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v2.15.0 — fast startup, full-pool short search, 108 Settings pages

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@haxllo haxllo released this 18 Aug 10:55
· 827 commits to master since this release
v2.15.0
50c2cef

This one's mostly about things I kept bumping into myself: nex feeling slow to wake up, settings pages having no icons, and search hiding files on short queries. All of that's fixed, plus a bunch more Settings pages.

Startup is now instant. The old startup spent over a second warming up a PowerShell process just to check if the helper task exists — that's gone, replaced with a native schtasks query (~30ms). Even better, the hotkey now registers first and the elevated helper connects in the background, so nex answers your hotkey almost immediately instead of making you wait. There was also a nasty bug where the watchdog thought the hotkey died after the helper took over and kept restarting it — that freeze you saw once is fixed for good.

Search actually searches now. Files, folders and Settings pages were invisible on 1-2 letter queries because those short queries only searched the app cache. Now they search everything, with apps still staying on top. No more typing "d" and wondering where your Downloads folder went.

Settings got a big upgrade. All 59 original pages now show real per-page icons instead of placeholders (a classic GDI quirk: it writes text without touching the alpha channel — one of those hour-long bugs). The catalog also grew from 59 to 108 pages: Advanced display, Recovery, Storage Sense, Lock screen, Themes, Installed apps, Windows Security, Update history, and friends. "Advanced system settings" is there too, launching the good old Control Panel dialog — it never got a modern page.

Small stuff: icons of all sizes now normalize to a consistent canvas (no more huge Spotify next to tiny Settings), grid tiles lost their faint background, the power menu pops in with a little animation, and Settings rows no longer show a redundant "ms-settings:..." subtitle.

Changelog

Performance

  • Startup: hotkey hook registers first (~30ms), elevated helper connects async in the background; hotkey live almost immediately instead of after ~1.5s
  • Scheduled-task existence check swapped from PowerShell (~1s CLR cold start) to schtasks /query /xml (~30ms)

Features

  • Short queries (1-2 chars) now search the full pool — files, folders and Settings pages visible, apps still ranked on top
  • Settings catalog expanded 59 → 108 pages; "Advanced system settings" added via sysdm.cpl with its real Control Panel icon

Bug Fixes

  • Settings page icons were invisible (GDI text doesn't write the alpha channel) — glyph alpha is now derived from luminance, real icons show
  • Hotkey watchdog restart loop after helper handover (the freeze) — is_alive now trusts the helper path
  • Settings rows showed "ms-settings:..." as subtitle — hidden
  • Small icon sources now normalized to a uniform 128px canvas (Spotify 256px vs Settings tiny)

Commit Log

  • 34fa290 fix(overlay): normalize small icon sources to uniform 128px canvas
  • a30a105 docs: add laptop handling report
  • e22ab4b style(overlay): remove subtle tile background from grid items
  • 5b8f447 style(overlay): animate power dropup entrance
  • 9a39c1b feat(overlay): index Windows Settings pages with per-page glyph icons
  • 5f5ca5d fix(overlay): derive glyph alpha from GDI text and hide ms-settings subtitles
  • 8863e81 perf(startup): register hotkey hook first, spawn helper async; swap PowerShell task check for schtasks
  • d79e919 fix(hotkey): is_alive must trust helper path after handover, not the retired hook thread
  • daf9b45 feat(search): short queries search full pool — files/folders/settings at 1-2 chars
  • 297ebd4 feat(settings): expand catalog to 108 pages + Advanced system settings

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