KesVio v0.5.5

KesVio is a local-first Windows app catalog for finding, organizing, and launching desktop, Microsoft Store, Steam, and portable apps.

Highlights

This release reopens KesVio where you left it, makes Favorites compact, gives Hidden, Auxiliary tools and Installers & Docs a one-click main action, tells you which installers are already outdated, and tightens accessibility, data safety and the release itself.

Added

• KesVio reopens where you left it. The window opens on the view that was open when you closed it — Favorites, Scenarios, Settings or any other — instead of always on All Apps.
• One-click actions on the utility pages. Hidden and Auxiliary tools show Restore on every row, and Installers & Docs shows Folder; the ⋮ menu no longer repeats them. Restore all on Hidden asks for confirmation, lists the apps it will bring back, and can be undone in one step with Ctrl+Z.
• Outdated installers stand out. An installer older than the version of the same program you already have installed says Installed X is newer, so it is safe to delete.
• Why a tool is auxiliary. Every row in Auxiliary tools names its reason (for example Runtime directory or Maintenance executable), and chips — a single list on a narrow window — narrow the page to one reason.
• Versions fold together. Several versions or copies of one program (same name and publisher) show as one row with the newest in front and a +N toggle that opens the others smoothly.

Changed

• Favorites is compact. The title counts applications and scenarios in one line, starred scenarios are small cards two to a row even on the smallest window, and expanding one shows its apps as compact icons.
• Installers show their folder. Installers & Docs names the folder an installer sits in instead of printing the whole path; the full path is in the tooltip.
• Wider lists on large screens. Hidden, Auxiliary tools and Installers & Docs line their title up with the list and fill the window with as many columns as fit.
• Keyboard focus stays in place. Hiding, restoring or moving an app back keeps focus on the neighbouring row instead of dropping it to the top of the window.
• Shortcuts wait for open dialogs. While a dialog is open, Ctrl+F, / and Ctrl+Z do nothing, and Ctrl+K / Ctrl+Shift+K only close their own launcher, so Undo never reverts a change hidden behind a confirmation.
• Quieter scan log. A routine scan no longer writes one line per file of the installer cache; the diagnostics log keeps the first steps of each stage and at most one line a second after that.

Fixed

• A removable drive no longer refills Recently added. Plugging a USB stick back in used to list every program on it as new; programs on a drive that is away keep their first-seen date. Your preferences upgrade automatically.
• App icons in the scenario picker. Adding apps to a scenario right after KesVio opened on Scenarios showed placeholder icons; they now load.
• Safer catalog cache writes. A damaged cache file never replaces the good backup copy it was recovered from.
• Uninstalling removes the logs. The uninstaller always deletes KesVio's diagnostics logs, including the per-user fallback folder.

Security

• The window can call only the individual system permissions it uses, scan settings and close requests have upper bounds, and every release now publishes a CycloneDX software bill of materials (KesVio_0.5.5_sbom.cdx.json) beside the installer.

Install

1. Download KesVio_0.5.5_x64-setup.exe.
2. Run it. The installer needs no administrator rights and installs for the current user into %LOCALAPPDATA%\KesVio; you can pick another folder on the install page. Because it is not Authenticode-signed, SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC; choose More info → Run anyway.
3. If Microsoft Edge WebView2 is missing, the embedded bootstrapper downloads it from Microsoft and requires internet access.

Updating from 0.5.4 takes one click on Update 0.5.5 available under the KesVio name, or Settings → Check updates. Every preference and the catalog cache are kept; the preferences document upgrades in place.

Verification

The installer is not Authenticode-signed, so these are published beside it instead:

• SHA256SUMS.txt — compare it with Get-FileHash KesVio_0.5.5_x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256.
• A build provenance attestation tying these exact bytes to the workflow run and commit that produced them — gh attestation verify KesVio_0.5.5_x64-setup.exe --repo keskiyo/KesVio.
• KesVio_0.5.5_sbom.cdx.json — the inventory of every third-party component in the installer.

