WindowRanger 0.1.0-beta.9

WindowRanger 0.1.0 Beta 9

This is pre-release software. Back up important work and use Quit WindowRanger before
replacing an existing build.

Beta 9 makes WindowRanger substantially lighter during ordinary use, redesigns profile and
workspace editing, adds optional visual workspace previews, and protects an existing iCloud profile
library when a newly installed Mac enables sync for the first time.

Highlights

• Reuses window observations, suppresses unchanged refreshes, and constructs persistence snapshots
  only when needed, reducing repeated Accessibility work, memory churn, and idle CPU activity.
• Quick App Shelf now supports coherent multi-window applications, faster focus handoff and cycling,
  live settings changes, window removal, focus loss, and screen-lock recovery.
• Profiles and Workspaces use visual, reorderable tabs. Profile selection and automatic use rules
  now share one screen, while Workspace details provide clearer layout, shortcut, duplication,
  deletion, repair, and visual gap/padding controls.
• An off-by-default Show window previews setting can add current wallpaper and bounded one-shot
  window thumbnails to reusable workspace previews in Settings and the Full menu bar. Without Screen
  Recording access, the same surfaces retain privacy-safe geometry and application icons.
• Command Palette can add or remove the focused application from the active profile, and can appear
  at the pointer, screen centre, or as a stationary halo around the focused window.
• Enabling iCloud sync on a newly installed Mac now resolves an existing cloud library before any
  local defaults can be uploaded. Invalid or unavailable cloud data remains non-destructive and is
  surfaced for explicit recovery.
• The setup wizard stays above ordinary windows on every macOS Space and notices an externally
  granted Accessibility permission automatically. Fresh Focus Border settings use light blue while
  the menu-bar highlight remains white.
• Adding or re-keying a workspace reconciles only the affected global shortcuts, retaining working
  registrations and adding diagnostics for any macOS registration failure.

Requirements

• macOS 14 or later.
• Accessibility permission for window discovery and management.
• Screen Recording permission only when optional captured workspace previews are enabled. The macOS
  permission wording also mentions audio; WindowRanger does not capture audio or the pointer.

Installation

1. Download WindowRanger-0.1.0-beta.9.dmg from this release's Assets section.
2. Optionally verify it against WindowRanger-0.1.0-beta.9.dmg.sha256.
3. Use Quit WindowRanger in the existing copy, then open the DMG.
4. Drag WindowRanger.app onto the Applications shortcut and replace the existing copy when Finder
   asks.
5. Launch WindowRanger from /Applications. If macOS asks again, grant Accessibility access to
   dev.appranger.WindowRanger.

The notarized ZIP and its checksum are included as a fallback for environments that cannot mount a
DMG. GitHub's automatically generated source archives do not contain the installable application.

Known limitations

• The public Sparkle feed remains outside this GitHub release checkpoint, so install Beta 9
  manually from GitHub. Automatic update checking remains off by default.
• Captured workspace previews are intentionally off by default, live only in a bounded in-memory
  cache, and fall back to icons when permission, protected content, or a usable image is unavailable.
• Beta 9 is intended to extend validation of first-enable iCloud behavior on a second Mac. Keep sync
  off and preserve the recovery copy if that Mac reports invalid cloud data rather than choosing a
  destructive replacement.
• Supported physical-Mac, multi-display, clean-user, clean-machine, accessibility, privacy, upgrade,
  and uninstall matrices remain incomplete.
• WindowRanger does not replace or integrate with native macOS Spaces.
• Quit other window managers that use overlapping global shortcuts before testing WindowRanger.

Feedback and security

Use the repository issue forms for privacy-safe bugs, feature requests, and questions. Do not post
suspected vulnerabilities, private diagnostics, window titles, document names, URLs, or user file
paths in a public issue; follow SECURITY.md instead.