v0.6-alpha

Changelog - Pie Launcher

[0.6-alpha] - 2026-01-17

New Features

• Visual Gesture Editor: New settings tab to customize your workflow using a drag-and-drop interface.
  • Configure Single Tap and Double Tap entry points.
  • Define custom Right-Click Cycle flows (e.g., Switcher -> Controller -> Launcher).
• Drag-and-Drop Launcher: Reorder your pinned apps and groups by simply dragging them in the settings list.
• Dynamic Icons: Smart icon generation for controller actions.
  • Added specific icons for VS Code (Command Palette, Zen Mode, Split) and Browsers (Incognito, Bookmarks).
• Smart Context switching: Double-tapping to switch modes now preserves the active window context, ensuring Controller shortcuts work on the correct app.

Interaction Improvements

• Click Outside to Close: Clicking anywhere on the screen (outside the menu) now instantly closes the wheel.
• Right-Click Cycle: Right-clicking the center ring now reliably cycles to the next mode in your custom flow.
• Controller Configuration: Shows a helpful "Configure [App]" button if no shortcuts are defined for the current program, instead of failing silently.

Performance

• Instant Open: Completely eliminated the "first-launch freeze". The menu window appears immediately.
• GPU Acceleration: Applied BitmapCache to shadows and shapes for silky smooth 60fps animations.
• Memory Optimization: Reduced RAM usage (~150-250MB) with LRU icon caching.

[0.6-alpha] - 2026-01-17

v0.5-alpha

Changelog - Pie Launcher

[0.5-alpha] - 2026-01-16

New Features

• Smart Controller Mode: Automatically detects the active application (Chrome, VS Code, Terminal, etc.) and switches context instantly.
• Controller Presets: Built-in support for 50+ popular applications including Browsers, IDEs, Creative Tools, and Office apps.
• Preset Management:
  • Import presets from the built-in library.
  • Import custom presets from JSON files.
  • "From Running Apps" scanner to quickly add configurations for currently open programs.
• Group Launcher: Create folders/groups in the launcher to organize multiple apps under one slice.
  • Includes auto-generated "stacked" icons for groups.
  • Launches all apps in a group simultaneously.
• Enhanced Settings UI:
  • Real-time Preview Wheel in Launcher and Controller settings.
  • Drag-and-Drop reordering for Launcher items.
  • Up/Down buttons for manual reordering.
  • "Browse Installed" and "From Running" pickers for easier app selection.

Performance & Polish

• Instant Response: Refactored window spawning to eliminate "first-launch freeze" and UI lag.
• Zero Lag Rendering: Applied GPU-accelerated BitmapCache for shadows and complex geometry.
• Memory Optimization: Implemented LRU (Least Recently Used) caching for icons to keep memory usage low.
• Async Loading: Switcher mode now loads process data asynchronously on a background thread.

Fixes

• Fixed "invisible arrows" in Launcher settings reorder buttons.
• Fixed Controller keyboard shortcuts not firing due to focus stealing (added focus restoration logic).
• Fixed issue where Controller icons appeared as generic dots (now contextually mapped to action names like "Save", "Find", "New").
• Fixed "flash" artifact when opening the menu.
• Fixed drag-and-drop file locking issues.

Technical

• Migrated icon handling to WindowService with thread-safe caching.
• Added DPI-aware mouse tracking caching for smoother cursor interaction.
• Refactored PieMenuControl animation logic for better frame rates.

v0.2-alpha

Full Changelog: alpha...v0.2-alpha

0.1-alpha

Full Changelog: https://github.com/DevankU/pie/commits/alpha
You can either download the pre-built binary or build from source ( readme )