GameModeExecutor 0.2.0

Runs the executables you configure when a game starts and when it stops. Measured on Windows 11; it relies on the Xbox Game Bar component Windows ships by default, which Windows 10 carries too since version 1903, but nobody has run it there yet.

Install

• GameModeExecutor-0.2.0.msi -- the installer. Per user, no administrator prompt, into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\GameModeExecutor. It writes a starter configuration if you have none, registers the logon task and starts the watcher: the icon beside the clock is the confirmation. Then right-click it, Edit configuration.
• GameModeExecutor-0.2.0.zip -- the same executables, to unpack wherever you like. Then gamemode-executor init, edit the file it wrote, gamemode-executor install-task.

Documentation for this exact build.

What changed

The program updates itself from the icon, and a game session survives it.

Added

• Check for updates, in the icon's menu: asks GitHub whether a newer
  release exists — the only time the program ever connects to anything,
  and only when you click. The answer comes as a silent notification and
  waits in the menu: Up to date, or Download and install beside
  What changed, which opens the release page.
• Download and install fetches the new release, checks it against the
  checksums the release publishes, and installs it — the installer for an
  installed copy, the zip for one unpacked by hand. The icon disappears for
  a second and comes back on the new version, which says so with a
  notification at its first start.
• Updating in the middle of a game keeps your commands out of it: the old
  watcher hands the game session to the new one, which picks it up where it
  was. Nothing runs twice, and your gaming configuration is never switched
  off and on again mid-game.
• gamemode-executor update does the same from a terminal; update --check
  only asks.
• gamemode-executor stop --handover stops the watcher and leaves an open
  game session to the next one, for anyone restarting it by hand during a
  game.
• The log gains an update category: every request, every verdict and
  every step of an install, with the reason when something fails.

Changed

• The installer and the zip now carry the same four files: the two
  executables, LICENSE.txt and README.txt. The zip no longer ships a
  copy of the documentation; the readme links the pages and the recipes for
  the exact build you have.
• Upgrading with the installer no longer closes a game session: the new
  watcher resumes it.
• The recipes say to restart the watcher after copying a configuration —
  stop, then install-task — which an installed copy needs to read the
  new file.
• The release page says where the program was measured, Windows 11, and
  what Windows 10 shares with it, rather than claiming both.

For the curious

The commits since v0.1.0, newest first:

• Release 0.2.0
• Require the date in a released section's heading
• Write the release notes here, in a changelog the release copies
• Say in the release notes where the program was measured
• Tidy what a last pass over the branch found
• Record the first-start notification seen with a planted pending file
• Drop the installing notice; the new version announces itself
• Say when the new version first runs, and decide installed or unpacked when asked
• Note the maintainer's questions on who writes the release notes
• Answer a click with a notification, read the installer's verdict, ship the same four files
• Add the updater: check, download, verify and install from the menu
• Hand a game session from one watcher to the next
• Open Lot 13 with the shape agreed for the updater
• Bring the documentation up to the first release, and measure the update path
• Say in the release notes what the installer does now

SHA-256

6968fe4a83c621ba2a513ee4c3c2b6cab91f31f52a506213409db8f53579a548  GameModeExecutor-0.2.0.msi
256847f7e952382940e53856063691a8fbbaa087be185f0d0241e6dbcdbfd35d  GameModeExecutor-0.2.0.zip

GameModeExecutor 0.1.0

Runs the executables you configure when a game starts and when it stops. Measured on Windows 11; it relies on the Xbox Game Bar component Windows ships by default, which Windows 10 carries too since version 1903, but nobody has run it there yet.

Install

• GameModeExecutor-0.1.0.msi -- the installer. Per user, no administrator prompt, into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\GameModeExecutor. It writes a starter configuration if you have none, registers the logon task and starts the watcher: the icon beside the clock is the confirmation. Then right-click it, Edit configuration.
• GameModeExecutor-0.1.0.zip -- the same executables, to unpack wherever you like. Then gamemode-executor init, edit the file it wrote, gamemode-executor install-task.

Documentation for this exact build.

What changed

The first release. Runs the executables you configure when a game starts
and when it stops, on Windows' own signal that a game is running.

Added

• Detection through the Game Bar presence writer Windows starts for a game
  and stops when it is gone: no list of games to maintain, nothing polled
  while you play.
• A configuration file, config.toml, naming the commands to run on each
  edge, in series or in parallel, with placeholders for the game's name and
  path; validate to check it, trigger start|stop to try the commands
  without a game.
• The game's name in the log and in the placeholders, refined a little way
  into the session by asking the GPU which process is really drawing.
• A notification area icon — grey without a game, green with one — with a
  menu: edit the configuration, open the log, open the documentation for
  the exact build running, quit.
• A windowless twin, gamemode-executorw.exe, started at logon by a task
  install-task registers; the console executable is the one you type
  commands into.
• Recovery after a logoff, shutdown or crash mid-game: the stop commands
  run at the next start, so you are not left on a gaming configuration.
• A log for two readers: plain sentences at info, the technical detail as
  fields at debug.
• A per-user installer, .msi, that needs no administrator rights, writes a
  starter configuration if you have none, registers the logon task and
  starts the watcher; a .zip for anyone who would rather not run an
  installer. Uninstalling removes the executables and the task and leaves
  your configuration; purge removes every trace on request.
• Recipes with ready-made configurations: fan profiles with FanControl,
  including the scheduled tasks a program that needs administrator rights
  requires, and a Windows power plan.

For the curious

The first release: every commit is in it.

SHA-256

85d6178b6133e056309cceef1187d403b222429c4be26158681aff5772d0d5d1  GameModeExecutor-0.1.0.msi
b5b1618bd1d1223a4c9da3ce9df3ed8f0d2a820d4f04e3544d225ea278ae316a  GameModeExecutor-0.1.0.zip