App UI design update

[its475]

"Hi, I've taken a look at your app and I really like it, but I'd like to give you some suggestions to make it more minimal.

First of all, I would personally remove the "Models" section at the top (See file called Image-1.png). At most, I'd put a button in the settings at the bottom of the page that redirects to a GitHub page where you can check all the updated models supported by the app.

Another change I'd make in the settings is to move the "Update" section to the bottom left, so that it aligns in height with the "Power" and "Keyboard Shortcuts" modules on the right (image-2.png).

In the "Keyboard Shortcuts" section, I'd add small toggle-style buttons on the left to quickly enable or disable each shortcut. For example, if I didn't want to use certain shortcuts because they might get triggered accidentally by pressing keys, I could turn them off completely. Or u can also add a single button on the categhory. (Image-3.png)

Another interesting change would be to display all the colors in the "Appearance" section in a single row, instead of showing those three small colors wrapped onto separate lines. (Image-4.png)

The "Gaming Overlay" section could also be made a little more minimal.

In the "Status" section, instead of showing a percentage on the "CPU Fan" and "GPU Fan" graphs, you could display the fan speed in RPM, and remove the items below that I've pointed out in the image. As for the "CPU Usage" graph, you could remove the "VRAM" label and place it under "RAM" using another progress bar instead. (Image-5.png)

The "Scenario" section is already very minimal and looks great.

In my opinion, the panel that opens when you click on the tray icon is too cluttered, with too many settings. Just the ones I've shown in the photo would be enough—from the "Open Panel" section, you can handle the rest yourself. (Image-6.jpeg)

It would also be nice to have checkbox-style squares for the "Fan Boost", "Gaming Overlay", and "Lock Overlay"
options, where a small checkmark appears inside the square when activated.

I hope you find these suggestions useful and to your liking. The app is already very aesthetically pleasing, but I think a few small UI tweaks could make it even more minimal and pleasant to look at. Let me know what you think."

[wygodad]

@its475 Thanks a lot for all the detailed notes and suggestions – they’re very on point.
I’ve read through the whole discussion and I’m going over each item to see how it fits with the direction of GhostDeck. Some of your ideas I’ll try to implement directly, others might inspire slightly different solutions, but either way your feedback is definitely influencing the next updates.
I can’t promise exact dates, but your comments are now part of my roadmap.
Thanks again for taking the time to test and write this up, it really helps.

[wygodad]

@its475 Thanks for the detailed UI suggestions, most of them are in v1.17.0:

• Settings layout. The Updates card moved to the bottom of the left column so it lines up with Power and Keyboard shortcuts, and the profile colours now sit on a single row.
• Keyboard shortcuts on/off. Each shortcut now has its own toggle, plus a master All shortcuts switch, so you can disable the ones that get triggered by accident. Everything defaults to on.
• Tray menu. The order now mirrors the main tabs (Settings right after Fan curve, Change log below Language), and the Fan Boost / Gaming overlay / Lock overlay entries now show a dim marker when off instead of nothing, so their state is always visible. You can also hide Status, Fan curve, Models, Report/verify and Change log from the tray menu under Settings → Tray menu.
• Status → VRAM. VRAM is now a progress bar under RAM (when the total dedicated VRAM can be read), matching the RAM bar, instead of the used-MB tile.

On the CPU/GPU fan gauges I decided to keep both the ring and the RPM readout rather than merge them, because they show two genuinely different things: the ring is the fan duty (the % power the profile/curve requests), while the value below is the resulting RPM (the physical speed, which also depends on temperature, wear and airflow). Showing duty as a 0-100% ring stays meaningful, and the RPM tile keeps the real-world number, so both are worth having.

The circular gauges themselves and the dark-theme input fields you mentioned are noted for a future pass. Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback!

[alibi90]

@wygodad Hi After the latest update V1.17.1 I found some issues:

The top Settings icon is cut slightly.
While Scrolling the settings whenever the mouse accidentally hovers on any dropdown menu like Position, Language, power option dropdowns the scrolling doesn't work anymore and seems like the app is stuck. It's more of an issue when the mouse comes over language menu and scrolling down changes the language each time.
Also Each new update need to be downloaded from github and need to be replaced in the folder. If the update can be downloaded from the app directly and it will replace itself that will be a huge boost in seamless updates

[wygodad]

@alibi90 Thanks for the detailed report - all three items are fixed in v1.18.0, just released:

• Settings icon cut. The tab glyph was clipped to a fixed-width cell, which cut its edge at some DPI scales / font substitutions. It now draws unclipped, so it renders whole at any scaling.
• Scrolling stuck on dropdowns. Windows routes the mouse wheel to the control under the cursor, and the stock combo reacts by changing its value - that is exactly why the page stopped scrolling and the language switched as you scrolled past it. The dropdowns now pass the wheel through to the page while closed and never change their value on scroll, so Settings scrolls smoothly no matter what the cursor crosses.
• Seamless updates. The Updates tab now installs new versions directly: when a newer release is found you get an Install vX.Y.Z button, a download progress bar, and the app restarts itself on the new version (the previous exe is kept as .bak and cleaned up on the next start). Since the updater itself ships in v1.18.0, this one last update still needs the manual download - from the next release on it is one click from inside the app.

v1.18.0 also brings a full visual refresh (new logo and icons, new dark theme matching the website, faster tab switching), so quite a lot changed - feedback is welcome as always. Thanks again for testing and writing this up!

