Unstick 0.5.0

Unstick v0.5.0 — release notes

Channel: portable release (unsigned until Authenticode cert — private beta / local OK)
Surface: Portable zip + optional HKCU autostart
Version: 0.5.0
Roadmap: roadmap-v0.5.0.md
Design: hardware-control-north-star.md

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Why 0.5.0

Packages the hardware-control north-star: freeze mitigation and load/thermal relief with real headroom, visible sensing vs capping, and a clean (no-console) runtime — not a game booster and not hardware-damage insurance.

Highlights

• Freeze-safe control — operating band 80–88% of the calibrated cliff (was ~97–99%); fast release when load eases; soft intensity ceiling 2; soft demotion TTL (~45s)
• Stress headroom — hard latency / Disk Hard / paging / thermal-power shifts the band lower
• Guard UX — tripwires show monitoring vs soft capping; Event log uses capped for disk/mem actions
• Clean runtime — service/UI/tray are Windows GUI-subsystem (no terminal pop-ups); logs in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Unstick\
• Soak fixture — disk_hog defaults 1024 MiB/180s; cliff preset 2048 MiB/300s
• Timer-resolution lever — investigated and rejected (timer-resolution-reject.md)

Unchanged / honesty

• Windows x64 portable only
• SoftOnly default; Suspend remains experimental-only
• Overload = relief, not damage prevention
• No standby purge; no claimed DPC or hardware-damage “fix”

Install / update

See USER-GUIDE Updating (portable). Download Unstick-0.5.0-windows-x64.zip, stop service/UI, extract over install, restart.

# or local package
pwsh -File scripts/Package-Portable.ps1

Proof

• L1: cargo test -p guardian-core -p guardian-win -p guardian-detect
• Control / thermal: control:: unit tests including stress + thermal flags
• Manual: Guard monitoring vs capping under disk_hog / cliff

Next

• Authenticode-signed public Latest when cert exists
• Optional Efficiency Mode Idle under stress streak (0.5.1+ design)
• Long L3 soak setpoint / self-overhead tuning