November 17, 2025

Desktop Launcher improvements with GIF support, automatic updates, and more

🎮 Desktop Launcher Updates

Smart Update Checking! The launcher now automatically checks for updates when you need it.

What's New:

✅ Refresh Button Enhanced - Now verifies for app updates when clicking refresh
🚀 Startup Check - Automatically checks for updates when launcher starts
🔄 Update State Support - Refresh button now works even when update is available
⚡ Better Performance - Checks happen in the background without blocking UI

Always know what version you're running!

Version Information Improvements:

📌 Current Version Visible - Shows your installed version when update is available
🆕 New Version Highlighted - Update version displayed in status text
⏳ Checking State - Version shown even during update check (for installed games)
📍 Dual Display - Status shows new version, region version shows current installed version

Quality of Life Improvements:

🖱️ Sub-News Fixed - Empty URLs no longer trigger error dialogs
📝 Better Error Messages - Missing executables now show complete filename with extension in quotes (e.g., 'MyGame.exe')
🎨 Cleaner UI - More intuitive feedback during update checks

NEW FEATURE: Full support for animated GIFs in the desktop launcher news!

What's New:

🎬 Animated GIFs - Main News and Sub News in the desktop launcher now display animated GIFs with smooth playback
📦 Smart Caching - GIFs are cached locally for better performance
🔄 Automatic Detection - Launcher automatically detects and animates .gif files
✨ Fallback Support - Static display if animation fails
🎯 Full Coverage - Works in both vertical and horizontal news layouts

Use Cases:

Backend Integration:

🖼️ Format Preservation - Backend now correctly saves images with their original format (.gif, .png, .jpg)
📤 MIME Type Support - Frontend sends file type information to ensure correct storage
🔧 Seamless Upload - Upload GIFs just like any other image through the dashboard

Smoother Experience! Hardware acceleration and privilege management improvements.

Performance Enhancements:

🚀 Hardware Acceleration - Enabled GPU rendering for smoother UI and better visual quality
🎨 Optimized Rendering - Bitmap scaling set to high-quality (Fant) mode
⚙️ Caching Optimizations - Smart cache invalidation for better performance

Privilege Management Fixed:

🔐 Admin Privileges - Launcher updates now properly handle administrator elevation
🎮 Game Launch - Apps requiring admin privileges launch correctly without errors
🔄 Auto-Installation - Seamless app installation after UAC elevation approval
✅ Self-Patcher - Resolved issues with self-update process requiring elevated permissions

Last updated 14 days ago

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