V-Notch 2.2.1 hotfix

Changelog

This update focuses on protecting saved data and simplifying upgrades from older versions.

Changed

• Change auto-updater's API so it won't hit 60 request/hour anymore.
• Existing installations now open directly on the policy confirmation page. After acceptance, setup updates the app without repeating language selection, the introduction, installation location, or startup options.
• Manual installers and in-app updates use the same upgrade flow, including detection of legacy Inno installations. The existing installation path, language, and startup preference are reused.
• Updated the English and Vietnamese privacy policies, terms of use, and third-party notices.

Fixed

• Installation cleanup now checks recorded file ownership and hashes before deletion. Unrelated files and modified installation files are preserved; Start Menu cleanup removes only the app shortcut and empty folders.
• Failed payload copies restore existing files. Recovery copies of replaced, unverified files are retained instead of being removed by temporary-file cleanup.
• Setup waits for the running app to close and flush pending data. If it cannot close, setup stops instead of force-killing the app or its child processes.
• Cache, clipboard, and temporary-profile cleanup reject directory links and keep settings recovery files. Uninstall cleanup avoids AppData folders that overlap the installation directory.
• Settings that cannot be read or decrypted are protected against automatic overwrite. Saving stops if a recovery backup cannot be written; corrupt settings receive unique recovery copies.
• Settings migration protects credentials in existing backups while preserving other fields. User-named exports and backups are excluded from automatic backup pruning.
• Active clipboard file exports survive retention cleanup. Attachment fingerprints distinguish file names, contents, and directory entries, and a damaged Personal item no longer hides healthy items.
• Clipboard capture and image processing use bounded background work to reduce UI stalls and queued memory growth.
• Spotlight saves chat snapshots and pending preferences before shutdown, clears the live usage-history store correctly, and refreshes its application search index.
• AI streams that end before a completion marker are reported as incomplete. Lyrics can fall back after a provider fails, with timeouts covering response-body reads.

Security

• Remote clipboard image downloads reject private and local network destinations, validate redirects, and connect to the checked public address.
• Settings imports reject oversized files before reading the full payload.

Upgrade notes

• Read and accept the policy before updating. New installations still use the full setup wizard.
• Older installations without a verified file manifest may retain files after uninstall. Setup does not guess ownership and delete the entire folder.
• Installer recovery copies are retained under %TEMP%\V-Notch\<id>.recovery; restore-map.json records the original file paths.

Known issues

• Some clipboard context-menu transitions can briefly step backward. The animation regression remains unresolved.

V-Notch 2.2.0 release

V-Notch 2.2.0 Changelog

V-Notch 2.2.0 migrates core services to a native C++26 engine with AVX2 SIMD acceleration, introduces a real-time White Noise player, a 40-tick Volume HUD with overscroll physics, interaction sound effects, custom File Tray labels with drag-and-drop reordering, and local multi-drive Spotlight file search.

Notification

You'll need to download this update manually since old versions auto-updater will NOT work anymore since v2.1.0. Just update to this version and auto-updater will work automatically in later versions.

New Features

• Added a real-time White Noise strip to the Clock and Timer view with 8 synthesized ambient sounds: White, Pink, Brown, Fan, Rain, Ocean, Wind, and Stream.
• Added a Sync with timer option that fades out White Noise over 3 seconds and stops playback when the countdown ends.
• Added UI interaction sound effects for buttons, switches, navigation, sliders, menus, confirmations, deletions, and media transport, with a toggle and volume slider in Settings.
• Redesigned the Volume HUD with a 40-tick segmented bar tinted by the active media artwork, overscroll spring physics at 0% and 100%, and a morph-and-blur transition between Media and Volume views.
• Added custom File Tray labels with unlimited item capacity.
• Added drag-and-drop category tab reordering in the File Tray with live ghost previews and Alt + Left and Right keyboard shortcuts.
• Added lasso selection, Shift and Ctrl range selection, Select All, bulk deletion of selected cards, and an Empty Tray action that clears unpinned items while keeping Pinned, Private, and Archived cards.
• Added a native local filesystem search fallback in Spotlight that scans fixed and removable drives for files outside Windows Search and Everything indexes.
• Added an Ultimate GPU mode in Settings to run Liquid Glass on a discrete GPU while keeping frame rendering capped to Target FPS.

