Project Ronin 7.3.1

Changelog

Well I seem to be on a roll with updates but yesterday's patch had a few bugs I genuinely missed. Thanks for being patient while I work to get Ronin to a polished state.

[7.3.1] — 2026-06-11

Stability and polish patch. If you downloaded 7.3.0, please update — this fixes a
critical engine bug that could silently stop tweaks from applying.

Installing and running the new version:
Step 1 — Unblock before extracting (Right click, properties, unblock)
Step 2 — Run it: right-click Launch_Ronin.bat → Run as administrator → Yes on UAC → "Windows protected your PC" box is expected (More info → Run anyway)
Optional - build the app yourself from source → right-click BuildRonin.ps1 → Run with PowerShell

Added

• Reclaim Space (Maintenance) — one-click deep clean: removes Windows.old and
  permanently compresses superseded update files (DISM ResetBase). Typically frees
  15–30+ GB and reports the exact amount freed. Includes a clear warning first.
• Block Vendor Software Injection / WPBT (Advanced) — stops motherboard and laptop
  firmware from auto-installing vendor software (e.g. Armoury Crate) into every Windows
  install. You bought the hardware; you decide what runs. Reversible; reboot required.
• Quad9 DNS (Advanced) — added the security-focused Quad9 resolver (blocks known
  malware domains) to the DNS Command Center. DNS cache now auto-flushes after switching.
• Theme-matched batch summary — applying tweaks now ends with a styled summary
  (applied / reverted / already-optimal / failed, with failing tweaks named) instead of a
  plain Windows message box.

Fixed

• Critical: the background engine could stop applying tweaks partway through a batch
  (commands intermittently failed to resolve). Tweaks now apply and revert reliably.
• Restore-point creation can no longer hang the app indefinitely (90-second cap with a
  clear message, e.g. when System Protection is off).
• Dropdown tweaks falsely reported "failed" after applying successfully.
• "Already optimized" detection for CompactOS, Reserved Storage, Ultimate Performance and
  file-system tweaks — broken state checks forced slow re-applies (e.g. a ~35s CompactOS
  run on every batch even when nothing changed).
• Windows Update Reset left Cryptographic Services stopped and never cleared the download
  cache; it now performs the full standard reset sequence.
• Nagle's Algorithm tweak was a silent no-op (wrote to the wrong registry level); it now
  applies per network interface and cleans up the old stray value on revert.
• CPU boost-mode dropdowns now correctly reflect OEM power schemes (values 4–6).
• Clearing the search box left dropdown text invisible (black-on-black).
• Hover descriptions permanently stopped working after toggling any tweak; pinning a
  description is now right-click (left-click just toggles).
• "Disable System Restore" is no longer pre-checked in Auto-Optimize — it silently broke
  Ronin's own Auto-Backup restore points.
• BitLocker decryption banner hardened (named lookup) and a close-guard warns if you exit
  Ronin while a drive is still decrypting.

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7.3.0 — 2026-06-09

A near-complete rewrite of the engine and UI since the public 7.0.0 build. The
background worker, diagnostics, logging, status detection, ranking, and the UI controller
were substantially rebuilt (RoninCore +57%, controller +40%, tweak database +24% by size),
nearly every tweak gained a verified Revert and Check, and 40+ bugs were fixed
across the engine, tweak application, and UI.

Added

• Reclaim Space (Maintenance) — one-click deep clean: removes Windows.old and
  permanently compresses superseded update files (DISM ResetBase), typically freeing
  15–30+ GB, with a confirmation warning and a freed-space report in the console.
• Full reversibility — Revert support added across the tweak database: 126 of 131
  tweaks are now reversible (up from 106 of 125 in 7.0), each paired with a Check so the
  app can detect and roll back state accurately.
• Diagnostics & logging subsystem — Write-Diag, Write-DiagException, and
  Start-DiagSession (verbose internals, exception traces, and an environment header for
  bug reports) — all new since 7.0.
• Safer service handling — Set-Service-Registry disables services via the registry
  instead of fragile Set-Service calls that could fail or hang.
• System State Report — C:\ProgramData\Ronin\Ronin_StateReport.txt, a full ON/OFF
  snapshot of every tweak, regenerated after each audit. Click the on-screen console (or
  Maintenance → Open Logs & Backups) to open the logs folder.
• Post-batch summary dialog — after applying/reverting, shows counts (applied,
  reverted, already-optimal, failed) and names any tweaks that need attention.
• Weighted System Rank — scored against the curated Auto-Optimize recommended set and
  weighted by impact, so 100% is achievable and optional features no longer inflate it.
• Per-tweak descriptions — 45+ hover descriptions surfaced in the Information Dojo.
  Right-click a tweak to pin its description.
• BitLocker safety — live decryption-progress banner plus a close-guard that warns
  before you exit Ronin mid-decryption.
• Diagnostics engine — structured Ronin.log (events) and Ronin_Diagnostic.log
  (verbose, with environment header) for clean bug reports.
• Touch Mode — scales the UI for handheld touchscreens.
• Code-signing pipeline — Sign-Ronin.ps1 (EV / OV / PFX / self-signed-test, with
  RFC-3161 timestamping); BuildRonin.ps1 -Sign builds and signs in one step.
• New tweaks — Storage Sense, Meet Now removal, WSL and Hyper-V toggles, and
  per-power-state (AC/DC) handheld Boost Mode and EPP controls.

Fixed

• 40+ stability, correctness, and reliability fixes across the engine, tweak
  application, and UI since 7.0 — including the major ones called out below. (See the
  release's closed issues / commit history for the full itemized list.)
• Tweak activity now actually logs. The background engine ran in a runspace that never
  received the log-file paths, so every apply/revert/skip/failure silently failed to
  write (only the environment header appeared). Engine logging and snapshot backups now
  work.
• Hover tooltips stopped after toggling a tweak. Pinning was on left-click, which also
  toggles a tweak — so any click froze the description panel and disabled all hover text.
  Resolved (see Changed). The hibernation interlock and Expert Mode also left it stuck;
  both now release it.
• Search clear hid combo-box text. Clearing the search box reset dropdown text to black
  on the dark theme, making it invisible. Now restored to white.
• Build could silently produce a broken monolith. If a source file was saved with CRLF
  line endings, XAML failed to inline (a ~170 KB output instead of ~275 KB). The build now
  normalizes line endings and verifies the output, failing loudly if anything didn't inline.

Changed

• Pin a description with right-click (was left-click), leaving left-click free to
  toggle tweaks.
• The on-screen console and the Maintenance button now open the logs folder (was: the
  crash transcript / config snapshots only).
• Version unified to 7.3.0 across all files.
• Removed the irm … | iex one-line installer from the README — it is the single most
  common antivirus/AMSI trigger. Install by downloading and running Launch_Ronin.bat.
• De-obfuscated an internal manage-bde call (string-splitting tripped AV heuristics).

Security

• No telemetry, no network payloads, no obfuscation, and no Windows Defender tampering.
  All tweaks use documented Group Policy / registry settings and are reversible. Antivirus
  flags are heuristic false positives; the full source is auditable under src/. Report
  false positives at https://www.microsoft.com/wdsi/filesubmission.