Alcove v0.2.9

Clicking the desk right after Show Desktop no longer covers your app.

0.2.8 stopped the desk coming forward on a click, but missed the first click
after Win+D, which still threw the window you had just raised behind it. The
desk now holds its place directly above the desktop whatever happens, so no
click can climb over an application.

Alcove v0.2.8

Clicking the desk no longer throws your app behind it.

Clicking anywhere on Alcove pulled the desk in front of whatever you were
working in, hiding it. Alcove is furniture: it now stays behind every
application, while still taking the click and the keyboard as before.

Alcove v0.2.7

Show Desktop no longer makes the desk blink, and Alcove stops using a CPU core while idle.

Pressing Win+D used to flash the desk for a moment. Alcove was being covered by
the desktop and shoving itself back on top; it now sits with the desktop instead
of fighting it, so there is nothing to shove and nothing to flash. This holds
after restarting Explorer too.

Alcove also kept one CPU core busy doing nothing. Reading the colours out of your
wallpaper got stuck in a loop that repeated forever in the background. Fixed.

Alcove v0.2.6

Alcove 0.2.6 improves startup, memory use, and background activity.

• Load drawers independently in the background, and initialize the bar and search after the desktop layout appears.
• Limit icon and thumbnail caches, share duplicate requests, and load wallpaper previews only when needed.
• Keep search responsive with bounded scans and cancellation of outdated queries.
• Reduce unnecessary state saves, taskbar polling, monitor updates, and desktop recovery checks.
• Reuse wallpaper images fitted for different monitor sizes on later launches.
• Preserve the desktop restore fix that avoids repeated repainting after Win+D.

Validation: production frontend build, 18 frontend checks, and 30 Rust tests passed. Startup-time and memory improvements have not yet been benchmarked.

Alcove v0.2.5

Alcove uses much less memory and starts faster. Large wallpapers are fitted to the screen once and reused, and the desk no longer redraws itself over and over after Win+D.

Alcove v0.2.4

Nothing you can see changes in this one.

It is the first Alcove built by CI rather than on a laptop. The installer is cut
from a tagged commit and carries a build attestation you can verify against the
source, and its SHA-256 is published beside the download. If 0.2.3 is treating
you well, there is no hurry.

Alcove 0.2.3

A USB stick now shows up as its own drawer you can eject from its context menu.

Settings gains a wallpaper picker that reads your Pictures folder, and search ranks what it finds instead of listing it in folder order. The selected-file preview card in the lower-left corner is gone.

Existing installs will offer this update on their own.

Alcove 0.2.2

Dialogs, menus and Ctrl+Space use a readable sheet in the desk's colour. Search finds running windows, drawers, and files deeper in folders.

Install

Download Alcove_0.2.2_x64-setup.exe and run it. It installs for the current user, adds Alcove to the Start menu, and starts at sign-in (you can turn that off in Settings).

If you already have 0.2.1, Alcove will offer this build as an update after it starts, or from Settings → System → Updates. The update toast can be dismissed with Later.

The installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen will warn the first time: More info → Run anyway.

Requires Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, with the Edge WebView2 runtime.

What changed since 0.2.1

• Dialogs, menus and Ctrl+Space are a sheet: dark enough to read on a dark wallpaper, not glare-white on a light one. Search stays in step with the desk instead of keeping an old light colour.
• Ctrl+Space searches running windows, drawer names, and files deeper in drawer folders, not only desktop icons. Type > for commands. Ctrl+Enter shows a file in Explorer; Shift+Enter opens its folder.
• Each search row shows type, size and when it changed. Today keeps at most two pictures, so a wallpaper dump cannot bury the document you were writing.
• Empty search still offers a way out: a path, a web address, a Win+R-style run, or a web search.
• Filter placeholders on open drawers stay visible. The update toast can be put off until later.

Alcove 0.2.1

Choose a wallpaper from inside Alcove so the Windows file dialog cannot crash the desk. Right-click menus and dialogs are solid paper. Open drawers sit in the picture with the rail.

Install

Download Alcove_0.2.1_x64-setup.exe and run it. It installs for the current user, adds Alcove to the Start menu, and starts at sign-in (you can turn that off in Settings).

If you already have 0.2.0, Alcove will offer this build as an update after it starts, or from Settings → System → Updates.

The installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen will warn the first time: More info → Run anyway.

Requires Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, with the Edge WebView2 runtime.

What changed since 0.2.0

• Choose a picture… lists pictures from Pictures and a few other folders instead of opening the Windows file dialog, which crashed Alcove.
• Right-click menus and dialogs are opaque paper, so they stay readable on the wallpaper.
• Open drawers use the same see-through wash as the rail and the frequent strip.

Full instructions: User Guide

Alcove 0.2.0

Alcove is now open source under MIT. There is no licence key. Anyone can use, change, and share it.

This build also pulses the icon you click, so a slow launch still looks like it started.

Install

Download Alcove_0.2.0_x64-setup.exe and run it. It installs for the current user, adds Alcove to the Start menu, and starts at sign-in (you can turn that off in Settings).

If you already have 0.1.0, Alcove will offer this build as an update after it starts, or from Settings → System → Updates.

The installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen will warn the first time: More info → Run anyway.

Requires Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, with the Edge WebView2 runtime.

What changed since 0.1.0

• MIT licence. The source on GitHub is the product; redistribution is allowed.
• Licence keys are gone. Updates are not gated.
• Clicked icons pulse so you can see the launch has started.

Full instructions: User Guide