v0.0.20-preview

Try Omarchy v0.0.20-preview

Camera, microphone and file-drop improvements for Windows x64.

• Use the Windows camera and microphone in guest apps. Camera capture starts on demand and stops when the app closes it.
• Drop Windows files into an open local Files folder without a transfer window taking over. Other destinations use Downloads with a notification. Duplicate names keep both files.
• Existing guests receive matching camera and TUN modules automatically. Interrupted module delivery retries on the next boot.
• Recover from orphaned package-manager locks after interrupted updates, without removing locks owned by a running transaction.
• Pause the guest during Windows sleep and resume it on wake with clock synchronization.

Existing installations keep their disk, files and settings. Use Update > Omarchy inside the guest for the full system package update.

This remains a preview. Windows sleep/wake recovery has not been verified on physical hardware. Direct drops into arbitrary applications, portable-drive lifecycle, native migration and broader Windows/GPU coverage remain unfinished. Accelerated RAM resume and Windows ARM64 are not supported.

Thanks to everyone testing and reporting issues, and to the Omarchy, WINQ-EMU, QEMU and Mesa communities.

Changes since v0.0.19-preview

v0.0.19-preview

Try Omarchy v0.0.19-preview

A reliability preview. Download TryOmarchy.exe below and run it on Windows x64. Existing installations keep their guest disk, files, and settings. The launcher updates its guest integration automatically; use Update > Omarchy inside the guest for the full system package update.

What's new

• Lighter portable copies. Creating a portable copy, or copying an existing portable installation, now writes an independently verified QCOW2 disk directly instead of staging a full backup and raw restore. Moves and snapshots also retry transient Windows file locks.
• Clean guest package ownership. The guest runtime package no longer claims the two Neovim helper commands owned by the editor package. Existing guests keep both helpers, including administrator edits, and the package database reports no duplicate ownership.
• Restored Neovim theming. New accounts get the packaged Neovim theme link again, and existing guests receive it when the launcher integration updates. Neovim follows the active Omarchy theme, and omarchy-nvim reports no missing files.

Validation and remaining preview limitations

Automated launcher, guest, and factory-image checks pass on the pinned candidate. The guest update path was exercised end to end on the checksum-verified v0.0.18-preview image, including the five-boot preservation run and the new compatibility-revision delivery, and the physical Windows draft test verifies preserved data, the new kernel boot, reboot and poweroff, rollback, and the one-time compatibility repair before publication.

This remains a preview with work still planned:

• Webcam capture and accelerated saved-session/RAM resume are not ready for use.
• Dragging directly into arbitrary guest applications is unfinished; use the transfer windows or clipboard workflows.
• Portable mode is still experimental: installed-guest conversion, external-drive lifecycle, and use on a second PC remain incomplete.
• Bridged networking and some LAN adapter/firewall controls still need hardware validation.
• Windows ARM64 is unsupported. Mixed-DPI physical monitors, additional GPU vendors, and host sleep/resume need broader hardware coverage.

Thank you

Continued thanks to @rip747 for the fresh-install update report (#90) that drives the ongoing package-lock investigation, and to @mmarmor and @Z3N-404 for the browser-theme and resource-settings reports that shaped earlier previews.

Thanks also to external contributors @tcballard (authenticated and resumable downloads, disk-space checks, and official branding), @majilesh (authenticated offline portable mode), and @pjperez (clear ARM64 detection), whose work forms part of the foundation this preview builds on.

Thank you also to @cmspam for WINQ-EMU, @jorge-huxley for the guest-builder foundation, and the Omarchy, QEMU, and Mesa/Venus communities whose work makes this project possible.

All changes since v0.0.18-preview

v0.0.18-preview

Try Omarchy v0.0.18-preview

A larger Windows preview with better file sharing, recovery tools, and graphics reliability. This is the recommended upgrade from v0.0.14-preview, the previous public release; it includes the changes developed in the unpublished v0.0.15�17 candidates.

Download TryOmarchy.exe below and run it on Windows x64. Existing installations keep their guest disk, files, and settings. The launcher updates its guest integration automatically; use Update > Omarchy inside the guest for the full system package update.