Full Changelog: v0.5.4...v0.5.5

KesVio v0.5.4

KesVio is a local-first Windows app catalog for finding, organizing, and launching desktop, Microsoft Store, Steam, and portable apps.

Highlights

This release turns updating into one click from the sidebar, joins the navigation and the catalog into one window frame, stops the header from jumping when a saved filter is applied, and makes the interface easier to read and to use on a touch screen.

Added

• The version sits under the KesVio name. The sidebar and the navigation drawer show the running version below the logo.
• Updates install from one pill. When a new version is available, the version line becomes Update X available. One click downloads it, verifies the updater signature, installs it and restarts KesVio. While it runs, the pill turns into a progress bar with the download percentage and then the stage (Verifying, Installing, Restarting); you can keep using the catalog meanwhile. If the update fails, the pill offers Retry update X and a notice explains what went wrong, with Open release to download the installer by hand.

Changed

• No more update banner or update dialog. The strip above the catalog and the confirmation window with release highlights are gone; the full release notes stay on the GitHub release page. Settings → Check updates and the automatic-check switch remain, and a version found there appears in the sidebar pill.
• Settings looks like the other pages. Its header now has a gear icon, the title and a short description, like More; the logo and version moved to the sidebar.
• One window frame. On wide windows the navigation sidebar no longer floats as a rounded island: it sits flush against the window edge in the same translucent material as the header, and the line under the logo meets the line under the search bar across the whole window.
• The header keeps its height. An applied saved filter now appears right after the apps · tools found count instead of adding a row, so the catalog no longer shifts down, and the chip is next to what it filters instead of in the far corner.
• The platform badge sits on the icon. The Store, Steam or portable mark moved to the corner of the app icon, so it never covers the app name at any card density.
• Easier to read. Secondary text, counts and descriptions have more contrast against the dark surfaces.
• Easier to tap. On a touch screen buttons and links get a 44 × 44 px target; small controls laid over cards (menu, favourite, remove badges, search clear) keep their size so they never cover the app icon.
• Thin scrollbars everywhere. Every scrolling area uses the same 8 px scrollbar without arrow buttons.
• Unrecognised applications in Settings stretches its action button across the card on a narrow window like every other card action.

Fixed

• Recently added stays recent. Every start used to move dozens of long-installed programs into Recently added; an application is now stamped once, the first time the catalog carries it.
• A restored window respects the minimum size. The saved window position could reopen the window a few pixels narrower than the 446 px the interface is designed for; it is now held to the configured minimum.
• A long saved-filter name no longer widens the sidebar, and on a 446 px window the scan button stays inside the header.

Install

1. Download KesVio_0.5.4_x64-setup.exe.
2. Run it. The installer needs no administrator rights and installs for the current user into %LOCALAPPDATA%\KesVio; you can pick another folder on the install page. Because it is not Authenticode-signed, SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC; choose More info → Run anyway.
3. If Microsoft Edge WebView2 is missing, the embedded bootstrapper downloads it from Microsoft and requires internet access.

Updating from 0.5.3 still happens through that version's update notice or Settings → Check updates, and keeps every preference and the catalog cache; nothing is migrated. From 0.5.4 on, later versions install from the sidebar pill.

Verification

The installer is not Authenticode-signed, so two things are published beside it instead:

• SHA256SUMS.txt — compare it with Get-FileHash KesVio_0.5.4_x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256.
• A build provenance attestation tying these exact bytes to the workflow run and commit that produced them — gh attestation verify KesVio_0.5.4_x64-setup.exe --repo keskiyo/KesVio.

Full Changelog: v0.5.3...v0.5.4

KesVio v0.5.3

KesVio is a local-first Windows app catalog for finding, organizing, and launching desktop, Microsoft Store, Steam, and portable apps.

Highlights

This release teaches search the names of about 7 800 more applications without touching the network, makes it harder for one program to answer to another program's name, tidies Backup & Restore, Catalog Health and the saved-filter list, and asks before a scan folder is removed.

