Playfront 0.1.1

First release since 0.1.0, and the first one that does not re-upload the artwork.

What is new

Settings

• Time: time zone, 24-hour clock, and setting the clock by hand. Changing the zone needs no administrator rights; setting the clock itself does, and the screen says so instead of failing silently.
• Two new Preferences screens.
• Console info now shows the shell version.

Store

• Apps Home, the Apps section's landing page.
• Steam: installing it from the Store, and launching straight into Big Picture.

Home

• A recents row.

Input

• The Xbox button brings Playfront to the front instead of opening the Windows game overlay on top of it. The original Windows behaviour is restored when Playfront closes.
• The controller is no longer assumed to be on the first port, so a pad that connects late or reconnects still drives the pointer.

Fixes for ordinary PCs

• Screens no longer assume a handheld: keyboard and mouse reach everywhere, and nothing claims hardware that is not there.

Installing

Download PlayfrontSetup.exe. It is 2 MB and fetches the rest (about 500 MB) as it installs. Windows will warn that the file is unsigned; choose "More info" and then "Run anyway".

Already have Playfront? Do nothing - it updates itself, and from 0.1.0 that is a 7 MB download rather than the whole app.

Helper service v1

The privileged Playfront helper service, pinned so installers can fetch it without it being re-uploaded on every app release.

Installers point at this tag until the service's own code changes; then a helper-v2 is published and they move to it. Old installers keep using this one and keep working.

Artwork and video pack v1

Game artwork and background video used by the Playfront shell, pinned so it is not re-uploaded on every app release.

Installers point at this tag until the artwork itself changes; then an assets-v2 is published and they move to it. Old installers keep using this one and keep working.

The app runs without this pack - tiles and backgrounds simply come up empty - but the installer treats it as required, so an install either lands complete or does not happen at all.

Playfront 0.1.0

First public release of Playfront.

A console-style shell for Windows, built for the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally: it replaces the
desktop with a full-screen interface you drive with a controller.

Early version. There is no rescue mode yet if the shell fails to start, so don't set
Playfront as the shell on a machine you depend on.

Installing

Download PlayfrontSetup.exe (2 MB) and run it. It asks for administrator rights once,
then does the rest on its own: it downloads about 500 MB and sets up the three parts.

Part	Where	Admin rights
The app	%LocalAppData%\Programs\Playfront	No
The helper service	%ProgramFiles%\Playfront\Helper	Yes
Artwork and video	%ProgramData%\Playfront\Assets	Yes

The app lives in your user folder on purpose: that is what lets it update itself silently
from Settings > System > Updates without asking for permission again. The helper service
separately handles the work that does need privileges.

Uninstall from Windows' "Installed apps". Your settings are not deleted — they stay in
%LocalAppData%\Playfront.

If something goes wrong, the installer can tell you what happened:

PlayfrontSetup.exe /LOG=%TEMP%\playfront-install.log

What's in this release

File	What it is
PlayfrontSetup.exe	The installer. The only file you need.
PlayfrontShell-win-Setup.exe	The app alone, without the service or the artwork. Used by the installer internally.
PlayfrontHelper.zip	The privileged service. Used by the installer internally.
PlayfrontAssets-Games.zip	Background artwork and video. Used by the installer internally.
PlayfrontShell-0.1.0-full.nupkg, RELEASES, releases.win.json	Consumed by the app's own updater.
PlayfrontShell-win-Portable.zip	The app without installing. Note: it will not update itself and has no helper service.

Licence

Playfront is source-available, not open source. You may read the code and run the released
app for personal, non-commercial use; you may not copy, modify or redistribute it. See
LICENSE.md.

Playfront ships artwork and fonts belonging to Microsoft and to individual game publishers.
See THIRD-PARTY.md, which also explains how to ask for something to be removed.