AnyPS5 Desktop 0.1.9 (Windows + Linux preview)

AnyPS5 Desktop 0.1.9: the launcher starts full screen, Settings work with a controller (✕ to edit a value), hints follow the input you use, the PS button opens a quick menu that pauses the game even with a controller on player 1, Share/Create saves clips and screenshots, a new Shortcuts screen remaps the launcher, and any phone can play from a browser by scanning a QR code. It pairs with AnyPS5-ARM 0.2.23, whose Windows and Linux engine (a29698606) carries the new press packet.

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

• Full screen. The launcher starts full screen the first time, then as you left it. F11 (it can be rebound) or Settings → Appearance → Full Screen switch it (Windows: a borderless window over the monitor and back; Linux: GTK's full screen).
• Settings with a controller. The sections' column takes the focus with left; up and down change the section, right or ✕ go back into the rows; L1/R1 as before. Option rows (theme, window mode, ...) no longer change by just moving over them: ✕ enters edit mode (an accent ring and its arrows), ←/→ change the value, ✕ or ○ leave it. Keyboard and mouse work as before.
• Hints follow your input, live. After a pad button the hints show only the pad's buttons, and the Back pill, the step arrows and the gallery's arrows hide outside edit mode; a key or the mouse brings the keyboard's hints back.
• PS button. Held in the launcher: Quit AnyPS5 (Switch Profile is coming). In a game: the game is paused first, then a quick menu (Resume, Game Settings, Close Game) that says Paused or Still running over the game's name. Held in a game: Close game? at once. PS now acts when let go (held 500 ms it is the long press). The pause works even with a controller on player 1: with an engine that takes presses (AnyPS5-ARM's Windows and Linux engine from a29698606, below), the launcher sends one press packet through the remote pad bridge that holds Options 160 ms on player 1's pad, whoever drives it; an older or upstream engine keeps the fallback, the Options key typed into the game's window. Settings → Behaviour → Pause Game When Opening the Menu turns the pause off.
• Share / Create button: clips and screenshots. With Settings → Captures → Replay Buffer on (off by default, about one CPU core; needs ffmpeg), the last 30 s to 5 min are kept, and a short press saves them as a clip in the game's gallery; a long press (or a press with the buffer off) takes a screenshot. Clips show in the gallery with a play badge and open in the system's player.
• Settings → Shortcuts. Put Home, Quick Menu, Screenshot, Save Clip, Full Screen and the Settings sections on a key (with modifiers) and on a pad button or chord, pressed or held. Conflicts, and the launcher's own keys and buttons, are refused and said; Reset to Defaults; the game's own buttons link to Game Settings → Controls.
• Play from a browser. Settings → Phones → Play from a browser shows a QR code with a one-time link: a phone that scans it becomes a DualSense in its browser, with no app, as player 2 to 4. It pairs with the same pairing code as the phone app, works on your LAN only (one-time token, session cookie, origin, host and LAN checks, rate limits) and the server runs only while it is wanted; Keep browser play on keeps it up. Each browser is a phone on the phone server's own channel, so seats, the pairing card and the pad path are the same.
• Credits. The README credits AnyPlay's bridge spec and the ideas we followed.
• New engine. AnyPS5-ARM 0.2.23 carries AnyPS5-toolkit-windows-a29698606.zip and AnyPS5-toolkit-linux-a29698606.tar.gz / .zip (built on Ubuntu 22.04, glibc 2.35): the remote pad bridge takes the 24-byte press packet that holds buttons on player 1's pad without taking a seat, so the quick menu pauses a game whoever drives player 1. The online and remote pad tests pass on both. Settings → AnyPS5 Engine offers it.

Install

Windows 10/11 (x64): run AnyPS5-Desktop-Setup-0.1.9-x64.exe (per user, no admin needed; it installs over earlier versions). SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC": click More info → Run anyway. Portable: unzip AnyPS5-Desktop-windows-x64.zip and run anyps5_desktop.exe (SDL2.dll and the Visual C++ runtime are beside it). Already on 0.1.3 or later: the launcher offers this update by itself.

Linux (x64):

• AppImage: chmod +x AnyPS5-Desktop-0.1.9-x86_64.AppImage, then run it.
• Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install ./anyps5-desktop_0.1.9_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). AnyPS5-ARM's Linux engine needs glibc 2.35+ (Ubuntu 22.04 or newer); upstream AnyPS5's Linux engine 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. For clips, install ffmpeg (Windows: winget install ffmpeg, or put ffmpeg.exe beside the launcher; Linux: sudo apt install ffmpeg). Online play is in Settings → AnyTogether → Online play (experimental), off by default. Nothing ever goes to Sony.

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.