Improvements

• Added a progressive blur-and-slide entrance animation for Settings sidebar items and cards.
• Docked the shared Settings button directly into the File Tray toolbar when the secondary view is open.
• Increased Clock calendar row spacing to prevent date circles from crowding.
• Updated the auto-updater to w0otdev/V-Notch with a native Atom feed fallback when GitHub API requests are rate-limited, persistent ETag caching, and immediate download cancellation when closing the progress window.

Fixes

• Fixed the camera failing to reopen after repeated toggles by serializing device teardown.
• Fixed the live camera preview dimming when notch opacity is reduced by isolating sibling opacity masks.
• Fixed the Weather widget failing to refresh after toggling settings or changing cities, and added click-to-retry when weather data is unavailable.
• Fixed per-app volume control for browsers and packaged media apps by matching both executable paths and SMTC app IDs on word boundaries.
• Fixed File Tray visual glitches during card selection, category scrolling, and action backdrop transitions.
• Fixed repeated failed requests when a YouTube Data API key reaches its daily limit by adding automatic quota cooldown tracking.

Under the Hood

• Migrated core services, audio DSP, string and JSON parsing, DPAPI encryption, CoreAudio session matching, and Win32, DWM, and GDI integrations to a native C++26 engine.
• Added runtime CPUID detection and AVX2 SIMD kernels for glass box blur, album art blur, webcam pixel conversion, and visualizer FFT spectrum calculation.
• Integrated a single-pass 9-tap Gaussian blur directly into the Liquid Glass pixel shader and collapsed CPU rim layers when GPU refraction is active.
• Replaced NAudio and managed HTTP sockets with native WASAPI loopback capture, a Hamming-windowed FFT visualizer pipeline, and a native WinHTTP transport with instant cancellation and automatic decompression.
• Reduced managed GC allocations from 84 MB to 8.33 MB by removing per-tick allocations across privacy polling, hover detection, clipboard storage, localization lookup, and Spotlight ranking.
• Moved the Spotlight low-level keyboard hook onto a dedicated background thread and message pump so shortcuts never block on UI layout work.
• Added a generation-tagged native handle registry to prevent use-after-free and handle leaks when asynchronous searches or network requests are canceled.

V-Notch 2.2.0-beta.298.1 (beta)

Release 2.2.0-beta.298.1 from commit a1a0ada4ac804abd90b74ca5825710af995021b6.

In this build:

• Redesigned the volume bar with smoother transitions.
• Added drag-and-drop and keyboard reordering for clipboard categories and custom labels.
• Merged Liquid Glass backdrop blur into a single-pass HLSL shader to cut GPU overhead.
• Moved clipboard card reconciliation and category counting to native C++ with pooled buffers.
• Reduced UI rendering allocations in the music visualizer, Spotlight shadow transitions, and thumbnail cropping.
• Improved the Settings window reveal animation.
• Fixed visual glitches in the File Tray and Clipboard Tray dialogs.
• Fixed the Weather widget refresh and retry handling.
• Fixed camera popup activation after repeated attempts.
• Fixed background task cancellation handling during app shutdown cleanup.
• Beta testing build. Enable pre-release updates in Settings to receive these builds.

Build: 2.2.0-beta.298.1+build.40871980248.1.sha.a1a0ada4ac804abd90b74ca5825710af995021b6

V-Notch 2.2.0-beta.288.1 (beta)

Release 2.2.0-beta.288.1 from commit 1a72b8f751ca3d831d190f0c9d0fdb34c1478791.

• V-Notch-Setup.exe (requires .NET 8 Desktop Runtime)
• V-Notch-Setup-SelfContained.exe (runtime bundled)
• Signed update manifests and SHA256 checksums are attached.

Beta testing build. Enable pre-release updates in Settings to receive these builds.
Build: 2.2.0-beta.288.1+build.40620506810.1.sha.1a72b8f751ca3d831d190f0c9d0fdb34c1478791

V-Notch 2.2.0-beta.287.1 (beta)

Release 2.2.0-beta.287.1 from commit db03ed2a9b77887e4280eeabd255cf2138d18431.

• V-Notch-Setup.exe (requires .NET 8 Desktop Runtime)
• V-Notch-Setup-SelfContained.exe (runtime bundled)
• Signed update manifests and SHA256 checksums are attached.

Beta testing build. Enable pre-release updates in Settings to receive these builds.
Build: 2.2.0-beta.287.1+build.40523109760.1.sha.db03ed2a9b77887e4280eeabd255cf2138d18431

V-Notch 2.2.0-beta.286.1 (beta)

Release 2.2.0-beta.286.1 from commit 6a421ccb229728beca8827b3d5291b75ef599ddc.