What's new

• Copy files and folders between Windows and Omarchy. Clipboard transfers preserve originals, and dedicated transfer windows support native Windows drag and drop and larger transfers.
• Snapshots and recovery. Create snapshots, restore a separate copy, or roll back an installation with disk verification and recovery data retained if something interrupts the operation.
• Move your installation from Settings. Verified copying, cancellation, interrupted-move recovery, and shortcuts that follow the new location make moving to another drive easier.
• More accessible Settings. Adjust guest resources, disk capacity, rendering, displays, and sharing. Settings remain usable on smaller screens, and disk reclaim now has tray access and progress reporting.
• Better configuration migration. Native monitor settings and the Omarchy runtime location survive restoration. Incomplete package or theme restoration is reported, and repeated restores retain separate backups.
• Omarchy 4.0.3 guest image. Includes repaired lock-screen authentication, browser theme permissions, missing media tools, and improved update notifications and guest integration upgrades.

Reliability fixes

• Updated the bundled graphics runtime with fixes for multiple display windows, display power transitions, OpenGL context handling, and GPU-to-CPU fallback.
• Fixed Vulkan video playback failures in the tested Windows GPU path, including shared memory handling and guest session defaults.
• Fixed Unicode installation paths, shared-folder names and timestamps, and Windows shortcut creation and ownership checks.
• Improved backup, restore, reclaim, move, and payload-update recovery, including cancellation and low-disk-space handling.

Validation and remaining preview limitations

Windows laptop acceptance covered persistent upgrades, file and image clipboard transfers, native transfer windows, backups and restore, snapshots and rollback, installation moves, disk growth and reclaim, network reconnect, audio, multiple display windows, rendering fallback, and an hour-long graphics session. The final bundled runtime and guest also passed default Vulkan video playback with persistent files intact. Automated launcher, guest, and runtime checks accompany the physical tests. The detailed Windows acceptance record records the evidence and its limits.

This remains a preview with work still planned:

• Webcam capture and accelerated saved-session/RAM resume are not ready for use.
• Dragging directly into arbitrary guest applications is unfinished; use the transfer windows or clipboard workflows.
• Portable-drive lifecycle testing, physical USB removal, and use on a second PC remain incomplete.
• Bridged networking and some LAN adapter/firewall controls still need work and hardware validation.
• Windows ARM64 is unsupported. Mixed-DPI physical monitors, additional GPU vendors, and host sleep/resume need broader hardware coverage.

Thank you

Thanks to @mmarmor for the detailed browser-theme permissions report (#89), @rip747 for fresh-install update feedback (#90), and @Z3N-404 for resource-settings feedback (#87).

Continued thanks to external contributors @tcballard (authenticated and resumable downloads, disk-space checks, and official branding), @majilesh (authenticated offline portable mode), and @pjperez (clear ARM64 detection). Their earlier contributions form part of the foundation this release builds on.

Thank you also to @cmspam for WINQ-EMU, @jorge-huxley for the guest-builder foundation, and the Omarchy, QEMU, and Mesa/Venus communities whose work makes this project possible.

All changes since v0.0.14-preview

v0.0.14-preview

v0.0.14-preview follows v0.0.13-preview from earlier today. It ships a rebuilt guest image (integration revision 12) and a launcher fix worth not waiting for.

Fixed

• Choosing Suspend inside Omarchy no longer freezes the VM window. The guest can no longer enter the S3 or S4 sleep states, and new guests have Omarchy's suspend-off toggle on so the system menu does not offer it.
• A runtime archive that is unchanged between releases is kept instead of being downloaded and unpacked again.

New

• The guest follows the Windows display language, alongside the time zone and keyboard layout it already follows. The locale is generated inside Omarchy and takes effect at the next login. -locale overrides it.
• Existing guests catch up with the image defaults on the first boot after an image update, without touching anything you changed: an untouched monitors.lua gets the current profile, the toggles an older image switched on by mistake are removed, and Suspend leaves the system menu.
• New guest images include the Noto CJK fonts.

File drag and drop and file clipboard transfers are not included yet. Use Omarchy Shared for files.

v0.0.13-preview

v0.0.13-preview follows v0.0.12-preview. It ships a rebuilt guest image (integration revision 9) and a launcher that adapts to the machine it runs on. Existing guest disks keep their data and gain the new guest services on the next launch.

