exe 2026.10.28

A browser now signs in to exe with a passkey, and the desk keeps the API token off every address. The desk speaks Simplified Chinese and Japanese, your own computer mounts the Workspace as a drive, and Ping, a new extra app, graphs your network the way SmokePing does.

Install

Linux, and macOS 13 or later; x86-64 and ARM64 (Intel and Apple silicon):

curl -fsSL https://exe.v2core.com/install.sh | sh

Windows 11 on x86-64, in PowerShell:

irm https://exe.v2core.com/install.ps1 | iex

An exe that is already installed moves to this release with Software Update in the Apple menu, or with exe update.

New

• Use Passkey… in the API Token dialog signs a browser in with Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello or a security key. Add one in Windows → Configuration → Passkeys. Remove there signs out every browser the passkey signed in, at once. https://exe.v2core.com/docs/using/configuration#sign-in-with-a-passkey
• The token stays off every address. The desk trades it for a cookie when it loads, so app windows, terminals, movies and links no longer carry ?token= in the address bar or the history. curl, agents and joined desks still send it in a header.
• Windows → Configuration → General sets the language of the desk: English, 简体中文 or 日本語. https://exe.v2core.com/docs/using/configuration#the-language-of-the-desk
• Help → Mount Workspace… gives the Workspace's address, name and password, with Copy beside each, and the steps for macOS, Windows or Linux. Mac OS X in exe mounts it too, with Go → Connect to Server…. https://exe.v2core.com/docs/using/workspace-and-files#mount-the-workspace-on-your-own-computer
• Ping, a new extra app: every five minutes exe pings each address on its list twenty times, keeps the results in RRDtool files and draws SmokePing's graphs from them. It goes on while the window is closed. https://exe.v2core.com/docs/using/apps#ping
• Upload to Workspace… and app data take files up to 100 MB, up from 10 MB, and joined desks sync them at that size.
• Claude Code and Codex after a host restart: each session the restart stopped stays as a row, and a click continues it. The Claude Code window also groups its sessions by day. https://exe.v2core.com/docs/using/claude-code-codex-and-terminal#after-the-host-restarts
• Terminal, Claude Code and Codex windows open and close on every desk, at one size in cells, so two desks no longer resize each other's session.
• On a phone, a key row under the terminal windows sends Esc, Tab, Shift-Tab and the arrows. https://exe.v2core.com/docs/using/the-desktop#on-a-phone
• Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X download exe's own emulator on Linux, macOS and Windows: sound with nothing to install by hand, and a screen that keeps up over a network. In a test at 50 ms each way, Mac OS 9 drew 62 frames a second, up from 7. https://exe.v2core.com/docs/using/mac-os-9#sound
• Notices: a script on the machine posts one to /v1/notices, and every desk and phone shows it until someone closes it. https://exe.v2core.com/docs/using/the-desktop#notices-a-toast-that-stays
• Also: /apps/ lists the node's apps as a page of icons; Configuration → Cloudflare and Hub are summaries, with a wizard to change them; Blue Pencil keeps its checks when you choose another model; the Control Strip's activity tile shows the icon of the chart it draws.

Fixed

• On Windows, Configuration no longer scrolls sideways: its tabs were 9 px wider in Lucida Sans than the window left room for.
• A menu of the menu bar or a title bar now closes when you press inside an app's window.
• The Control Strip's Tailscale tile lights its lamps as Tailscale's T, not upside down.

The files

• exe-linux-amd64.tar.gz, exe-linux-arm64.tar.gz: static binaries, with the network helper.
• exe-darwin-amd64.tar.gz, exe-darwin-arm64.tar.gz: signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.
• exe-windows-amd64.tar.gz: exe.exe, static, not signed.
• exe-apps.tar.gz: Notes, Paint, Ping, Tides, Todo, Weather and World Clock, from exe-apps.
• install.sh and install.ps1, the installers as https://exe.v2core.com serves them, and SHA256SUMS.
• NOTES.md: what changed, as Software Update shows it.

Good to know

• Passkeys work only at a name over HTTPS, such as a Tailscale Serve address, or at localhost. They do not work at an IP address.
• Ping needs RRDtool (sudo apt install rrdtool, brew install rrdtool), and sends its pings with fping where it finds it. Until RRDtool is there, the window says so and nothing is measured.
• A joined desk on 2026.10.15 or earlier takes no file over 10 MB. It gets such a file when it is updated.
• The hub agent is gone: it was off on every node. A hub section in config.json is dropped at the next save.
• Tried before publishing: the update that Software Update starts, from 2026.10.15, on Linux (x86-64), on Windows and on a Mac (Apple silicon), each with a VM running. Each guest was shut down, not cut off, and came back. Update Now was pressed in a browser on Linux (ARM64), on an install with an API token, from a test build of this release's commit. Also exe update in a shell on Linux (ARM64), and a new install on Linux (ARM64) and on a Mac (Apple silicon), each with its questions answered at a terminal.
• Not tried for this release: a new install on Windows, and Windows 10. Passkeys were tested with Chromium's virtual authenticator, and this release run did not try one on a phone.
• The Windows build is not signed, as before.
• The Intel Mac build was only started under Rosetta, on an Apple silicon Mac. Its VMs have still not been tried on an Intel Mac.