v0.8.0

What's new in v0.8.0

Orbit is now available for macOS — a native build, running on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs from a single universal download. This is the first macOS release, so treat it as early: tracking accuracy, permissions handling, and icon/name resolution haven't been battle-tested the way the Windows build has. Bug reports welcome.

On first launch, macOS will ask for Accessibility permission (required) and Screen Recording permission (optional — only needed if you want window titles, not just app names). Orbit explains what each one is for before the system prompt appears.

Windows improvements:

Hide an app directly from the Apps page — no more needing to go into Settings first.
Process merging now has its own dedicated page, split out of Settings for a cleaner, less cluttered Settings screen.
Installation

Windows: Download Orbit_0.8.0_x64-setup.exe and run it. SmartScreen may warn about an unrecognized publisher — click More info → Run anyway.

macOS: Download Orbit_0.8.0_universal.dmg, open it, and drag Orbit into Applications. Since this build isn't notarized by Apple, macOS will initially refuse to open it — right-click the app and choose Open (instead of double-clicking) to bypass this the first time. Full step-by-step instructions, including a Terminal fallback if needed, are in the README.

Notes

Nothing about your existing tracked data changes in this release. If you're upgrading on Windows, your history carries over automatically as always.

Orbit v0.7.0

What's new in v0.7.0

Auto-update — Orbit now checks for new versions automatically on launch (and on demand from Settings → Updates), and can download and install them for you. Updates are cryptographically signed, so an update can only install if it's genuinely from this project — nothing installs without your explicit go-ahead, and nothing restarts without you choosing to.

Notes

This is the first release with auto-update wired in. If you're on an earlier version, you'll need to grab this one manually one last time — from here on, Orbit should be able to update itself.

Installation

Download Orbit_0.7.0_x64-setup.exe below and run it. Windows SmartScreen may flag it as coming from an unrecognized publisher — click More info → Run anyway.

Orbit v0.6.0

What's new in v0.6.0

Hide an app — from Settings → Apps, you can now hide any app completely. Its tracked time still counts toward your totals and category breakdowns (so your numbers stay accurate), but the app itself never appears by name anywhere — not Top Apps, not the Apps page, not Timeline, not exports (unless you explicitly opt in when exporting). Fully reversible at any time.

Delete sessions — you can now permanently delete individual tracked sessions from Timeline or a day's detail view, or clear all history for a specific app in one action. This is real, permanent deletion (unlike hiding) — a two-step confirmation is required, and totals update immediately everywhere once something's removed.

A known limitation

A hidden app's process name can occasionally still appear inside another window's title — for example, if Windows shows a crash/error dialog referencing the hidden app's executable. The app itself stays hidden from every normal view; this only affects rare system-level popups, not day-to-day use.

Notes

If you're upgrading from an earlier version, nothing about your existing tracked history changes automatically — hide and delete are both actions you take deliberately, going forward.

Installation

Download Orbit_0.6.0_x64-setup.exe below and run it. Windows SmartScreen may flag it as coming from an unrecognized publisher — click More info → Run anyway.

Orbit v0.5.0

What's new in v0.5.0

Brighter, more detailed Earth — the 3D centerpiece now shows real surface detail (terrain, coastlines, seafloor) on the lit side instead of reading as too dark, while keeping a natural day/night terminator.

Fixed the oversized Month calendar — the calendar grid no longer forces scrolling on large monitors. The reclaimed space now shows a wider summary panel with clickable busiest/quietest day stats.

Much richer Week view — now includes your top apps for the week, a busiest-day breakdown by weekday, and last week's numbers overlaid on the trend chart for a direct visual comparison.

Ambient orbit rings — the background now has subtle, slowly moving orbit paths scattered across the app, each with its own glowing body traveling at its own pace, reinforcing Orbit's solar-system theme without competing with the actual content.

Notes

Nothing about your tracked data or local storage changes in this release. If you're upgrading from an earlier version, your history carries over automatically.

Installation

Download Orbit_0.5.0_x64-setup.exe below and run it. Windows SmartScreen may flag it as coming from an unrecognized publisher — click More info → Run anyway.

Orbit v0.4.0

What's new in v0.4.0

Fixed duplicate app entries — apps that had accumulated multiple entries under the same name (most visibly Orbit itself, split across debug/release/installer builds) are now correctly merged into one. A one-time migration runs automatically on upgrade to clean up existing history; your raw session data is untouched, only how it's grouped and displayed.

