1.0.0 - A brand new era

Changelog

Note: the release was silently updated a day after the original release, fixing issues with sound in themes and with log files

Video showcasing the UI redesign:

General

• The menu entry system was completely remade:

  • Cleaner grid-like system, deeply inspired by the 3DS menu (and partially DSi/Wii menus as well), easier than ever to navigate and customize.

  • Homebrew and applications are no longer split in separate menus: the menu initially contains all applications, hbmenu, uManager (check below) and other special entries (user page, settings/themes...), and homebrew entries may be easily added in the menu (or they can always be accessed via hbmenu, of course)

• Support was added for detecting when the gamecard fails mounting (even displaying the result, something the original HOME menu doesn't do).

• Support on SD removal was improved.

• Now using arc to neatly organize result codes and display their names.

• All uLaunch components now generate logs (cleaned every reboot) which can be really helpful for pinpointing any problems.

• Translations are provided for additional languages: Spanish, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese (those volunteered by translators)

  • If you'd like to add new translations or improve existing ones, feel free to contribute!

• As always, all libraries were updated to their latest releases (therefore, this works with latest Atmosphère).

• Many other internal bits of the code were improved or straight up redesigned.

uSystem

• Basically many internal changes to reflect changes in the other parts of the project more noticeable by the end user.

uLoader

• Implemented support to use uLoader as a homebrew chooser, thus now being able to return the homebrew the user selected via hbmenu instead of launching it.

• Minor changes reflecting more closely the logic actual hbloader follows, probably fixing minor issues.

uMenu

• Changes relative to the new menu:

  • Several options previously placed elsewhere (user page, uLaunch settings/themes, controllers menu...) are now actual menu entries, making the UI cleaner overall.

  • Mii editor is now accessible from both the entry menu and the quick menu.

  • Folders are back, and better than ever! Subfolders, sub-subfolders, etc. can be created like before, while the new menu grid-like layout makes moving entries inside/outside folders more intuitive than ever.

• Major graphical improvements aside from the new menu:

  • All assets/logic were upgraded to 1080p, thus no longer having lower quality on TV (another thing the official HOME menu doesn't have).

  • Menus are highly themeable now, since more attention was dedicated to little customizable aspects.

• The quick menu can now only opened with ZL/ZR (L/R are used to nagivate through the main menu), and a mii editor option was added back.

• The web browser URL input dialog starts with https:// as default for simplicity.

• There is no longer a separate homebrew menu, instead homebrew entries are added via the new uLoader mechanism.

• Inputs are now nicely shown in an input bar right above the entry menu.

• Several menu transitions were made nicer, fading into the theme background instead of a black screen.

• Some basic checking is done on whether titles are launchable in the first place (rather than trying to launch them, failing and reopening uMenu with an error dialog)

• Increased internal menu memory from 176MB to 296MB, thus allowing loading better quality theme assets while everything else should (in principle) work fine.

Themeing: uDesigner

Themes have changed a lot: this version introduces a new version of the theme format, comprising both minor changes and a LOT more customizable stuff, to the point where all the changes are too long to be listed here.

• The new default theme has blue as its overall color and almost entirely brand new assets.

• Themes are now distributed as ZIP files.

• The themeing wiki has been rewritten covering everything about creating themes.

From all this, it follows that old themes are far from compatible (not only differences in format/files, but also on the resolution since we are 1080p now!), so any old theme must be reworked manually. Regardless, the new themeing is more customizable than before, opening many more opportunities for any creative minds out there.

Along these lines, an (experimental) official theme editor is finally here: check uDesigner!

• The wiki has also been rewritten, covering every relevant detail. Wiki pages are the perfect documentation for those who will make themes manually as well as those using the (experimental) editor.

uManager

This new release introduces uManager, a brand new homebrew app to control uLaunch's functionality!

Manually tinkering files will no longer be necessary (aside from weird cases, of course).

• Automatically enable/disable uLaunch

• Update uLaunch to the latest GitHub release

• Reset the menu layout / uLaunch's generated image cache (might come useful if something happened to break)

uScreen (formerly uViewer)

uViewer was replaced by uScreen, a brand-new (Java) tool for USB screen capturing, where its functionality is the same overall.

Remarks

Note that many other not-too-complicated features could've been added into this release: more system settings, menu entries for amiibo options, per-user theme options, important application checks that the official HOME menu does (needed updates and corrupted data)...

