AnyPS5 Desktop 0.1.6 (Windows + Linux preview)

AnyPS5 Desktop 0.1.6: the Glass theme with a see-through window, games that show up by themselves, controller vibration, quiet updates, and no more copies across drives. It also carries the two fixes tested in 0.1.6-beta.1: the controller stays out of the launcher while you play, and lists no longer follow the mouse.

This is still an early preview. Please report what works and what doesn't in the issues; a game's crash report makes that easy.

What's new

• Glass, a new theme: the launcher's window turns see-through. Your desktop and the windows behind it show through, blurred under a light tint so the wallpaper's colors glow (Acrylic on Windows 11 22H2 and later, the older acrylic blur on Windows 10). Text sits on soft dark plates, so it reads over any wallpaper; cards, buttons and panels are panes of frosted glass, and the focused one is a bright ice chip with a glint. It comes with a new Ice accent. Pick it in Settings → Appearance → Theme or on the first start. Glass Transparency sets how much shows through (0 % is solid), Show Game Art Behind lays the selected game's picture over the desktop, and Reduce Transparency draws everything solid; a graphics card too slow for Glass gets the solid look by itself. On Linux the window is see-through wherever the desktop composites, blurred on KDE Plasma (X11).
• No more full copies across drives: a game whose dump is on another drive than the games folder now links to its files with symbolic links instead of copying tens of GB (on Windows this needs Developer Mode, or the launcher run as administrator). Where no link can be made, the launcher says before unlocking how many GB would be copied and why, with the two fixes (a games folder on the dump's drive, or Developer Mode one button away) or Copy Anyway. A linked game whose dump moved says so instead of failing.
• New games show up by themselves: a game copied into the games folder, in a subfolder too, appears as soon as its copy is far enough along, with New game: and its icon (or 3 new games), the select sound, and the game selected on the home screen. A desktop notice says it while the launcher is behind other windows.
• Controller vibration: soft, short pulses for select, back, errors, trophies, invitations and the end of a row (Settings → Behaviour → Controller Vibration, on by default). Only while the launcher is in front and the controller is what you are using; the motors stop the moment a game comes in front. Xbox and other XInput pads on Windows, pads with force feedback on Linux.
• Input feel: a held direction repeats at the same pace on the controller and the arrow keys; the stick engages at half and lets go below a third, so a resting stick no longer jitters; a direction with nowhere to go answers with a quiet knock; a soft tick plays when the mouse arrives on a tile, row or button.
• Updates while it stays open: the launcher looks for a new version every six hours and when it comes back to the front, downloads it in the background (signature checked as before), then shows a quiet notice beside the top bar: Restart Now or Later (it goes in at the next launch). Restart Now with a game running waits for the game. On Windows the installer runs silently and opens the launcher again; an AppImage is swapped for the new one.
• The controller stays out of the launcher while you play: with a game (or any other program) in front, the launcher takes nothing from the controller but the PS/Guide button, which brings it back in front as before; no vibration either. On Windows, Cross in a game used to also press what the launcher had focused behind it. Back in the launcher, a button still held from the game does nothing until you press it again.
• Lists no longer follow the mouse: hovering a row still highlights it, but the list no longer scrolls under the pointer. Scroll with the wheel or touchpad, or click and drag like on a phone (lists, the library and the home screen's game tiles); a drag never clicks what it started on. The arrow keys and the controller scroll as before.
• Hidden trophies: a hidden trophy you earned always shows its name.

Everything from 0.1.5 is here too: trophy levels, showcases, Compare trophies, Appear offline, crash reports (Save crash_log.txt, Copy Report, a pre-filled GitHub issue), controllers in the launcher, the trophy card over the game, system fonts, party join codes, full screen, the AnyPS5-ARM engine in the engine picker, family limits, mouse support and signed launcher updates.

Install

Windows 10/11 (x64): run AnyPS5-Desktop-Setup-0.1.6-x64.exe (per user, no admin needed; it installs over 0.1.5 and 0.1.6-beta.1). SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC": click More info → Run anyway. Portable: unzip AnyPS5-Desktop-windows-x64.zip and run anyps5_desktop.exe. Already on 0.1.3, 0.1.4 or 0.1.5: the launcher offers this update by itself.

Linux (x64):

• AppImage: chmod +x AnyPS5-Desktop-0.1.6-x86_64.AppImage, then run it.
• Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install ./anyps5-desktop_0.1.6_amd64.deb.
• Archive: unpack the .tar.gz and run AnyPS5-Desktop/anyps5_desktop.
• The launcher runs on glibc 2.34+ (Ubuntu 22.04 or newer). Games run through AnyPS5's current Linux engine, which needs glibc 2.38+ (Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 13, Fedora 39 or newer).

Then open the launcher, press Download the AnyPS5 engine and choose your games folder.

Checksums: SHA256SUMS lists every file, and SHA256SUMS.sig is its Ed25519 signature with the AnyPS5 release key (f8fe0d55df962105).

Requirements: a CPU and GPU that AnyPS5 supports (see upstream), and decrypted copies of games you own.