Cleaner Top Apps — known Windows system and background processes (SearchHost, RuntimeBroker, and similar) are now filtered out of the Top Apps and Apps lists by default, so what you see is what you actually opened and used. This is a display filter only — your totals, Timeline, and exports remain complete and unaffected. Toggle it off in Settings if you'd rather see everything.

Fixed missing icons — apps installed as modern packaged Windows apps (like WhatsApp) now resolve their real name and icon correctly instead of falling back to a generic placeholder.

Merge related processes into one app — some apps spawn separately-named helper processes (Steam's helper process is now merged into Steam automatically). You can also manually merge any process into another app yourself from Settings → Apps, for anything not covered automatically.

New Apps page — browse every tracked app in one place, grouped by category, with search and click-through to full per-app details (today/week/month totals, session history).

Notes

If you're upgrading from an earlier version, the app-merging migration runs once automatically the first time you open v0.4.0. Nothing needs to be done manually, and no tracked time is lost or altered — only how duplicate entries are grouped together changes.

Installation

Download Orbit_0.4.0_x64-setup.exe below and run it. Windows SmartScreen may flag it as coming from an unrecognized publisher — click More info → Run anyway.

Orbit v0.3.0

What's new in v0.3.0

3D Earth centerpiece — the day ring now surrounds a slowly rotating 3D Earth instead of an empty center, built with a real day/night terminator and a soft atmosphere glow.

Glowing orb fallback — a lightweight alternative centerpiece (no 3D rendering) is available as a toggle in Settings → Appearance, for lower-spec machines or anyone who prefers it. It's also used automatically if 3D rendering isn't available on your system.

Fixed a real background GPU bug — Orbit was quietly holding onto ~15% GPU usage the entire time it sat in the system tray, due to how the window-hiding step interacted with the app's rendering engine. This is now fixed — Orbit is properly idle when minimized to tray, using close to 0% GPU.

Smaller fixes: corrected how the app behaves under Windows' "reduce motion" accessibility setting, and a minor layout clipping issue at small window sizes.

Notes

Nothing about your tracked data or local storage changes in this release. If you're upgrading from an earlier version, your history carries over automatically.

Installation

Download Orbit_0.3.0_x64-setup.exe below and run it. Windows SmartScreen may flag it as coming from an unrecognized publisher — click More info → Run anyway.

Orbit v0.2.0

What's new in v0.2.0

Redesigned Today layout — the day ring now floats freely at the center of the page instead of sitting inside a card, flanked by four arc-cut cards (Right Now, Productivity, Focus, Top Category) whose curved edges precisely match the ring's own radius.

Day-detail view — click the ring (or any day in the Month calendar) to open a full breakdown of that day: every tracked session in order, with app icon, real name, category, start/end time, and duration. Includes a date picker to jump to any day in your history.

Two new views:

Insights — month-over-month comparison, your longest focus streak on record, a busiest-hour histogram, weekday usage patterns, and your most-used apps by days-active rather than raw hours.
Timeline — a dense, searchable, filterable log of every session you've ever tracked, most recent first.

Unlimited history — no retention limit. Orbit keeps your full usage history indefinitely; storage cost stays negligible even after years of tracking.

Smarter idle threshold slider — now displays in seconds, minutes, or hours depending on the value (e.g. "8m", "1h 30m") instead of raw seconds.

Notes

All data continues to stay local — nothing about this release changes that. If you're upgrading from v0.1.0, your existing tracked history carries over automatically; no migration steps needed.

Installation

Download Orbit_0.2.0_x64-setup.exe below and run it. As before, Windows SmartScreen may flag it as coming from an unrecognized publisher — click More info → Run anyway.

Orbit v0.1.0

Orbit is a native, local-first screen-time tracker for Windows. No cloud, no account, no telemetry — everything stays on your machine.

What's in this release
Accurate active-window tracking with real idle detection, so time away from the keyboard is never counted as usage
Real app names and icons instead of raw process names
Today view with a 24-hour "shape of your day" ring, category breakdown, and a live productivity score
Week and Month views with trend charts and a calendar heatmap
Automatic app categorization, fully reassignable
Optional daily limits per app or category, with a single native notification when crossed
Manual focus/Pomodoro sessions
Lightweight streak tracking
CSV/JSON export
System tray with autostart, dark/light/system themes
Installation

Download Orbit_0.1.0_x64-setup.exe below and run it. Windows SmartScreen may show an "unknown publisher" warning since this isn't code-signed — click More info → Run anyway.

Notes

This is an early release — feedback and issues are welcome.