Security Note

Some antivirus scanners incorrectly flag Launcher.exe as suspicious (false positive). The Launcher has been in active development for over 20 years, is used by thousands of users worldwide, and is independently checked for malware before each release by well-known download portals (WinFuture · heise Download · Chip.de · Softpedia).

Typically only 1–3 out of 70+ scanners report an anomaly – the file can be checked at any time on virustotal.com. If your scanner blocks the Launcher: add Launcher.exe to the exclusion list.

Users of Windows 11 may additionally be affected by Smart App Control (SAC) – a security feature that blocks unsigned apps system-wide with no exclusion list.

On first launch, a Windows Firewall prompt may also appear – the manual explains what it is about and which features are unavailable if access is denied.

News & Changes

v5.2.0

New Features

• Controller support: the Launcher can now be operated with an Xbox controller – D-pad to navigate, A to launch, LB/RB to switch pages. The mode (Off / Navigation / Mouse control) is set in the settings under Options; the XBox button arms the controller
• Mouse control mode: the left stick additionally moves the mouse pointer system-wide
• Internal playback of .wma and audio-only .mp4 files in addition to .mp3 – no extra codecs required
• Copying while dragging: Shift copies the entire button (path, parameters, hint, options and icon) onto a free slot, Alt copies the icon only – "icon only" was previously on Shift
• When dragging a file onto the Launcher, Windows now shows what the drop will actually do, in the selected language ("Create Button", "Move to Recycle Bin", "Open with …")
• Three new checkboxes in the General Settings: "Delete button with <Del>", "Mouse wheel active" and "Check for Updates"
• The popup parameters EaseIn:, EaseOut: and EaseDrop: work again and are listed with examples in the parameter list
• The popup parameter Text: now also reads .log, .ini, .md and .csv, detects the encoding (no more garbled accented characters) and caps very large files

Improvements

• Popups using Jump: or Pulse: no longer block the Launcher – mouse clicks are registered immediately again during the animation
• More reliable full-screen detection: full-screen games on a second monitor, presentation mode, screen saver and the locked screen are now recognised
• Weather buttons show -- while the data is being fetched
• Click sounds are complete again: "Settings" and "Undo" make a sound, and empty, disabled and protected buttons are now also audible on release
• Deleting a button no longer flashes an empty slot before the animation starts
• Settings window: the window height now follows the active page automatically; the About page is rendered correctly right away after moving to a monitor with a different scaling

Bug Fixes

• Crash when switching the language to or from Arabic – fixed; the language selection also keeps the focus afterwards
• Crash on "Undo" after deleting an icon or the analogue clock – fixed
• A double-click on the window border started the button underneath – fixed
• The cursor shown while swapping icons (no-entry and copy symbols) did not appear – fixed
• The drag description texts were hard-coded in German – now translated into all 23 languages
• Popup: with a custom delimiter the first parameter was lost – fixed
• Popup: oversized values for Monitor: or Pulse: discarded all following parameters – fixed
• Popup: Action: was also executed when the popup closed automatically via Delay: – now only on click
• Popup: sending to another computer via Host: never reached the recipient – fixed
• Popup: Icon: failed to find many icons (e.g. notepad.exe,1) – fixed
• Reverse lookup: HTML entities such as ö instead of accented characters in the call popup – fixed

v5.1.1

Improvements

• Glassy skin overhauled: the translucent background is now captured live and follows the content behind the window; when idle, the Launcher is also visible again in screenshots and screen sharing
• "Start with Windows" now works uniquely per installation – two Launchers from different folders no longer overwrite each other's autostart shortcut

Bug Fixes

• Glassy skin: black background on Windows 11 and with multiple monitors – fixed
• Glassy skin: crash at program start fixed (the Launcher sometimes failed to start with the Glassy skin active)
• Glassy skin: crash on exit while the skin selection was open – fixed
• Settings window: the skin selection and hotkey list were not updated correctly after a language change (wrong language or selection jumping back) – fixed

v5.1.0

New Features

• NTP atomic clock: The analog clock now shows second-accurate atomic time; the hover hint displays the atomic time and the deviation from the system clock
• Sync the system clock by clicking the clock: Right-click + left-click on the analog clock synchronizes the Windows time via NTP
• "None" button for hotkeys: An assigned hotkey can now be reset to "None" directly via a button

Improvements

• Internet requests (weather, update check) now only run when a connection is available – no more hanging when offline
• Size and position changes count as "saved" again once the window is returned to its original state (no more persistent change arrow)
• More stable program start thanks to additional safeguards and a startup diagnostic

Bug Fixes

• Popup text showed colored "ghost borders" or partially disappeared under certain circumstances – fixed
• AutoHide stopped responding after a menu action ("Save changes") – fixed
• Hotkey "None" is now saved permanently and no longer reverts to the default assignment after a restart (noticeable when running two Launcher instances)
• Dragging an icon out occasionally adopted the zoom of the previously dragged icon – fixed
• After resizing, the stretched drag image briefly remained on screen – the window is now redrawn cleanly immediately
• Weather hint incorrectly showed "Sun" after sunset – now "Clear (night)"

v5.0.1

Bug Fixes

• AutoHide: Fixed delays when FritzBox integration was active – auto-hide was disrupted whenever the FritzBox connection reported an error
• AutoHide: Auto-hide now works correctly again after closing the settings window
• Switcher symbol (») is no longer rendered bold when a clock, battery indicator, or countdown timer is placed in the last icon slot
• Icon label: Characters with descenders (g, j, p, q, y) no longer overflow the Launcher's border frame

Improvements

• Icon label: The hover hint text is now displayed in the free space between the icon bottom edge and the Launcher frame, instead of overlapping the icon
• Switcher symbol is now rendered at the correct size on high-DPI displays (e.g. 4K with 150% or 200% scaling)
• AutoHide setting is now labeled "Auto-hide" in the English language version (previously: "AutoHide")

v5.0.0

New Features

• Countdown timer as button (with alarm sound)
• Analog clock as button (keeps running during drag)
• Up to 8 weather buttons: temperature, description, wind speed, sunrise/sunset by city name
• Button label: optional text above and below icons
• Sound buttons: WAV/MP3 playable directly, stop overlay, shutdown sound
• Popup displayable on any monitor
• Load skin via drag & drop into the ConfigBox tab
• Delete key removes icon under the cursor
• Return key opens the properties dialog

Improvements

• Icons from the Windows Start menu (UWP apps) and Control Panel via drag & drop
• High-DPI: correct font and icon sizes on displays with 125–200% scaling
• Multi-monitor: window position and DPI switching between monitors
• Hint window: focus-independent, auto-hide
• Installed Launcher also runs correctly as admin via AppData
• Custom skins are saved in the AppData folder

Technical

• Internal refactoring: IconList.ini fully replaces the old IconList.txt
• Various crash and resource fixes

Previous Versions

v4.2.5

• Localized in 23 languages (Thanks to Gemini)
• Unicode system adapted for exotic languages.
• Modern manifest supporting DPI scaling and long paths.
• Resource management that only loads what is actually needed.
• Security setup (DEP/ASLR) meeting modern standards.
• Launcher.exe is no longer compressed with upx.exe
• Bug fixes
• Performance improvements
• Stability improvements

v4.2.4:

• Internal test release

v4.2.3

• Multi-monitor support
• Bug fixes
• Performance improvements
• Stability improvements

v4.2.2:

• Internal test release

v4.2.1:

• Analog clock
• High DPI support
• New languages added