctor address
ui.settings.json	This profile's text size and appearance
sync.settings.json / sync.protected	Sync group, device and storage; group key, DPAPI-encrypted (only when sync is on)

Nothing outside %LOCALAPPDATA%\MedReminder\ is written by the app, except the backup, export and cloud-folder files written to folders the user selects. Sensitive fields (passwords, email bodies, medical notes) never reach the logs.

How to configure notifications

Open Tools → Settings… → Email SMTP:

1. Fill in host, port, StartTLS, username and sender.
2. Type the password in the dedicated field (encrypted via DPAPI and stored in smtp.protected; the settings file never contains the plaintext password).
3. Since 2022, Gmail and Outlook.com require an 'App Password' with 2FA enabled — the regular account password does NOT work.
4. "Test connection" verifies the server is reachable.
5. On each medicine, under Edit → Notification channels, choose Windows / Email / both / none.

Under Settings → Notifications each profile sets its own recipient and an optional caregiver address.

Windows notifications need no configuration: they use the app's shared tray icon and modern Windows toast when available.

How to back up

Tools → Settings… → Backup / Restore. Automatic-backup settings are visible to administrators only; export, import and restore from a cloud folder are available to every profile.

• Automatic daily backup: enable the checkbox, pick a folder, a preferred time and a retention in days. Every profile's database is copied (unencrypted .db). If the PC is off at the preferred time, the backup runs at the next start of the day.
• Backup to a cloud-synced folder (encrypted): optional second target. Writes an encrypted .mrz snapshot of every profile into a folder the user's cloud client synchronizes, or into OneDrive or Google Drive directly. With a shared circle only the master device writes it. Requires a backup passphrase; losing it means the snapshots cannot be restored.
• Run backup now / Export to specific folder…: on-demand database copy.
• Restore backup…: pick a .db file; the current DB is renamed to medreminder.db.bak-YYYYMMDDHHMMSS before replacement, and the app restarts automatically to release SQLite locks cleanly.
• Export all data (encrypted)… / Import from export…: a passphrase-protected .mrz archive of the current profile, portable across Windows accounts and PCs. Import overwrites the current profile after a safety copy. Recommended way to move to a new PC.
• Restore from cloud folder…: lists the .mrz snapshots in a folder and restores the selected one on this PC.

The daily backup uses SQLite's online backup API (SqliteConnection.BackupDatabase) — safe against concurrent writes. See the user guide for the full procedure.

Language

MedReminder is localized in English (default), Italian, French, Spanish and German. Change the language from Settings → General. The app restarts automatically to apply.

• Interface, email notifications and the integrated user guide use the language selected here.
• Windows toast notifications always follow the Windows system language (they show up in the OS shell, not inside the app).

The language dictionaries are plain JSON files under bin\...\localization\strings.<lang>.json — you can edit a translation without recompiling the app. Advanced users can also override any string by putting a strings.<lang>.json in %LOCALAPPDATA%\MedReminder\localization\ (user override wins over the shipped file).

Logs and diagnostics

Log path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\MedReminder\logs\. Format: medreminder-YYYYMMDD.log — one file per day, 30-day retention, 10 MB max per file (with automatic alphabetic roll past that size).

Default level: Information. Contains scheduler ticks, notification sends, sync and circle outcomes, errors with stack trace. Executed SQL commands (text and duration, never parameter values) are written only while Settings → General → Log database queries (diagnostics) is on; administrators only, applied without a restart. Passwords, email content and sensitive dose/quantity values are never written to the logs.

Known limitations

• Not a medical device — must not be used as a clinical therapy management tool. See the disclaimer at the top.
• The database is created with EnsureCreated() on first run, not EF Core migrations. Later schema changes are additive patches applied idempotently on boot; a move to migrations would require a baseline migration.
• The database itself is not encrypted; it relies on the Windows user account's file permissions. Export archives and cloud-folder snapshots are encrypted.
• Email sending depends on Internet connectivity and SMTP server reachability; on transient errors the app retries with backoff 5s → 30s → 2m, then gives up, logging the error.
• Single-instance is per-user (one Windows session). A second Windows user on the same machine can run their own instance.
• The cloud-folder backup is single-writer: restoring on a second PC replaces its data, and changes made on two PCs between restores are not merged. Use sync (Tools → Sync…) to work on several PCs.
• Every device of a sync group or circle must run the same MedReminder version: newer operation schemas stop older apps.
• Sync and the circle need a storage every device reaches (OneDrive, Google Drive or a shared folder); MedReminder runs no server.

Privacy

MedReminder keeps your data on your PC and sends nothing to the developer. See PRIVACY.md.

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.