• V-Notch-Setup.exe (requires .NET 8 Desktop Runtime)
• V-Notch-Setup-SelfContained.exe (runtime bundled)
• Signed update manifests and SHA256 checksums are attached.

Beta testing build. Enable pre-release updates in Settings to receive these builds.
Build: 2.2.0-beta.286.1+build.40452790102.1.sha.6a421ccb229728beca8827b3d5291b75ef599ddc

V-Notch 2.2.0-beta.280.1 (beta)

Release 2.2.0-beta.280.1 from commit 76113285ac5bec39dfb904bd44b44cd2608a7707.

In this build:

• First beta using C++26, PLEASE report asap if you counter any issue.
• Optimized RAM, CPU usage.
• Added White Noise in Clock view

Beta testing build. Enable pre-release updates in Settings to receive these builds.
Build: 2.2.0-beta.280.1+build.40169058947.1.sha.76113285ac5bec39dfb904bd44b44cd2608a7707

V-Notch 2.1.1-beta.275.1 (beta)

Release 2.1.1-beta.275.1 from commit 04142229d4bfc3247c143064a449604abac36b70.

• V-Notch-Setup.exe (requires .NET 8 Desktop Runtime)
• V-Notch-Setup-SelfContained.exe (runtime bundled)
• Signed update manifests and SHA256 checksums are attached.

In this build:

• Added SFX interactions.
• Fixed a gesture bug where viewing media title and use gesture at the same time made notch doesn't collapse correctly.
• Fixed various security problems.

Beta testing build. Enable pre-release updates in Settings to receive these builds.
Build: 2.1.1-beta.275.1+build.39975169782.1.sha.04142229d4bfc3247c143064a449604abac36b70

V-Notch 2.1.0 release

V-Notch 2.1.0 Changelog

V-Notch 2.1.0 introduces offline Live Translation with currency conversion, a redesigned File Tray with a PIN-locked Private tab, Invisible Mode, pre-release updates, and first-open UI prewarming.

Live Translation

• Added offline translation powered by local Qwen GGUF models with CPU and Vulkan GPU acceleration, plus custom single-file GGUF model import.
• Added a double-Shift selection shortcut that reads selected text across apps and opens a floating translation window near the cursor.
• Added inline Replace for editable text fields and Copy actions, fullscreen app suppression, and per-app exclusion lists.
• Added automatic price detection and live currency conversion using cached daily Frankfurter reference rates.
• Added integrity checks that preserve numbers, dates, URLs, and code spans, rejecting outputs when factual values are altered.

File Tray and Clipboard Security

• Merged Screenshot Tray and File Shelf into a unified File Tray with category tabs, horizontal card scrolling, multi-select, and direct drag-and-drop into external apps.
• Added a PIN-protected Private category and source app icons on saved cards.
• Added automatic secret detection that masks passwords and tokens on cards with a manual reveal toggle and an optional 60-second auto-delete timer.
• Added a dedicated File Tray page in Settings to toggle automatic capture for text, images, and files, adjust capture delay, and pause or resume clipboard capture.

Invisible Mode and Privacy

• Added Invisible Mode with the Ctrl + Alt + Shift + I shortcut to hide the system tray icon and exclude V-Notch windows from the taskbar, Alt + Tab, and supported screen captures.

Media and SoundCloud

• Rewrote SoundCloud track matching with reserved-url filtering, HTML metadata parsing, title and artist normalization, and artwork scoring to fix mismatched covers and playback states.
• Extracted Media Playback, Audio Mixer, Countdown, and Weather into standalone controls to reduce MainWindow complexity.

Updates and Architecture

• Added a Pre-Release update option in Settings with automatic beta-to-stable promotion.
• Added first-open UI prewarming that pre-renders XAML templates and secondary tray layouts at startup to eliminate first-expand frame drops.
• Consolidated background UI timers and added spring-based animations for tray cards, particle deletion, and settings toggles.

V-Notch 2.1.0-beta.266.1 (beta)

Release 2.1.0-beta.266.1 from commit 5c960e76aa9a9b0c548978c8f9b98ec0bfb7437d.

• V-Notch-Setup.exe (requires .NET 8 Desktop Runtime)
• V-Notch-Setup-SelfContained.exe (runtime bundled)
• Signed update manifests and SHA256 checksums are attached.

Beta testing build. Enable pre-release updates in Settings to receive these builds.
Build: 2.1.0-beta.266.1+build.38870397738.1.sha.5c960e76aa9a9b0c548978c8f9b98ec0bfb7437d