[alibi90]

@wygodad Great! Just one small thing I noticed: when I place this EXE file in standard Windows folders like Program Files or ProgramData, it does not automatically start with Windows startup. I have to open it manually every time.

However, if I place it inside a folder that was created later, it starts automatically without any issue.

[its475]

Hello @wygodad, I've taken a look at the new 1.18.0 update and I need to report some bugs and suggestions to improve the app. Let's start with the bugs.

First of all, I don't understand why, when I go to the settings tab and modify/interact with the displayed overlay panels, checking the various options also selects the "Corners" field at the bottom right. (Video-2.mp4).

VIdeo-2.mp4

Another issue I've noticed is that if I enable the "Charge Limit" overlay, even though I've disabled the charging limit, the overlay still shows that the battery charge is limited to 60%. (Video-3.mp4).

Video-3.mp4

Another problem I've encountered with the overlay concerns the CPU and GPU fan speeds not being recorded (my PC is an MSI thin GF63 12VE). Additionally, the "Fan Boost" module in the overlay section doesn't appear at all, even if enabled in settings. The "Fan %" module in the overlay section also doesn't work because it shows me "40/0% fans" – so it's not actually recording fan speeds. (Image-9.png).

Now let's move on to suggestions. To start, I'd like to ask if it's possible to change the color of the input fields, particularly the borders of the "Shortcuts" section in settings, to match the app's theme. If you're using dark mode, they appear white and aren't very pleasant to look at. (Image-10.png).

Regarding the new app icon, I really don't like it – it looks like some kind of hack or something similar. Even the little ghost that appears in the system tray looks like some hacker or VPN app xD. Instead, if you want to keep this new icon, you could add a "Use Legacy Icon" option in the app settings to use the previous icon both in the system tray and the taskbar. (Image-11.png).

My last suggestion concerns the "Battery" section: in my opinion, you should remove this section from the settings if you intend to keep it already in the first "Scenario" tab, or vice versa. (Image-12.png). I believe that the fewer settings the user has in front of them, the cleaner and more intuitive the interface becomes.

Also, would it be possible to remove the "Send feedback" option when right-clicking on the GhostDeck icon in the system tray? Sorry, it's just that I believe the more minimal and clean an app appears, the clearer and more understandable it is to use. So, I think secondary functions shouldn't necessarily be eliminated, but at least made more compact or hidden within the app.

Other than that, you've done an excellent job – I really like the new graphics, the new icons in the "Scenario" section, and the improved app theme.

[wygodad]

Thanks for the thorough testing - every item here led to a real fix. All of the below ships in v1.18.1:

• Autostart from Program Files - found it: the scheduled task stores the exe path from the moment you enable autostart, so moving the exe afterwards silently broke it. The app now re-points the task at its current location on every start, so autostart survives moving the file anywhere.
• Checkboxes highlighting the "Corners" field - clicking a checkbox moved keyboard focus to the Position dropdown, which then painted itself as selected. Fixed - the closed field no longer shows a selection highlight.
• Charge limit stuck at 60% in the overlay - the overlay was showing the live EC value, and the hardware keeps the last limit after you pick "Don't change". The overlay now shows OFF whenever the app isn't managing the limit.
• Fan speeds / Fan Boost on the GF63 Thin 12VE - these come from EC addresses that differ per model, and your model's fan addresses are unverified community data (that's also why Fan Boost hides). Could you run Report my model (flag icon, top right) and post the result? With one capture I can fix the fan addresses for the whole GF63 12V family.
• Shortcut boxes with white borders - fixed, they follow the theme now (accent border while capturing a key).
• The new icon - fair enough, taste is taste :) The ghost is the app's brand and stays the default, but v1.18.1 adds Settings -> Application icon with four styles, including the classic gauge look and a light variant - and the tray icon keeps changing colour with the active profile in every style.
• "Send feedback" in the tray menu - you can now hide it under Settings -> Tray menu.

Thanks again - this kind of report is exactly what makes the app better.

[its475]

I had an idea: in the settings tab, you could make it so that if a module is disabled, its panel collapses to save space. The issue is that for the overlay section there shouldn't be any problems, but for the others, unfortunately, since they are sections of different heights displayed 2 per row, it might not look very nice. What do you think? (Video-4.mp4).

Video-4.mp4

(Example video)

[its475]

@wygodad Another bug I found concerns the vertical resizing of certain windows, like in the case of the "User Scenario" section, which glitches for a few milliseconds while scrolling, or the "Verify my model" tab, where again the text glitches and breaks. Still regarding the "Verify my model" tab, you should add a button to re-run the test, because I accidentally ran the scan without having installed MSI Center, and now I don't know how to re-run the scan. (Video-5.mp4).