Added

• Search knows far more short names. Beside the built-in dictionary of about 200 well-known applications, the catalog now carries a compiled index of aliases taken from the public winget-pkgs manifests (MIT): monikers, command names and alternate product names for about 7 800 packages. Type kubectl, nvim, protonvpn, chrome-beta, firefox-esr, windowsupdateblocker, hddllftool or windows sdk and the matching program answers even when its display name says something else. The index is part of the installer; KesVio never downloads it, never sends a query anywhere, and a program earns an alias only when its executable, publisher or package family agrees with the package — a name alone counts as a hint, not proof.
• Results catch up on their own. The alias index is loaded a moment after the window appears; a search typed before it arrives updates itself once it is there, in the catalog, in Ctrl+K and in the scenario app picker alike. If the index cannot be loaded, search simply works as before.
• Removing a scan folder asks first. Under Settings → Catalog → Application discovery the remove button opens a confirmation that shows the folder path before anything changes.

Changed

• Backup & Restore has two cards. Create backup saves a JSON backup, and Recover settings gathers Import a backup file and Restore the local recovery copy; the local option is disabled when no valid recovery copy exists, and a confirmation keeps keyboard focus where you were when it closes.
• Catalog Health is calmer. The verdict card shows three plain numbers; the duration and the change counts live in the Last scan panel, and the sources table stays inside the window at the minimum width.
• Saved filters fold. The navigation shows the first six saved filters with Show all … saved filters to expand the rest, and each row keeps its delete button.
• More stays highlighted in the navigation while Auxiliary tools, Scenarios, Hidden, Installers & Docs, Catalog Health or Backup & Restore is open.

Fixed

• A hosted program no longer borrows its host's name. A launcher that runs through javaw.exe, pythonw.exe or an Electron shell used to answer to java, python or electron; it now answers only to its own name.
• Publisher names with a domain suffix (Sordum.org in the manifest, Sordum in the file) are recognised as the same publisher, so programs like Wub get their aliases.
• Generated abbreviations never spell a command word. A three-word product no longer turns into scp or cmd, and a name that carries a URL produces no abbreviation at all.

Install

1. Download KesVio_0.5.3_x64-setup.exe.
2. Run it. The installer needs no administrator rights and installs for the current user into %LOCALAPPDATA%\KesVio; you can pick another folder on the install page. Because it is not Authenticode-signed, SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC; choose More info → Run anyway.
3. If Microsoft Edge WebView2 is missing, the embedded bootstrapper downloads it from Microsoft and requires internet access.

Updating from 0.5.2 through Settings → Check updates keeps every preference and the catalog cache; nothing is migrated, the alias index is a new file inside the application.

Verification

The installer is not Authenticode-signed, so two things are published beside it instead:

• SHA256SUMS.txt — compare it with Get-FileHash KesVio_0.5.3_x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256.
• A build provenance attestation tying these exact bytes to the workflow run and commit that produced them — gh attestation verify KesVio_0.5.3_x64-setup.exe --repo keskiyo/KesVio.

Full Changelog: v0.5.2...v0.5.3

KesVio v0.5.2

KesVio is a local-first Windows app catalog for finding, organizing, and launching desktop, Microsoft Store, Steam, and portable apps.

Highlights

This release brings back Launch when Windows starts as a switch inside KesVio, makes an autostart launch quiet, follows portable apps on a USB stick when its drive letter changes, and adds saved catalog filters, undo, tray favorites and search, a gentler scenario close policy, and a redacted diagnostics export.

