Changelog

Deck 2.3 adds left and right side docks and improves how Deck opens, animates,
and fits around taskbars on every screen edge.

Features

• Choose Top, Bottom, Left, or Right in Options → General or the Dock context menu. Left and right docks use a full-height panel with a separate saved width; top and bottom docks keep their existing adjustable height.
• Drag a side panel's inner edge to resize it. The default width is a quarter of the monitor work area, with DPI-aware minimum sizing and screen bounds.
• Press F2 with the default hotkeys to flip to the opposite edge: top ↔ bottom or left ↔ right. The edge trigger follows the selected dock on chosen monitors.
• Profiles remember the dock edge and side-panel width as part of their core preferences. Existing profiles and older top/bottom settings still load.

Code improvements

• Improved consistency between docking, resizing, search, and widget layout.
• Improved edge-trigger placement on monitors with different sizes and display scaling.
• Preserved older top and bottom dock preferences when loading existing settings and profiles.

Bug fixes

• Clip the revealing window at the docked work-area edge so the opening panel does not overlap a taskbar or spill onto an adjacent monitor.
• Place top, bottom, left, and right edge triggers inside the work area so taskbars do not obscure the activation strip.
• Fixed focus and outside-click hiding when Deck opens, including when launched again.
• Keep the inner accent line visible when side-panel widgets repaint.
• Clamp saved panel widths to the current monitor and update search, grid, and widget dimensions together after docking or resizing.

Upgrade notes

• Back up your complete active Deck data folder before replacing application files. Existing shortcut libraries and profile data remain readable.
• Existing top and bottom dock preferences remain unchanged. New side-dock preferences are remembered when you save your settings.
• Both Windows editions include the same shipping tools and five desktop languages as 2.2. Choose the package matching your Windows architecture.

Deck 2.2 adds a discoverable command picker, independent profiles, live plugin
widgets, and a larger bundled plugin collection.

Command mode and keyboard navigation

• Type > to browse built-in and enabled plugin commands. Use Up/Down to select, Tab/Enter to complete a command, and Enter to execute its ready preview.
• Added built-in commands for Options, themes, plugins, About, groups, and shortcuts, plus a configurable in-app command-mode hotkey.
• Improved keyboard navigation between search, results, and widget controls.
• Command Runner now uses explicit >run, >cmd, and >ps commands. Plain cmd: and ps: text stays a shortcut search; the old >notepad.exe form shows migration guidance instead of launching an unknown command.

Profiles

• Added the Profiles plugin for separate shortcut libraries, groups, ordering, visibility, and core preferences, including layout, themes, fonts, language, hotkeys, search, edge triggers, clocks, and weather locations.
• Create, duplicate, rename, switch, and manage profiles, with optional starter collections and configurable shortcuts while Deck is focused.
• Explorer's Add to Deck uses the active profile, including when Deck is closed.
• Profiles use your chosen data location and support backup recovery. Registry-only setups store profiles without creating files.
• Plugin configuration and enable state, recent history, and data location remain shared. Your existing Default library remains available.

Bundled plugins

• Calculator & Converter: arithmetic previews, unit conversion, and copying a result with Enter (>=, >co).
• Text Snippets: named multiline snippets (>sn) and a temporary Clipboard Shelf (>clip) with explicit capture and optional promotion to a saved snippet.
• Audio Controls: volume, mute, playback, output selection, and an optional live widget, disabled by default for new settings.
• Command Manager: saved PowerShell and Batch commands, including inline scripts or linked files, arguments, and explicit command execution.
• Server Bookmarks: saved RDP, SSH, shared-folder, and web-console connections (>server), with credentials handled by the external clients.
• Batch Launcher: ordered sets of apps, files, folders, and URLs (>batch), with browsing, launch previews, and background handoff. Existing Workspaces data and the >workspace alias remain supported.
• System Information: hardware/Windows inventory and live usage (>sysinfo).
• Everything Search: paged indexed file searches (>ev), filters, sorting, folder scope, and Add to Deck. Requires a running Everything 1.4.1+ application.
• Recent Files & Downloads: native file browsing (>recent, >downloads), source and type filters, opening, Explorer, copying paths, and Add to Deck.
• Window and Workspace Manager: saved window layouts (>layout) that restore already-open windows without launching applications.
• Command Runner and Folder Scanner remain included.

Widgets, plugins, and language

• Added native plugin widgets and keyboard interaction in the side panel, with improved layout, scrolling, resizing, and repaint behavior.
• Audio refresh preserves shortcut selection and manual scrolling.
• Added plugin search in Options and Manage Plugins entries in context menus.
• Added Help/F1 screens for plugin setup and refreshed settings after changes.
• Added German, Spanish, and French desktop language packs alongside English and Persian, including bundled plugin strings and help.

Code improvements

• Improved responsiveness while searching files and using plugins.
• Made settings and library saves more reliable while preserving recovery backups.
• Made plugin dialogs and language handling more consistent.

Bug fixes and launching

• Added an option to request that programs open on Deck's monitor; applications may still choose their own window position.
• Improved edge-trigger refresh and Z-order after desktop/display changes.
• Improved the separate startup splash and progress during plugin loading.
• Fixed unapplied Options edits during language changes and hotkey commits.
• Fixed audio refresh disturbing shortcut selection and manual scrolling.