Video-5.mp4

[wygodad]

A couple more of your points are handled in v1.19.0 (just released):

"Start over" in the report wizards. Both wizards (Report my model and Fan curve) now have a Start over button next to the main one — so if you run a capture in the wrong MSI Center state, you can just reset and go again without restarting the app. Thanks for flagging that gap.

The scroll glitching. I chased this one but want to be straight with you about where it landed: I tried the standard fix (compositing the whole window while scrolling), and it removed the tearing — but it made every tab noticeably slower to paint and flashed white on startup, so I reverted it. Instead, v1.19.0 rebuilds the window hidden shortly after startup and keeps it alive when you close it (it hides to the tray instead of being destroyed), which makes tab switching and reopening instant. If you still catch the scroll glitch on the new build, a short screen clip plus your Windows display scaling (100 % / 125 % / 150 %?) would really help me pin down the exact spot.

On the collapsing-panels idea. It's a good one, and you actually named the catch yourself: the settings cards sit in two columns of different heights. If one panel collapses, that column suddenly gets shorter, everything below it jumps up, and the two columns end up badly mismatched — so a naive "collapse when disabled" makes the layout feel jumpy. I'm keeping it on the list in a narrower form: collapse only the tallest sections (Gaming overlay, Keyboard shortcuts) to their header when turned off, which wouldn't disturb the rest of the grid. No timeline promise, but it's noted.

Everything above is in the latest release — thanks again for the detailed testing, it genuinely shapes each update.

[its475]

@wygodad Hi, I've taken a look at the new update and I have a request for you. Is there a way to set a profile to activate automatically at PC startup? For example, if I want my PC to boot up with the "Silent" profile automatically active, or "Performance", is that possible?

[its475]

@wygodad Furthermore, I really appreciate the new features you've added, but be aware that the settings are becoming more cluttered. It's normal – the more features and customizations are added, the more the settings panel becomes messy and less intuitive. I would consider the idea of collapsible panels for features that are disabled. However, you'll have to try out some solution yourself to make this idea work. You could either put all the settings modules on a single row, or try to align rows of similar height by pairing them up.

[wygodad]

@its475 Your "the settings are becoming more cluttered" comment kept nagging me - you were right, the page had quietly grown to eleven sections. v1.24.0 rebuilds the whole tab:

• Settings is now split into six icon sub-tabs (General / Power / Notifications / Gaming / Hotkeys / System), the same pattern as the Status tab - each group is a short page instead of one endless scroll.
• I considered the collapsible-panels idea you suggested, but the two-columns-of-different-heights problem you spotted yourself made it feel jumpy in practice, so I went with sub-tabs instead - fewer things on screen at once, which was the heart of your feedback.
• The first sub-tab is a Start dashboard: one tile per group with a live line showing the current values (charge limit, refresh rates, alert threshold, overlay metrics, hotkeys), plus quick on/off switches for the overlay and the temperature alert right on the tiles. You can see the whole configuration without opening anything.
• The app remembers which sub-tab you were on and reopens Settings there, even after a restart.

Also in this release, since you were the first to push for cleaner UI overall: the Updates tab now shows full release notes inline (click an entry) with download counts, and from 1.24.0 every published GhostDeck.exe is digitally signed - Windows shows a verified publisher instead of "Unknown".

Thanks again for the honest feedback - it directly shaped this release.

[its475]

Hi @wygodad , I took a look at the newly released GhostDeck update and I have some suggestions for you, as well as a few bugs to report.

Let's start with the bugs. As you can see from the video, the "Settings" > "Gaming" section has a bug with the app window resizing (Video-6.mp4).

Video-6.1.mp4

As for the "Settings" section, I think it would be better if the app defaulted back to the "Start" screen every time I click the settings icon again, instead of picking up from the last sub-category I touched. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not.

I really like the new settings section, especially the "Start" page, which makes the interface very clean. The only thing I don't really appreciate is the top panel for choosing the subsection. If I can already use the large panels by clicking on them to access the settings sub-sections, what's the point of adding the top grid as well? (Image-13.png) As for going back to the "Start" settings page, simply clicking the settings icon at the top again would be enough.

Regarding the other settings sections, a couple of icons are still missing—for example, in "Settings" > "Power" > "Display"—but these are minor details (Image-14.png).

The "Hotkeys" section is nice, but I would opt for something that expands to full screen, like the "Gaming" section. As for the "Status" section, I would use the same interface as "Settings" > "Start", adding a page identical to the settings start page where you can access the "Charts", "History", "Gaming", "EC Bytes", and "Change log" sub-sections. Maybe add another subsection like "Fan Curve" to make it an even 6.

Other than that, I really like the new interface. It could still be simplified and made a bit more minimal, but it's already great as it is.

[its475]

Example image AI generated