Added

• Launch when Windows starts is a switch again. It lives under Settings → Startup & window, is off after a fresh install, and shows the same state as Windows Settings → Apps → Startup — flip it in either place and the other follows. KesVio changes only the on/off state of the startup entry the installer registered; it never creates a startup entry of its own. If that entry is missing, the switch is disabled and the row says to reinstall.
• Quiet start at sign-in. When Windows starts KesVio, it stays in the tray at below-normal priority and waits up to a minute before its first background scan, so it does not compete with everything else that is starting. Opening the window ends the quiet start immediately.
• Removable drives. Add a drive root such as F:\ under Settings → Advanced → Application discovery and its applications land in one Disk F category. The category follows the stick, not the letter: the same drive mounted as G: keeps its category, its name and its favorites, and a stick that is out simply hides its category until it returns.
• Saved catalog filters. Up to 20 named filters by source, publisher, availability and "added within" sit above the categories in the navigation; the header chip shows which one is active and lets you edit or clear it.
• Undo the last change. Hiding or restoring an app, moving it to a category, renaming a category and editing a scenario can be undone with Ctrl+Z while focus is outside a text field. The change itself raises no notification.
• Tray: search and favorites. The tray menu gains Search, the first five Favorite apps with Show all favorites…, and keeps Scenarios and Force scan.
• Scenario close policy. New scenarios close applications gracefully and leave a program that refuses open; the editor offers force after five seconds for scenarios that need it. Scenarios created earlier keep the behaviour they had.
• Catalog sources in Settings. Each source — Installed programs, Start Menu, Start apps, Installer cache, Steam, Portable folders — reports Up to date, Unavailable, Incomplete, Failed or Not scanned, and Refresh catalog runs the ordinary refresh from there.
• Redacted diagnostics export. Export log as XML replaces every path, URL, account and machine name and any credential-looking value with stable placeholders before the file is written; Preview redacted log shows exactly what would be exported.

Changed

• Background scans are quiet. A watcher or startup scan updates the catalog in place without raising a notification; only a refresh you start reports back.
• One card per portable product. Helpers that carry the product's own name and version — the thirty tools Git for Windows ships as Git, or the 32-bit, 64-bit and ARM builds of one program — collapse into the one entry you would launch.
• A scan that hits a temporary problem retries on its own. A source that did not answer or a folder that could not be reached is retried after 5, 20 and 60 seconds, scoped to that source; nothing already in the catalog is dropped meanwhile.
• Reinstalling keeps your startup choice. Running a newer installer over an existing copy no longer resets Launch when Windows starts; only a real uninstall removes the entry.
• Installers & Docs read like Auxiliary tools. Installers and documentation are listed as rows with the full name, publisher, version and the file's own location instead of compact tiles, so two downloads of the same setup can be told apart before you run one.
• Keyboard and screen readers. In the sidebar Enter opens a category and Space picks it up for reordering; only the topmost dialog answers Escape or traps Tab; decorative icons are hidden from assistive technology, and focus and toggle states stay visible under Windows High Contrast.

Fixed

• Icons of programs found through the Windows registry stayed blank. Their catalog ids contain |, and the icon request split on that character, so those entries were asked for in pieces the catalog did not recognise. They now load like every other card.
• Catalog source details fit the minimum window width. Settings now presents source health as compact labelled rows on narrow windows instead of clipping the last columns of the table.
• Publisher filters stay stable while selecting values. The search field and list no longer jump or gain a horizontal scrollbar as publishers are selected.
• A refresh that finished after a background scan had already moved the catalog on could roll the catalog back to older data; every result now carries its generation and an older one is ignored.

Install

1. Download KesVio_0.5.2_x64-setup.exe.
2. Run it. The installer needs no administrator rights and installs for the current user into %LOCALAPPDATA%\KesVio; you can pick another folder on the install page. Because it is not Authenticode-signed, SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC; choose More info → Run anyway.
3. If Microsoft Edge WebView2 is missing, the embedded bootstrapper downloads it from Microsoft and requires internet access.

Updating from 0.5.1 through Settings → Check updates keeps every preference: saved filters start empty, existing scenarios keep their close behaviour, and the catalog cache upgrades in place.

