apps

Applications Library

Applications is the full library nested under Home, not an extra top-level tab. Open it with Home > Browse & shortcuts > Applications. It lists the .ELF programs found in your configured application folders, with artwork, descriptions, favorites, pins and filters.

Views and controls

SELECT cycles Grid, List and Carousel; the choice is saved (Settings > Home & applications > Application view, default Grid). The small icons next to the title show the active view and the count (for example 12 applications or 3 shown - Favorites).

View	Layout	Navigation
Grid	5 columns of cards, three rows visible, scrollbar on the right.	D-pad moves one card; Up/Down move a row; L2/R2 move three rows.
List	9 compact rows plus a detail card (large artwork, title, device, description or author/version, full path).	Up/Down one row; Left/L2 and Right/R2 move a page of 9.
Carousel	One large focused card with depth, title, description (or device) and a N / total counter.	Left/Up previous, Right/Down next; L2/R2 move five.

Button	Action
Confirm	Start the application. With an empty library it starts a scan instead (Scan now).
Square	Add/remove Favorite (a toast confirms).
Triangle	Library menu: Application options..., Change view, Show: <filter>, Hide from view / Show in view, Refresh library.
SELECT	Cycle the view. With nothing to show under a filter, SELECT returns to All; the footer shows All apps whenever another filter is active.
Back	Return to Home.
L1 / R1	Switch dashboard tab.

Selections wrap at both ends. Long titles scroll in a bounded marquee. Unfocused tiles keep stable alpha and scissor state, so memory-card-style icons never render half-drawn.

Filters

Triangle > Show chooses All, Favorites (favorites and pinned applications), Memory Cards, MASS (USB), HDD, Other devices or All including hidden. The filter is remembered across restarts. Hidden applications (see options) are left out of every filter except All including hidden, where they appear dimmed. While a scan is running an empty list reads Looking for applications.... Cached applications whose device is not currently mounted are hidden until the device is ready; they stay in the cache and the shortcuts remain stored.

Home integration

The Home Continue row surfaces pinned, recent and favorite applications (see Dashboard). Pin to Home adds an application to the front of that row; pinned = 1 in a metadata file does the same.

What is scanned

Only configured application folders are scanned. Defaults:

mc:/APPS/
mc:/BOOT/
mass:/APPS/
mass:/BOOT/

Each root is searched for .ELF files directly inside it and inside each immediate sub-folder (APPS/<folder>/*.ELF), no deeper. Listing goes through the File Browser's directory reader, so every device and driver quirk it handles applies here too. The library holds up to 512 applications and up to 12 scan folders.

• At startup only memory cards and devices whose driver is already running are refreshed (Refresh at startup, default On). Nothing else is initialised just for the dashboard.
• A memory card is probed afresh when scanned, as when opening it in Files; with MX4SIO using slot 2, mc1: is skipped by background scans.
• Refresh library (Triangle menu, START menu, or Settings) scans every configured folder, starting the drivers it needs first. The search itself runs in the background; a toast reports N applications found.
• Results are cached in DASHLIB.CNF and shown instantly on the next boot. Apps that disappear (device removed) stay usable as shortcuts and fail with a friendly message instead of an error.
• Titles are derived from the file name: a built-in table gives proper names to well-known programs (OPL, Neutrino, uLaunchELF, RetroArch, PS2Ident and more); generic names such as BOOT or MAIN use the parent folder's name; a leading APP_ is dropped and underscores become spaces. Metadata title overrides all of this.

Manage scan roots

Open Settings > Home & applications > Application library > Application folders.... Each current root is labeled this folder + one subfolder; select one to remove it. Add folder... chooses an exact folder (you are offered an immediate search afterwards) and Restore defaults restores the standard four roots. Changes take part in the Settings Save/Discard session.

Application options

Triangle on a focused application (Home or Applications) opens its options:

Item	Effect
Start	Launch through the shared loader.
Start at boot / Don't start at boot	Sets (or clears) this application as the Automatic start target from the library, so you do not have to type a path. It starts after the startup timeout with the usual Starting NAME in N banner and any button cancels it. Greyed out with a notice when launch keys are locked. Saved to LAUNCHELF.CNF.
Start with arguments...	Opens (or creates) the sidecar <name>.arg in the Text Editor. Choose Launch with these arguments from the editor menu. See Launch Arguments.
Add to / Remove from Favorites	Up to 48 favorites.
Pin to / Unpin from Home	Pinned apps lead the Continue row.
Details	Location, file, author, version, category, artwork source and metadata path (or none - create ...).
Show in File Browser	Opens the app's folder in the Files tab.
Edit metadata	Opens the OPL-format title.cfg in the ELF's folder in the Text Editor, creating a starter (title=, boot=) after confirmation if there is none; saving re-reads that one app. An existing <ELFNAME>.cfg is still read and overrides it, but is never created for you.
Hide from view / Show in view, Remove shortcut	Hiding keeps the ELF on the device and only removes it from Home and the Applications list (no confirmation); the path is stored as a Hidden line in DASHAPPS.CNF, survives library refreshes and is undone with Show in view (find it under All including hidden). Remove shortcut appears for entries that are not in the library and clears them from Home, Favorites and Recents.

