Pin the page to your desktop, pick the part that matters, and get a Windows notification when its text changes. It checks as often as every minute, sees pages you are signed in to, and costs nothing.
Free · No account · Windows 10 and 11 · Steps checked in version 3.3.0
What you will use
About 5 minutes, once the app is installed.
The usual ways to watch a page are a service that checks once a day on its free plan, a browser extension that only runs while the browser is open, or a script you wrote at one in the morning. Paul’s Dashboard has a Web Page tile that does the job on your own PC: it loads the page, reads the text of the part you picked, and compares it with the last reading every few minutes.
That means it works on anything you can open in a browser: a product page, a status page, a job board, a forum thread, a government portal, the page behind your login at work. The checks run on your machine, so nothing about what you watch leaves it.
Every name below is what the button or setting is called in the app, clicked through in version 3.3.0.
Add WidgetMedia & LinksWeb Page
Click Add Widget in the top bar, open Media & Links and add Web Page. The new tile offers Add an address: click it, type the page’s address into the Address box and click Save. The page loads live in the tile, and you can resize the tile to fit.
Need to be signed in to see the page? Sign in inside the tile, then turn on Remember logins in the tile’s settings so it stays signed in after a restart.
Web Page
Tile toolbarPick part of page
Most pages have a clock, an ad or a view counter somewhere that changes on every load. Watching the whole page would alert you about those. Click the crosshair in the tile’s toolbar, then click the part you care about: the price, the stock line, the status box, the list of openings. Press the up arrow to pick a bigger part around it, and Esc to cancel.
The tile now shows only that part. Its settings list what was picked, and the toolbar has buttons to show the whole page again or clear the pick.
A picture, a video or a frame from another site has no text to read, so pick a part with words in it. For a frame, pick it again and choose Use frame address to watch its own page.
Widget settingsWatch for changes
Open the tile’s settings (the gear in its header) and turn on Watch for changes. Check sets how often it looks: every minute, 5, 15 or 30 minutes, or every hour. Watch chooses between the picked part and the whole page. Reload before each check stays on for most pages, since they only show new content after a reload; turn it off for a live dashboard that updates itself.
Leave Notify me on. From now on, every check that finds different text sends a Windows notification with the lines that changed, and the change goes in the tile’s log.
Watch for changes
Widget settingsAlert When
Anything changes is right for a page that rarely moves. For a page that changes often but only matters sometimes, switch Alert When to This text appears or This text disappears and type the words: “In stock” appearing on a product page, “Delayed” appearing on a flight status, “Sold out” disappearing from a ticket page. The tile still logs every change; it only notifies you about the one you asked for.
Tile toolbarthe eye
The eye in the tile’s toolbar opens the change log: when each check ran, and what each change added and removed, line by line. It keeps the last ten changes.
If you have an AI connected (Settings > AI, your own key or a local Ollama model), turn on the AI summary in the watch settings and each change arrives as one plain sentence instead of a list of lines, such as “The price dropped from $279 to $249.” For a page you are signed in to, pick a local Ollama model so the page text stays on your computer.
Changes
Checked 2 minutes ago
Open Workflows, click New workflow and set Runs to When a watched web page changes. Pick the tile, and if you like, type words into Only when a changed line contains. Every step after that can read the change: {{change.text}} is the AI sentence or the changed lines, {{change.addedText}} and {{change.removedText}} are the lines themselves, {{change.host}} and {{change.widget}} say where it came from.
Add a Notify step, set Show as to Modal and pick a sound. A toast slides away; a modal stays on the screen until you close it. Put {{change.text}} in the body so it says what changed.
Add an AI prompt step with Reply as set to Yes / No and a question such as “Is this a real change to the content, not a date, a counter or an ad? {{change.text}}”. Follow it with an If step (the answer is Yes) and put the Notify step inside. Turn off Notify me on the tile so you only hear from the workflow.
A Webhook POST step sends JSON to any URL: a Discord or Slack webhook, ntfy.sh for a push notification, Home Assistant, a script of your own. Put {{change.addedText}} in the body.
A Set output tile step writes the change to a Workflow Output widget, so the last thing that changed stays on your desktop with a time stamp, and a play button runs the workflow again.
An Open URL step opens the page in your browser the moment it changes. A Copy to clipboard step puts the new lines on the clipboard, ready to paste into a message.
Yes. Sign in inside the tile and turn on Remember logins in its settings. Each tile runs in its own sandboxed browser session, so the login stays in that tile and nowhere else.
Every minute at the fastest, then every 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes. The clock runs on your PC, so you are not sharing a check with anyone else’s queue.
Yes, including hidden in the tray, as long as the tile’s screen is the one showing in the dashboard. It rests while you are away from the computer, and stops when the app is closed or the PC sleeps.
As many tiles as you like, each with its own interval and alert rule. Put them together on one screen and keep that screen showing, since tiles on a screen that is not showing wait.
It sees a normal page load from your connection, the same as pressing refresh in a browser. If you check very often you are refreshing very often, so be a good guest and pick an interval the site would not mind.
Those check from their servers, so they keep going while your PC is off, which this cannot do. In return this one is free with no limit on pages or checks, checks every minute, sees pages behind your logins, and keeps what it reads on your machine.
Yes. The dashboard is free with every widget, no account and no limits. The optional one-sentence summary uses your own AI key or a local Ollama model, and that is the only part that can cost anything.
Paul’s Dashboard is free, with every widget and no account. Install it, follow the steps above, and the alert is yours.