Verification

The installer is not Authenticode-signed, so two things are published beside it instead:

• SHA256SUMS.txt — compare it with Get-FileHash KesVio_0.5.2_x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256.
• A build provenance attestation tying these exact bytes to the workflow run and commit that produced them — gh attestation verify KesVio_0.5.2_x64-setup.exe --repo keskiyo/KesVio.

Full Changelog: v0.5.1...v0.5.2

KesVio v0.5.1

KesVio is a fast, private application catalog and launcher for Windows 10 and 11. It gathers Start Menu shortcuts, installed software, Store apps, Steam games, and portable executables into one searchable catalog.

Highlights

This is a bug-fix release. If your catalog ever came up empty, this is the one to install.

• Fixed: the catalog could stay empty and never recover. On some computers a scan crashed part-way through reading an application's file details, and the catalog stayed at 0 apps with Could not refresh the application list. It happened when an installed program's file details contained non-Latin characters, so Russian and other non-English systems were the ones affected.
• A crashed scan says so. It now reports its own code instead of looking identical to a scan you cancelled yourself.
• Diagnostics are more useful when something does go wrong. The exported log states up front whether the session crashed, and the scan log names the application it was processing rather than only the stage it was in.

Install

1. Download KesVio_0.5.1_x64-setup.exe.
2. Run it. The installer needs no administrator rights and installs for the current user into %LOCALAPPDATA%\KesVio; you can pick another folder on the install page. Because it is not Authenticode-signed, SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC; choose More info → Run anyway.
3. If Microsoft Edge WebView2 is missing, the embedded bootstrapper downloads it from Microsoft and requires internet access.

Verifying this download

The installer is not Authenticode-signed, so two things are published beside it instead:

• SHA256SUMS.txt — compare it with Get-FileHash KesVio_0.5.1_x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256.
• A build provenance attestation tying these exact bytes to the workflow run and commit that produced them — gh attestation verify KesVio_0.5.1_x64-setup.exe --repo keskiyo/KesVio.

Full Changelog: v0.5.0...v0.5.1

KesVio v0.5.0

KesVio is a fast, private application catalog and launcher for Windows 10 and 11. It gathers Start Menu shortcuts, installed software, Store apps, Steam games, and portable executables into one searchable catalog.

Highlights

• One card per application — however many sources found it. Shortcuts, registry entries and Store packages for the same program are merged rather than listed side by side.
• Startup is yours to switch on — the installer registers a Startup entry and leaves it off, so KesVio appears in Windows Settings → Apps → Startup for you to enable if you want it.
• It removes no software — uninstalling stays with Windows, and the card menu opens the Windows page for it.

Install

1. Download KesVio_0.5.0_x64-setup.exe.
2. Run it. The installer needs no administrator rights and installs for the current user only. Because it is not Authenticode-signed, SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC; choose More info → Run anyway.
3. If Microsoft Edge WebView2 is missing, the embedded bootstrapper downloads it from Microsoft and requires internet access.

Verifying this download

The installer is not Authenticode-signed, so two things are published beside it instead:

• SHA256SUMS.txt — compare it with Get-FileHash KesVio_0.5.0_x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256.
• A build provenance attestation tying these exact bytes to the workflow run and commit that produced them — gh attestation verify KesVio_0.5.0_x64-setup.exe --repo keskiyo/KesVio.

Full Changelog: v0.4.1...v0.5.0

AppNook v0.4.1

AppNook is a fast, private application catalog and launcher for Windows 10 and 11. It gathers Start Menu shortcuts, installed software, Store apps, Steam games, and portable executables into one searchable catalog.

Highlights

• A quieter application — the automatic update check now runs at most once every four hours instead of on every start, and the data folder beside the executable is probed once rather than on every launch. Check for updates in Settings still checks immediately.
• Startup is yours to switch on — AppNook now appears in Windows Settings → Apps → Startup, installed off. Turn it on there if you want AppNook to start with Windows.

Install

1. Download AppNook_0.4.1_x64-setup.exe.
2. Run it. Because the installer is not Authenticode-signed, SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC; choose More info → Run anyway.
3. If Microsoft Edge WebView2 is missing, the embedded bootstrapper downloads it from Microsoft and requires internet access.