If a launch fails because the file is missing, a message names the device and, for favorites, pins and recents, offers to remove the shortcut. A file that is not a valid PlayStation 2 executable gets its own message.

Metadata (optional)

Plain key = value text; every key is optional; # starts a comment. Two sources are read, in addition to the ELF itself:

• <dir>/<ELFNAME>.cfg, for example OPNPS2LD.cfg beside OPNPS2LD.ELF.
• <dir>/title.cfg in OPL application format (title=, boot=); applied only when boot= matches the ELF.

title = Open PS2 Loader
description = Game loader for USB, HDD, SMB and MX4SIO.
author = ifcaro & contributors
version = 1.2.0
category = Loader
cover = covers/opl.png      # relative to the ELF folder, or a full path
arg = -some-option          # one argument per line, repeatable
pinned = 1                  # also show on Home

Accepted synonyms: name for title, desc for description, developer for author, genre for category, art and icon for cover, args for arg, favorite for pinned. A classic <ELFNAME>.arg sidecar always wins over metadata arg lines, which are used only when no .arg exists.

Presentation

The library shows metadata and artwork when present. The default tile for an app without artwork is chosen under Settings > Appearance > Customize theme > Icons > Default app icon (Application, Device or Initials). The shape of every tile follows Tile style.

Artwork & covers

Every application gets a default tile. To show your own cover instead, add a PNG in one of the places below. Settings > Home & applications > Application artwork must be On (default On).

Image format

• PNG only (transparency is supported).
• Up to 1.5 MB per file and 2048x2048 source pixels. Images are scaled down to fit 128×128 and never enlarged, so square art of 128×128 or more looks best. Interlaced PNGs are limited to 256×256. At most 40 thumbnails are kept in memory; they are loaded only after the pad has been idle for a moment.

Where Launchstation looks

For an app at mass:/APPS/OPL/OPNPS2LD.ELF, the first file found wins:

1. A cover = line in the app's metadata.
2. Beside the ELF: OPNPS2LD.ELF_COV.png, OPNPS2LD_COV.png or OPNPS2LD.png.
3. In the app's own folder (not a scan root such as mass:/APPS/ itself): cover.png or icon.png.
4. Beside the ELF: OPNPS2LD_ICO.png (OPL disc-icon naming).
5. An ART folder at the root of the same device, using OPL naming: mass:/ART/OPNPS2LD.ELF_COV.png or mass:/ART/OPNPS2LD_COV.png (the +OPL partition on an internal HDD).
6. An ART folder beside DASHBOARD.CNF (the settings folder): OPNPS2LD.ELF_COV.png, OPNPS2LD_COV.png or OPNPS2LD.png. Use this for apps on devices that are not started yet.
7. Otherwise the theme's default application icon.

Covers prepared for OPL's ART folder work as-is. Artwork on a device whose driver is not running is looked up later, when that device is opened.

Choosing a cover in metadata

Add to the title.cfg beside the ELF (or use Application options > Edit metadata, which creates it):

title = Open PS2 Loader
boot = OPNPS2LD.ELF
cover = covers/opl.png

A relative cover path is resolved from the ELF's folder; a full path such as mc0:/ART/opl.png also works.

After adding art

Choose Refresh library (Applications menu) or Settings > Home & applications > Application library > Refresh library now. Covers already found are kept, and apps that had none are checked again. Saving from Edit metadata re-reads that one app immediately.

Artwork can also fill the dashboard background: Settings > Appearance > Customize theme > Artwork background shows the focused app's cover behind Home and Applications. See Themes.

Launching

ELFs use the shared loader path: argument sidecars, device loading, KELF/HDD/PSX handling and cleanup before exec. By default the IOP is reset before launch (Settings > Launching > Reset IOP before launch, recommended). Every application launch is added to the recent list (Recent applications); game images (.iso, .bin, .cue, .vcd) are not. Background saves and driver work finish first, with a progress overlay, so nothing is lost when the application takes over.