v1.3.16

Aerial 1.3.16

Widgets and layouts

• Rebuilt the widget editor around Screensaver, Wallpaper, and Minimal modes, with shared settings by default and independent mode layouts when needed.
• Added per-display widget layouts, a finer snap grid, and a larger, more accurate preview with drag and resize controls.
• Added relative sizing and per-side padding controls for widget content.

Weather and system monitor

• Added current, three-day, and seven-day weather forecast layouts.
• Added a System Monitor widget with CPU and memory visualizations plus per-drive storage pie or bar charts, configurable ordering, sizing, and wrapping.
• Improved compact forecast spacing and system monitor controls.

Playback and reliability

• Widget edits now update the wallpaper overlay without restarting its video.
• Improved recovery of saved widget layouts when display identifiers change.
• Restored Minimal mode preview and settings access.

v1.3.15

Aerial 1.3.15

Wallpaper Mode Improvements

• Added native Windows wallpaper host support for attaching Aerial behind desktop icons.
• Added wallpaper start/stop controls and wallpaper playback controls from the config/tray flow.
• Added separate wallpaper settings for video selection, text display, playback speed, filters, and random speed.
• Added an option to start wallpaper automatically when Aerial launches.

Fullscreen & Display Handling

• Added wallpaper slowdown/pause behavior when a display is covered.
• Added an off-by-default option to slow/pause wallpaper on all displays when any display has a fullscreen app.
• Improved fullscreen/app coverage detection across multiple monitors.
• Added retry handling when attaching wallpaper windows after display changes.
• Prevented failed wallpaper attach attempts from showing Aerial as a top-level fullscreen overlay.

Playback & Diagnostics

• Improved wallpaper pause behavior to keep the current frame visible instead of blacking out displays.
• Added media playback diagnostics and controls.
• Added lifecycle/debug log management in the config UI.
• Added cache diagnostics and config backup/import/export support.

Build

• Added native media helper build step.
• Bundles the native helper into packaged Windows builds.
• Bumped version to 1.3.15.

v1.3.14 - New Wallpaper Mode

Aerial 1.3.14

This release adds a much more capable wallpaper mode, improves update handling, and polishes several configuration workflows.

Highlights

• Added wallpaper controls directly in the configuration UI:

  • Start Wallpaper
  • Stop Wallpaper
  • Next Wallpaper Scene from the tray menu
  • Optional global shortcut to toggle wallpaper

• Added automatic wallpaper start support:

  • Start wallpaper when Aerial launches
  • Restarts wallpaper after Windows resume/unlock
  • Handles user switching and display changes more reliably

• Improved wallpaper behavior when apps cover the desktop:

  • Wallpaper can now slow down and pause per display
  • Fullscreen windows pause only the wallpaper on the covered screen
  • Maximized windows are detected
  • Tiled/snap layouts are detected when multiple app windows collectively cover a screen
  • Other monitors keep playing when they are still visible

• Added separate wallpaper configuration scopes:

  • Wallpaper can have its own selected videos
  • Wallpaper can have its own playback speed, filters, text settings, and random text behavior
  • Screensaver settings remain separate from wallpaper settings

• Added screensaver-to-wallpaper continuity:

  • The screensaver can continue from the active wallpaper video and timestamp when enabled

Playback And Detection

• Added native Windows media/session helper support.
• Added an option to avoid starting Aerial when video playback is active.
• Added media status diagnostics from the Advanced/About area.
• Improved fullscreen detection and ignored-window filtering.
• Improved wallpaper refresh when wallpaper-specific settings change.

Updates

• Added in-app update support for installed Windows builds.
• Added update status, download progress, and install/restart actions in the About panel.
• Portable and .scr builds still direct users to the GitHub release page when needed.

Configuration UI

• Added mode switches for Screensaver vs Wallpaper settings in relevant sections.
• Improved playback speed slider with a wider range and visible tick marks.
• Added “Use Current Location” for latitude/longitude setup.
• Added shortcut validation to prevent conflicting screensaver and wallpaper shortcuts.
• Improved update panel styling and status messaging.

Build / Packaging

• Added a native media helper build step.
• Bundles the native helper with packaged builds.
• Rebuilt installer, portable executable, and screensaver artifact for 1.3.14.

1.3.13

Aerial 1.3.13

This release adds in-app update support for installed Windows builds and fixes the remaining light theme issues in the config UI.

• Added an in-app updater flow in the About panel for installed Windows builds:
  • detects when a new release is available
  • lets you download the update directly from the app
  • shows live download progress
  • offers a Restart and Install action once the update is ready
• Kept a safe fallback for unsupported build types:
  • portable builds still update from the GitHub release page
  • .scr screensaver artifacts still update from the GitHub release page
• Fixed the light theme top toolbar/tab strip so it now uses a near-white surface that matches the rest of the light UI
• Fixed light mode dropdown rendering where the caret/arrow image was repeating across the control
• Improved About panel update status messaging so release availability, download progress, and install readiness are visible inside the app

v1.3.12

Aerial 1.3.12

This release focuses on config UI polish, Minimal Mode preview behavior, and location setup improvements.