New

• Images cross the clipboard in both directions: a screenshot copied in Windows pastes into Omarchy, and an image copied in Omarchy pastes into Windows apps. Text keeps working as before.
• The guest follows the Windows time zone and default keyboard layout, and a small guest agent keeps the Omarchy clock in step with Windows, including after sleep. A layout or zone chosen inside Omarchy stays until Windows changes.
• Automatic rendering remembers when this PC cannot run the GPU path and goes straight to CPU rendering on later launches, retrying daily or after a runtime or driver change. A new Rendering setting (Automatic, GPU, CPU) overrides it. New guests on CPU rendering start with animations off; existing guests keep their current setting.
• Guest CPUs are sized to the machine (all logical processors but two, between two and eight) with a Guest CPUs setting and -cpus. CPU rendering also gets a larger automatic RAM ceiling; GPU rendering keeps its 6 GiB.
• The VM window remembers its size and position between launches.
• Try Omarchy registers under Windows Apps & features and can be removed from there, from Remove Try Omarchy in Settings, or with -uninstall, with a full backup offered first.
• TryOmarchy.exe -reclaim gives the space of deleted Omarchy files back to Windows after the next shutdown, within a budget the Windows drive can spare.
• windows.host names the Windows side inside Omarchy.

Fixed

• The guest image now includes fcitx5, so Omarchy's input method service no longer fails and restarts every two seconds for the whole session, and the CapsLock compose sequences work. Existing guests keep their packages, so on them the service now waits quietly until fcitx5 is installed (sudo pacman -S fcitx5 fcitx5-gtk fcitx5-qt).
• Print Screen inside the Omarchy window goes only to Omarchy; Windows' own screen capture no longer opens alongside it.
• A pending runtime update on a PC that runs on CPU rendering is kept and committed instead of being rolled back and downloaded again on every launch.
• New guest users no longer start with the "no gaps" and "single-window aspect ratio" Hyprland toggles switched on, which silently overrode gaps, border size, and rounding set in looknfeel.lua (#32). Existing guests: run omarchy-hyprland-window-gaps-toggle once.
• Restore budgets free space from the backup's compressed size instead of the sparse files' nominal size, keeps the recorded file times so a restored copy does not re-download its image and runtime, and no longer asks about shortcuts again.
• Settings text under the SSH key row is no longer painted over, and messages logged before the session log opens now appear at the top of it.

File drag and drop and file clipboard transfers are not included yet. Use Omarchy Shared for files.

Thanks

Thanks to @solkkku for reporting the Hyprland config override that led to the toggle fix.

v0.0.12-preview

v0.0.12-preview replaces v0.0.11-preview. It ships a rebuilt guest payload with Linux 7.2.3 and current Arch packages. Existing guest disks keep their data and receive the updated clipboard bridge on the next launch.

New

• Backup, restore, and reset controls in Settings for stopped standard installs, plus -backup and -restore on the command line. Backups cover the guest disk, boot files, bundled runtime, and settings, and every file is checksum-verified on restore. Restore creates a separate installation with its own shortcuts and never replaces an existing one.
• Reset offers a full backup first, prepares the new disk before moving the old one, and keeps the previous disk in a recovery folder
• Disk capacity setting for standard installs with in-place growth and Windows free-space information. Lowering the setting never shrinks an existing disk.
• First-run choice between Local AppData and another local drive or folder, remembered across launches and shortcuts
• Windows folder pickers for install locations and shared folders, and an optional repair when preferences are unreadable
• Stable-release update support with a bridge for older preview launchers
• Official Omarchy mark in the app icon, setup splash, and VM window

Fixed

• Clipboard sharing after reconnects and when copying an earlier value again; trailing newlines are kept, failed sends retry, and overlapping transfers no longer suppress a later copy
• Interrupted setup reuses a completed download after a server outage or an ignored resume request, verified before use
• Cancelling setup on an existing installation removes only launcher staging files and leaves personal files, shared folders, and recovery data alone
• Portable reset keeps the previous disk and its backing identity in a recovery folder and rolls back if publication fails
• Download, update, and issue links follow the repository move to Omacom without forcing a payload refresh on older launchers

File drag and drop and file clipboard transfers are not included yet. Use Omarchy Shared for files.

Thanks

Thanks to @tcballard for the official Omarchy mark in the app branding, @7Wdev for requesting install-location and disk controls, and @Sperum for the backup request behind the new backup and restore controls.

v0.0.11-preview

v0.0.11-preview replaces v0.0.9-preview and the withdrawn v0.0.10-preview. It includes all changes since v0.0.8-preview.