Upgrading from 0.4.0 keeps your settings and catalog; no export or import is needed.

Full Changelog: v0.3.9...v0.4.1

AppNook v0.4.0

AppNook is a fast, private application catalog and launcher for Windows 10 and 11. It gathers Start Menu shortcuts, installed software, Store apps, Steam games, and portable executables into one searchable catalog.

Windows Apps is now AppNook

The project has been renamed. The application, the installer, the window, the tray entry and the repository all carry the new name, and the icon is now the one the README has always shown.

This release does not update an existing installation. The rename changes the application identity Windows uses to recognise it, so an installer for this version installs AppNook alongside the old Windows Apps entry rather than replacing it.

1. In Windows Apps, the version you have now: Settings → Advanced → Backup & restore → Export settings.
2. Install AppNook and import that file from the same section.
3. Uninstall Windows Apps from Settings → Apps → Installed apps.
4. Run Settings → Advanced → Catalog maintenance → Force full scan.

Favorites, categories, scenarios and the catalog cache belong to the old identity and do not carry over. To keep them, use Settings → Advanced → Backup & restore → Export settings in the old version before uninstalling it, then import that file in AppNook.

Highlights

• Windows Apps is now AppNook — this installs the renamed app beside the old one, it does not replace it. Export your settings first, then uninstall Windows Apps.
• Scans find your applications again — fixed-drive discovery is on by default, Force full scan has its three-minute budget back, and a scan stopped by a limit keeps what it found instead of discarding the whole run.
• A diagnostics log you can hand to someone — AppNook records what every scan does and writes it out as XML from Settings → Advanced → Diagnostics log.
• Closing the window is your choice — decide whether the close button leaves AppNook in the notification area or quits it.
• The window comes back where you left it — size, position and maximized state are restored on the monitor they were on, and the window returns to the middle of a remaining monitor when that display is gone.

Install

1. Download AppNook_0.4.0_x64-setup.exe.
2. Run it. The installer is not Authenticode-signed, so SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC; choose More info -> Run anyway.

Full Changelog: v0.3.9...v0.4.0

Windows Apps v0.3.9

Windows Apps is a fast, private application catalog and launcher for Windows 10 and 11. It gathers Start Menu shortcuts, installed software, Store apps, Steam games, and portable executables into one searchable catalog.

Highlights

• Windows owns the startup entry now — the Launch when Windows starts switch is gone, and so is the registry value the running application used to write for it. A fresh install registers an ordinary Startup shortcut instead, so Windows Apps is waiting in the tray after you sign in. Turn it on or off in Settings → Apps → Startup, next to every other program; installing an update never overrides that choice, and the registry value left by an earlier version is removed.
• No more phantom applications from inside Electron bundles — helper binaries unpacked beside an .asar archive were catalogued as installed software, which is where those wrong install locations came from. Run Settings → Advanced → Catalog maintenance → Force full scan once after updating to clear them from an existing catalog.

Install

1. Download Windows.Apps_0.3.9_x64-setup.exe.
2. Run it. The installer is not Authenticode-signed, so SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC; choose More info -> Run anyway.

Full Changelog: v0.3.8...v0.3.9

Windows Apps v0.3.8

Windows Apps is a fast, private application catalog and launcher for Windows 10 and 11. It gathers Start Menu shortcuts, installed software, Store apps, Steam games, and portable executables into one searchable catalog.

Highlights

• Icons stay visible — refreshing the catalog no longer resets cards; new icons are correctly matched to the latest scan.
• Search points to other results — empty views now show matches from other catalog sections.
• Long scenarios stay compact — apps remain on one row, with the rest hidden behind a counter and opened on demand.

Install

1. Download Windows.Apps_0.3.8_x64-setup.exe.
2. Run it. The installer is not Authenticode-signed, so SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC; choose More info -> Run anyway.

Full Changelog: v0.3.7...v0.3.8