• Fixed renderer startup errors that caused parts of the config UI to stop rendering.
• Restored missing content in the config UI, including:
  • video list/sidebar content
  • text line option details
  • About panel release/version info
  • log manager and config backup summaries
• Fixed the Minimal Mode format helper so it shows a normal inline example instead of a large styled preview.
• Updated the top navigation so Settings, Videos, and Text look and behave more like menu tabs instead of regular buttons.
• Moved preview actions to the right side of the toolbar and renamed them to:
  • Preview Aerial
  • Preview Minimal Mode
• Fixed Preview Minimal Mode so it starts directly in Minimal Mode instead of briefly playing a normal video first.
• Improved dropdown styling across the config UI with a cleaner, more balanced caret position.
• Fixed the extra right-side gap in the toolbar caused by the tab bar pseudo-element/layout interaction.
• Standardized the Video/Text content container corner radius to match the rest of the UI.
• Added a Use Current Location button in Time & Location.
• Added inline status/error messaging when current location lookup succeeds or fails.
• Wired config-window geolocation permission handling so location can be requested directly from the app when available.

v1.3.11

Aerial 1.3.11

This release focuses on polish, bug fixes, and quality-of-life improvements around minimal mode, text formatting, and the settings UI.

• Replaced the old blank-screen behavior with a new Minimal Mode.
• Minimal Mode now hides video and all standard text overlays, then shows only a moving clock on a black screen.
• Fixed the overlay refresh issue where weather text could briefly reappear after the screensaver had already gone black.
• Added a configurable Minimal Time Format setting.
• Added preset format choices for Minimal Mode, including date+time combinations.
• Added the same time-format preset suggestions to the regular Time/Date text settings.
• Added a Test Minimal Mode preview button so Minimal Mode can be checked instantly from the config UI.
• Added Minimal Mode text styling controls, including default/custom font behavior, font family, size, color, opacity, and weight.
• Updated the General Settings layout to use a cleaner aligned label/control form layout.
• Improved responsive behavior in General Settings so rows only stack when the window is actually narrower than the default config size.
• Gated dependent options more clearly:
• Minimal Time Format and related Minimal Mode controls only appear when Minimal Mode is enabled.
• Sleep the computer after minimal mode starts only appears when Minimal Mode is enabled.
• Wait before locking on wakeup only appears when Lock the computer after running is enabled.
• Updated the README to better reflect the current feature set in Aerial.

v1.3.10

Aerial 1.3.10

This release polishes the configuration UI and makes the Videos sidebar easier to use.

Improvements

• Added a custom config window title bar that matches the app styling more closely.
• Added custom minimize, maximize, and close controls for the config window.
• Fixed config window close behavior so closing the UI returns to the tray when tray mode is enabled.
• Reduced border radius across the config and video info UI for a tighter visual style.
• Reworked the Videos sidebar filters to use a compact filter toggle.
• Kept video search always visible while moving advanced filters into a collapsible panel.
• Added an active-filter badge on the filter button so hidden filters remain visible at a glance.
• Tightened spacing in the expanded filter panel to reduce wasted vertical space.

v1.3.9

Aerial 1.3.9

This release adds weather overlays for on-screen text and improves text overlay usability.

New

• Added a new Weather text overlay type.
• Weather overlays use the app’s configured latitude and longitude from Settings > Time & Location.
• Added local weather caching with automatic refresh intervals to avoid excessive network requests.
• Added monochrome bundled weather icons for:
  • sunny
  • rainy
  • snow
  • wind
  • thunderstorm
  • partly cloudy
  • cloudy
  • fog
  • night clear
• Added temperature unit selection for weather overlays:
  • Celsius
  • Fahrenheit
• Bundled all weather icons locally so overlays do not depend on remote image assets at runtime.

Changed

• Weather data is sourced from Open-Meteo current conditions.
• No API key is required for weather overlays.

Fixed

• Fixed a regression where the Text > Position editor could stop scrolling when the content exceeded the visible panel height.

Notes

• To use weather overlays, set your latitude and longitude in Settings > Time & Location.
• If location is not configured, weather overlay lines will remain unavailable until coordinates are provided.

v1.3.8

Aerial 1.3.8

This release focuses on reliability, maintenance tooling, and faster video curation.

• Added bounded log handling so lifecycle and playback logs no longer grow without limit.
• Added a 1.3.8 startup cleanup migration to remove old runaway log files for upgraded users.
• Added a new log manager in Advanced settings with log status, open actions, and clear actions.
• Added video favorites/pinned videos support.
• Added a Favorites quick filter in the Videos tab.
• Added a pinned Favorites section at the top of the video list.
• Added favorite/unfavorite actions in the video details view.
• Added bulk selection actions for favorite videos.
• Fixed spacing and layout consistency for the new log manager controls.
• Fixed a regression where the Text > Position editor could stop scrolling when the window was not tall enough.

v1.3.7

Aerial 1.3.7

Aerial 1.3.7 is a usability-focused release that makes video management, configuration backup, and update visibility much more complete.

New

• Added video search in the Videos sidebar.
• Added quick video filters such as checked, downloaded, and user-added.
• Added faster category-level video actions for bulk selection.
• Added config export/import support.
• Added backup restore support for easier migration and recovery.
• Expanded video profiles with duplicate, rename, default profile, auto-apply on launch, and profile counts.
• Added a fuller cache manager with cache counts, category stats, stale/orphan visibility, and bulk cache actions.
• Expanded the About/Updates area with installed version, latest version, release notes, release page access, and diagnostics copy.

Improved

• Refined the Videos tab layout and spacing for a cleaner settings panel.
• Improved profile controls and spacing under the profile selector.
• Updated category action controls so they stay compact and readable instead of wrapping awkwardly.

Fixed

• Fixed the video search field losing focus while filtering results.
• Fixed overlap issues around the auto-apply profile checkbox.
• Fixed spacing inconsistencies across the video settings card.