26.10.07

Essentials 26.10.07

Synced with upstream Winutil (Win11 Creator wizard, driver injection fixes, DNS benchmark, update and tweak fixes), plus Essentials-specific improvements.

Highlights

• Win11 Creator is now a three-step wizard: select, modify, and export pages with a working page for long operations and a finished panel naming the output file or USB disk
• Quieter terminal: INFO log lines now stay in the session log instead of spamming the console (console transcript goes to a separate file)
• Clearer install failures: winget hash-mismatch (0x8A150011, e.g. Microsoft 365) now explains the stale manifest and blocked elevated override instead of a bare hex code
• New apps: AB Download Manager and Hermes Desktop (AI); fixed SyncTrayzor winget ID, renamed Overwolf entry to CurseForge, removed duplicate Ente Auth, KeePassXC and Everything entries
• Essentials yellow theme kept across the new wizard UI

Upstream (from ChrisTitusTech/winutil)

• Win11 fixes: boot.wim SCSIAdapter/HDC storage injection for Setup, per-package driver retry without the extension-class filter, friendly DISM exit-code errors
• FirstLogon: WaaSMedicSvc restored via registry write (Set-Service fails on the protected service), service restoration errors now logged instead of swallowed
• DNS speed benchmark with 'Fastest' auto-select; dead Mullvad providers removed
• Updates Recommended profile now uses download-and-notify (drops the unreliable NoAutoReboot key)
• Failing tweaks log a warning with the error count instead of a false "completed"; lock-screen toggle key fixed
• UI text clarity (Select labels, AppX note scope)

Full Changelog: 26.09.18...26.10.07

26.09.18

Essentials 26.09.18

Synced with upstream Winutil (runspace job layer, Win11 Creator driver fixes, environment report export, new apps), plus Essentials-specific improvements.

Highlights

• Home-user app catalog rebuilt: 323 applications in our own 11 categories (AI, Benchmarking, Browsers, Communications, Games, Microsoft, Multimedia, Office, Security, Smartphone, Utilities); developer/IT-pro tools removed
• Fixed empty Install tab: app entries can no longer be killed by a single failed favicon download, with DuckDuckGo fallback and letter fallback
• Fixed random UI crashes: logo is now embedded at compile time instead of downloaded on a background thread (was throwing COM/RCW errors)
• Quieter terminal: timing diagnostics no longer spam the console (set ESSENTIALS_DEBUG=1 to get them back)
• Fixed 6 dead Winget IDs, including moving Perplexity to its native Winget package

Upstream (from ChrisTitusTech/winutil)

• Consolidated background work into one job layer; faster, more responsive UI startup
• Win11 Creator: per-package driver injection with unserviceable/stale driver filtering
• Automated environment report export, clipboard-history-preserving tweak, Logitech Download Assistant blocker, SID-based tweak principals, Movies & TV AppX entry

Full Changelog: 26.08.22...26.09.18

26.08.22

Essentials 26.08.22

Synced with upstream Winutil releases 26.07.22 through 26.08.19 (~68 commits), plus Essentials-specific improvements.

Highlights

• DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) support and Mullvad added to the DNS provider list
• Multiplane Overlay (MPO) is now a three-state dropdown instead of a toggle: Enabled | Disabled (Compatibility) | Fully Disabled
• Reworked Applications sidebar: category chips now behave as proper toggle filters, with screen-reader accessible names and fixed category navigation
• Win11 USB Creator workflow refactored: live progress reporting, fixed USB creation when install.wim is read-only, and corrected OSCDIMG detection
• Restored native window animations and custom caption hit testing

Fixes

• Importing an older config file no longer breaks: legacy keys are mapped where possible and skipped safely; invalid imports preserve your current selections
• Config selections now correctly apply to lazily-built tabs
• Location service tweak sets the correct startup type
• OneDrive uninstall handles non-default install paths
• Fixed popup install binding, dialog titles, preset switching, and radio group behavior
• Fixed prerelease (windev) version resolution during elevation
• Headless -Preset / -Config runs no longer hit UI helper errors
• Fixed: creating a system restore point twice when combined with other tweaks (Essentials-specific)

Applications

New entries (303 total): Battle.net, Deskflow, Element, Mattermost, MiniTool Partition Wizard, Modrinth, PeaZip

Other

• Documentation rebuilt on Astro, branded for Essentials
• Test suite expanded and fully green (589 tests)

Full Changelog: 26.07.20...26.08.22

26.07.20

Updated from Upstream

26.07.13

upstream bug fixes, winget ID validation, docs site, and UI improvements

26.04.22

Full Changelog: 26.03.09...26.04.22

26.03.09

Updated from upstream

26.02.17

New release from Upstream

Release 26.02.04

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Compourri/essentials/commits/26.02.04