Changelog
v2026.10.07
This release modernizes WindowTabs across the desktop runtime, tab rendering,
settings, keyboard input, workspaces, native interop, build system and test coverage.
The changes below are relative to v2025.06.30.
A new settings experience
- Replaced the old settings UI with searchable General, Appearance, Shortcuts,
App rules, Workspaces and Support pages.
- Added complete English, Chinese and Japanese UI text and a language picker.
- Provided light, dark and follow-Windows themes, with consistent themed inputs,
dropdowns, tooltips and shortcut recording.
- Added live tab previews, palette presets, custom colors and simpler layout controls.
- Added automatic saving. Atomic writes, backups and recovery protect against
interrupted or malformed settings files.
- Added settings export, import, reset and portable JSON storage. Read legacy settings
without overwriting the original file.
Tabs and navigation
- Redesigned tab rendering with Joined, Folder and Floating styles, clearer active
states, rounded edges and theme-aware text, icons and close buttons.
- Scaled tabs, icons and settings across monitors with different DPI.
- Added automatic colors by window or app, using fills or stripes. Choose individual
colors from the tab menu and optionally remember them for an app.
- Added leader selection with tab badges, a configurable key sequence and number or
keyboard-row presets. The configured leader is Alt + S; the feature starts off.
- Allowed direct number shortcuts to use Ctrl or Alt, with per-app exclusions in the tab
menu. Keep the active tab’s position in both number and leader selection.
- Added tab search, with Ctrl + Alt + T as the default shortcut for new installations.
- Improved icon retrieval, including UWP icons, and readability on inactive tabs.
- Preserved next/previous tab navigation, Ctrl + Alt + N for new windows,
Shift + scroll, startup at sign-in and brief tab visibility after switching.
Hover switching, leader selection, automatic colors and the Alt+Tab replacement
remain opt-in.
Grouping, workspaces and reliability
- Restored saved workspace groups in tab order, match changing window titles and
keep restored positions within available screens. Restoration uses open windows.
- Improved grouping, drag/drop, tab closure, minimize/restore and foreground-window
reconciliation, including rapid transitions and mixed-DPI desktops.
- Prevented deadlocks during startup and system theme changes by making thread
ownership and cross-thread service calls explicit.
- Batched window discovery and placement work to reduce UI stalls and redundant work.
- Fixed leaked native handles, shutdown cleanup and crashes when reopening Support.
- Added crash logging and a troubleshooting report that excludes private window titles
and paths. Link the displayed version to Releases without changing its appearance.
- Hidden internal window IDs in Release builds, including when a debugger is attached.
Building, testing and releasing
- Converted to SDK-style projects and current F# tooling while retaining .NET Framework
4.8. Ship a standalone Release exe without companion DLLs or a config file.
- Replaced legacy remoting proxies with typed dispatch adapters and remove unused
projects, bundled binaries, controls and obsolete activation code.
- Added regression suites for settings, rendering, input, lifecycle, workspaces and
architecture, plus Release smoke tests and real desktop E2E scenarios.
- Added build and hosted desktop E2E checks for PRs. Require both to pass on the latest
commit before merging; enforce 50% line and branch coverage in build checks.
- Added builds and tests for version tags before creating a GitHub Release draft with the exe.
Use the tag version in the app and review the draft before publishing.
- Rewrote the getting-started guide and refresh screenshots with neutral Explorer
examples in light and dark tab themes.
Upgrading
Exit WindowTabs, replace the old WindowTabs.exe with the new one and run it.
Your settings are kept. See the
installation and update guide.
v2025.06.30
The previously published release and the baseline for the modernization above.
See its release page
for the original download.