New

• Recommended Omarchy Shared folder for moving files between Windows and Omarchy. It opens once when first attached, stays pinned in Files, and is available from the tray.
• Tray menu for reopening Omarchy, opening the shared folder, Settings, diagnostics, and clean shutdown
• Settings for fullscreen, memory, folder sharing, port forwarding, and SSH keys, plus a Start menu Settings shortcut
• Offline portable USB mode with persistent guest data
• Loopback-only SSH and port forwarding
• Redacted diagnostics bundles and try-omarchy-export
• Omarchy 4.0.2 for new and reset guests
• yay, base-devel, clang, Omarchy's Neovim configuration, screen recording, and missing menu and keybinding tools

Fixed

• Upgraded v0.8 through v0.10 guest disks now receive the current launcher integration without replacing the guest or user data
• Updates are verified before switching versions, and a failed first boot restores the previous guest and runtime
• Folder sharing works with CPU rendering through the bundled runtime
• Unsafe or unavailable shared folders no longer prevent startup
• Startup no longer fails solely because nested virtualization is unavailable
• Reduced idle CPU use from excessive QEMU redraw polling
• Reduced QEMU HDA audio underruns
• Fixed notification close behavior and kept notifications private on the lock screen
• Fixed Settings opening behind the Omarchy window

File drag and drop and file clipboard transfers are not included yet. Use Omarchy Shared for files.

Thanks

Thanks to @majilesh for portable USB mode, @tcballard for disk-space preflight, @pjperez for ARM64 host detection, and @Chainfire for WHPX guidance. Thanks also to @joce, @eskwayrd, @aneeskhan47, and @knighthawkbro for reports that led to fixes in this release.

v0.0.9-preview

This preview focuses on safer upgrades, a more complete Omarchy guest, and better Windows integration.

New

• Settings window for fullscreen, memory, shared folders, port forwarding, and SSH keys
• Offline portable USB mode with persistent guest data
• Loopback-only SSH and port forwarding
• Windows shared-folder links in the guest home directory
• Redacted diagnostics bundles for bug reports
• try-omarchy-export for moving files and supported settings to a real Omarchy install
• Omarchy 4.0.2 for new and reset guests
• yay, base-devel, clang, Omarchy's Neovim configuration, screen recording, and missing menu and keybinding tools

Fixed

• Existing writable guests and user files are preserved during upgrades
• Updates are fully downloaded and verified before switching versions
• A failed first boot automatically restores the previous guest and runtime
• Interrupted downloads and low disk space fail cleanly
• Startup no longer fails solely because nested virtualization is unavailable
• Lower idle CPU use by fixing excessive QEMU redraw polling
• Fewer QEMU HDA audio underruns
• Notification close behavior and notification privacy fixes

This is a public prerelease and is not offered as an automatic update.

v0.0.8-preview

• Fixed the launcher quitting on its own after about half an hour. Omarchy kept running, but the Windows key and every Windows shortcut went back to Windows, and the window could no longer be closed normally.
• Fixed setup blaming your connection when the real problem was a full disk.
• Removed a stall of about a minute when the bundled runtime rolled back to its previous version.
• Added resumable downloads so an interrupted setup continues where it stopped instead of fetching the payload again, with bounded retries when antivirus or indexing briefly locks a finished file.
• Added version details to the launcher, so Explorer, Task Manager and the Windows permission prompt now show Try Omarchy instead of a blank entry.
• Added a source-locked CI build for the patched Windows QEMU runtime, including matching source, licenses, package inventory, provenance, and per-file hashes.
• Added isolated signed test launchers so runtime candidates can be exercised without changing the production payload.
• Hardened runtime packaging and validated clean setup, CPU fallback, scoped Windows-key handling, clipboard sharing, shutdown, relaunch, and persistent guest data in a nested Windows VM.
• Made text clipboard sharing survive late guest startup, Wayland reconnects, early Windows copies, and temporary Windows clipboard contention.
• Updated the guest image to nautilus 50.3 and fd 10.5.
• Known limitation: Win+L still locks Windows instead of reaching Omarchy. Windows reserves that shortcut and no application can intercept it, so rebind the Omarchy action if you need it.

Thanks to Tom Ballard for resumable downloads in PR #7, and to everyone who reported Windows shortcuts leaking through while Omarchy was running.

v0.0.7-preview

• Added CI for launcher builds, release-pin validation, and guest patch contracts.
• Added a two-phase release workflow that rebuilds and smoke-tests the guest, signs the optimized launcher through Azure OIDC, and verifies public downloads before marking a release Latest.
• Added authenticated automatic updates for the launcher, bundled runtime, and factory guest image, with staged installs and automatic rollback after a failed first boot.
• Added bounded retries for temporary DNS, connection, rate-limit, and server failures during setup downloads.
• Made instant-mode credentials explicit in the account choice, setup splash, and a one-time first-desktop notification.
• Removed the duplicate Windows pointer over the guest-rendered cursor, with -host-cursor retained as a diagnostic fallback.

Thanks to everyone testing Try Omarchy on real hardware and over remote sessions.