Features like these will (hopefully) be tested and implemented on future releases, but too many major changes were already waiting to be in a new release (for those unaware, this release's work is the result of combining features of several years of half-finished rewrite attempts) and I was not risking losing motivation again because of constantly expanding the next release's goals.

In other words: enjoy by best work despite still sucking at UI design ;)

0.3.8 - Support update for 18.0.0 / Atmosphère 1.7.0

Everything was compiled with the latest libraries, meaning proper Atmosphère 1.7.0 / system 18.0.0 support among other things

Keep in mind that these minor versions are merely support updates, while the deep uLaunch rewrite is being finished at unew branch

0.3.7 - Support update for 17.0.1 / Atmosphere 1.6.2

General

Everything was compiled with the latest libraries, meaning proper Atmosphère 1.6.2 / 17.0.1 support among other things

Keep in mind that these minor versions are merely support updates, while the deep uLaunch rewrite is being finished at unew branch

0.3.6 - Guess what, another support update

General

Keep in mind that these minor versions are merely support updates while the deep uLaunch rewrite is being finished at unew branch

uLaunch

• Everything was compiled with the latest libraries, meaning proper Atmosphère 1.5.5 support among other things

uDaemon

• Fixed an annoying bug which might cause uLaunch to crash randomly when booting

uViewer

Again, no uViewer binaries are posted here since it has no changes (v0.3.1 was the last version where it was updated)

0.3.5 - Aaanother support update, kinda

Changelog

uLaunch

• Updated for latest Atmosphere (v1.5.1) and libnx

• Fixed support for certain games, like Nintendo Switch Online titles

uViewer

• No changes (therefore no new release binaries)

0.3.4 - Another support update

Changelog

Again nothing new, just recompiled with latest libnx and Atmosphere, which was needed for the latest Atmosphere release (v1.3.1)

Again, since were there no changes at all, no uViewer binaries are provided

0.3.3 - Support update

Changelog

Nothing new, just recompiled with latest libnx and Atmosphere, which was needed for the latest Atmosphere release

Again, since were there no changes at all, no uViewer binaries are provided

0.3.2 - Various improvements

Changelog

uLaunch

• Most of the code was rewritten or cleaned up, which might mean slightly faster load times, etc.

• Reinstalled/never launched titles can be launched properly (until now, they had to be launched first on regular qlaunch in order to work)

• Other minor internal changes, fixes, etc.

uMenu

• Updated with last libnx, Plutonium and Atmosphere. This (mostly Plutonium changes) might also slightly better performance.

• Atmosphere's info is shown now along with the system firmware (like with regular qlaunch)

uViewer

• No changes (not providing new release binaries)

0.3.1 - Support and minor fixes

Changelog

uLaunch

• Compiled with latest Atmosphere libraries, effectively supporting up to 1.1.1 and 13.0.0 firmware
• Slightly reduced the main menu's memory size from 192MB to 176MB. Previously, certain applets would crash due to lack of memory (for instance, swkbd when editing a user's name on the user page), and thanks to this memory reduction these issues are fixed now.
• Fixed a bug where launching a title when another one is opened would fail due to not waiting until the opened title actually exits.

uViewer and RetroArch plugin

• Nothing was changed, only the version number was updated.

0.3 - Back in business

Changelog

uLaunch

• Updated with last libnx and Atmosphere.

• Now, instead of always overriding certain applets (if you had uLaunch on your SD), uLaunch makes use of ECS to launch its processes over a certain applet, so that the applet can be used normally when the process isn't launched.

• The internal comunication system between uLaunch's processes has changed internally and made more fast and efficient.

• Several bugs/issues with older versions were fixed.

USB support

• USB support is back (it was temporarily removed the last release due to weird technical issues)

• USB now supports an alternative system, which is available under certain circumstances (having patches enabling it being on >10.0.0) and which is significantly faster.

uMenu

• When launching homebrew as applications, uMenu won't make use of the internal flog system application it used to use (which might have been risky for potential bans). Instead, making use of ECS (mentioned above), after a donor title has been selected by pressing up, homebrew can easily be launched over that application like normal Atmosphere does. Note that you won't be able to launch homebrew over an application unless you select that application as the donor application.

• HOME menu pressing is properly supported on the different menus. For instance, pressing the HOME button inside the settings menu will make it return to the main menu.

• The default theme design was reworked, giving it a more dark/purple-ish style, in order to make it more uniform and consistent with the project's logo.

uViewer

• The RetroArch entry creator plugin was updated to work with the latest RetroArch installation.

It's been a while, but it's finally here! Have fun with a custom HOME menu!