Release 5.7.0

2026-09-07

Hash-based filtering — The "RetroAchievements-compatible games" filter now matches games by real ROM hash instead of fuzzy name matching.
Background hash scanning — Scans run off the UI thread with progress toasts, so the app never freezes while calculating hashes.
Archive-aware hashing — ROM content is hashed directly from .zip archives (and per-game zips) without extraction, so zipped games match their RetroAchievements entries.
Bundled hashing tool — Hashing is delegated to a bundled RetroAchievementsSharp CLI tool for accuracy and performance.
Updated RetroAchievements database — Refreshed RetroAchievements.dat with new systems and games.

Multi-source update fallback chain — Update checks now try the primary GitHub repository, then the transferred GitHub organization, then the secondary server (assets.purelogiccode.com), so updates keep working through the GitHub organization transfer.
Updater fixes — Fixed an updater bug where waiting for the app to exit could throw InvalidOperationException and abort the update; the updater now disposes process handles safely.
Download resilience — Raised the download timeout to 5 minutes so slow connections can complete large update packages.
Toast notifications — Replaced tray balloon notifications with modern toast notifications.

Missing emulator executable — Launching with an emulator whose executable no longer exists now shows an actionable dialog (with the configured path) instead of a generic error.
Invalid executable format — Games pointing at invalid executables (Win32 error 193) now show a direct, localized dialog explaining the problem instead of an error-log prompt.
Ymir — Archives are force-extracted before launching Ymir, since it does not support mounted archives.
Elevation — The elevation message now instructs users to disable the "Run as administrator" requirement on the emulator, and the Avalonia app gained an equivalent elevation dialog.
Parameter suggestions — System names are validated before calling the ParameterResolver API; API rejections and network failures are logged as info and handled gracefully.

Rename/remove sync — Favorites and play history now stay in sync when systems are renamed or removed, in both the WPF and Avalonia apps.
Subfolder resolution — Favorites and play-history entries pointing to files stored in system-folder subfolders resolve correctly again.
Protection against wiping favorites — Favorites are never wiped when the systems file fails to load (e.g., corrupt or transient system.xml failure).

Temp folder fix — Easy Mode downloads no longer fail when startup cleanup removes the temp folder; the folder is re-created on demand.

Unified log path resolution — WPF and Avalonia now resolve log files identically; opening the log from dialogs always opens the actual rolling log file.
Storefront icon extraction — Fixed a DestroyIconW entry-point error that threw on every successful icon extraction (handle leak + false error reports).
Microsoft Windows folders — Windows/Microsoft Games folders are created before store scans, with a warning for protected locations.
Raine config window — Opening the Raine configuration window with a null emulator path no longer crashes; it prompts for the executable instead.
Edit System stability — Fixed a crash from WPF-only cursor definitions and refreshed sidebar counts after the dialog closes.
Debug window — No longer owned by the main window, so it stays usable independently.

Dependencies — NAudio 3, Markdown.Avalonia 12, Meziantou.Analyzer 3.0.224 and other library updates.