Upgrade notes

• Back up your complete active Deck data folder, including profiles and backups, before replacing application files. Existing settings and libraries remain readable.
• Use the included plugins matching your 32-bit or 64-bit Deck download.

Launching and context menus

• Added Run as Administrator for application, file, and script shortcuts.
• Folder shortcuts now show Open Folder, while runnable shortcuts show Run.
• Added dedicated icons for the new launch commands.
• Successful elevated launches are included in recent-item history.

Search and selection

• Search results and keyboard navigation now scroll automatically to keep the selected icon visible.
• Large Vertical and Compact layouts correctly reveal selections outside the current viewport.
• When no previous selection is available, Deck selects the first launchable icon in the first displayed group instead of relying on storage order.

Multi-monitor edge triggers

• Added monitor detection and selection to Options.
• Edge triggers can appear on any combination of connected monitors, including non-adjacent displays.
• The primary monitor is selected automatically when edge triggering is enabled without a monitor selection.
• On single-monitor systems, the only monitor cannot be unchecked while edge triggering is enabled.
• Monitor selections persist across restarts and return automatically when disconnected displays reconnect.
• Edge-trigger windows refresh safely after monitor-layout and DPI changes.

Window and taskbar behavior

• Deck remains anchored to the monitor where it opened, even if the pointer moves to another display before hiding.
• Bottom-docked Deck now animates from above the taskbar.
• The launcher remains inside the monitor work area so taskbar buttons stay visible throughout the animation.

Options and localization

• Fixed Options navigation icons becoming progressively darker or bolder after repeated mouse movement.
• Improved TreeView repainting and enabled double-buffered drawing.
• Updated related English and Persian interface text and tooltips.

Compatibility

• Existing settings, shortcuts, recent items, and plugins remain compatible.
• No user-data migration is required.

Launcher and Windows integration

• Launch programs, scripts, documents, folders, URLs, dividers, and plugin actions from one workspace.
• Show or hide Deck with a configurable global hotkey; the default is Ctrl+F12.
• Open Deck from an optional clickable edge trigger at the top or bottom of the screen.
• Use Quick Settings for immediate theme, icon-size, layout, animation, transparency, tooltip, and layout-lock changes.
• Optionally start Deck with Windows and add “Add to Deck App Launcher…” to the Explorer context menu.
• Open the standard Windows context menu for file and folder shortcuts directly from Deck.

Shortcuts, groups, and layout

• Search, edit, reorder, and move every shortcut from the redesigned Manage Shortcuts tree.
• Select several shortcuts with Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click and move them together.
• Drag shortcuts within a group or between groups.
• Drop one or several files and folders from Explorer, then choose their destination group.
• Rename, recolor, reorder, disable, restore, or delete groups from Manage Groups.
• Keep shortcuts when removing a populated group by moving them to Ungrouped.
• Add horizontal and vertical dividers for visual organization.
• Switch between Compact groups that share rows and Vertical groups with one group per row.
• Lock the finished layout to prevent accidental movement.

Smart search and commands

• Configure exact, prefix, contains, and word-prefix text matching.
• Find multi-word labels by acronym, such as cp for Command Prompt.
• Enable typo tolerance for small spelling errors in longer searches.
• Use ordered-character matching when the typed characters are separated in the result.
• Optionally search shortcut paths and URLs at a lower priority than labels.
• Rank the strongest matches first instead of keeping only layout order.
• Preview plugin search commands safely; commands execute only after an explicit prefix is recognized and Enter is pressed.

Themes and appearance

• Choose coordinated light and dark presets across several color families.
• Build a custom palette for backgrounds, labels, selections, borders, headers, and group bodies with live preview.
• Override border, header, text, and body colors for individual groups.
• Choose the shortcut-label font and set icons from 16 to 256 pixels.
• Adjust launcher transparency and animation speed.

Widget panel

• Place an optional resizable widget panel on the left or right side of the launcher.
• Show local time, seconds, 24-hour time, and multiple additional time zones.
• Track multiple labeled weather locations in Celsius or Fahrenheit through wttr.in.
• Monitor total system CPU and RAM alongside Deck CPU and working-set memory.
• Reorder clocks, cities, and other widget entries.

Native plugin platform

• Install, remove, enable, disable, reload, configure, and inspect native plugins from Manage Plugins.
• Add plugin actions as regular clickable shortcuts.
• Let plugins provide explicit search prefixes and additional menu commands.
• Use the included Command Runner, Folder Scanner, and Window and Workspace Manager plugins.
• Keep plugins architecture-safe with separate Win32 and Win64 DLLs.

Portability, language, and recovery

• Store data in a Deck sub-folder, in User AppData, or beside the executable.
• Migrate the active data location from Options and fall back to AppData when an executable folder is not writable.
• Save shortcut and recent data atomically, rotate .bak copies, and recover from a valid backup after damaged JSON.
• Keep portable paths together with %DECKDIR% support when moving the complete Deck folder.
• Follow the Windows display language automatically or select an installed .lng file, including right-to-left layouts.
• Open diagnostics and log folders from the tray menu when troubleshooting.
• Run as a single instance: starting Deck again toggles the existing launcher.

Builds

• Ship separate portable ZIP archives for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.

It’s finally here. First release is officially LIVE! 🚀