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What's new

Glassline 1.0.11 ·

See what changed

1.0.11

Find a file by what it says

Type what a document is about, like electricity bill, and Search finds it even when its name says nothing of it. Its model is downloaded once, and your documents stay on your PC. It finds Glassline's own settings too: type make the dock smaller and Search shows Dock size.

Text and screen actions

Press Alt Shift Q and drag over any part of the screen, even a picture or a video. Copy the words in it, translate them, hear them read aloud or search the web.

Apps by kind

Search and Launchpad can sort your apps the way Windows' own Start does: games with games, creative apps together. Turn it on for either, or both.

Search from an icon

Put a Search icon in the menu bar or in the dock, for when a click is handier than the keys.

Your drives in the dock

A USB stick or an external disk shows in the dock while it is plugged in. Click it to open it, drop files on it to copy them, and eject it from its menu.

Zoom the whole screen

Choose the keys in Settings: Ctrl and Alt, the Windows key or Ctrl alone. Hold them and turn the mouse wheel, and the whole screen zooms in around the pointer.

Each display, its own wallpaper

Choose a different wallpaper for each display without leaving Glassline. Each display keeps the one you gave it.

The logo can open Start

Rather have Windows' own Start menu? A click on the logo opens it, and the menu bar's menu is still a right-click away.

Lighter and faster again

Settings has a Performance page: turn Glass blur off and the bar, the dock and panels go solid, which asks less of the graphics card. While a game fills the screen, Glassline rests and leaves the PC to the game.

Gaps around maximized windows

Switch it on in Settings, Dock, and a maximized window keeps a small gap on every side and its round corners, with the menu bar and the dock clear. Drag it by its title bar and it goes back to its own size.

Also new

  • Choose how long the menu bar waits before it hides
  • A tidier Launchpad, with folders as in Windows' Start and any app hidden from its right-click menu
  • Change Icon in Launchpad's right-click menu gives any app or folder your own picture, and the dock shows it too
  • A Control Center button that stays in the menu bar if you want it
  • A brightness slider for each display in Control Center
  • How many windows an app has open on its dock icon, as a number, a dot for each or a badge (Settings, Dock)
  • Any app can stand right of the divider and the Recycle Bin among your apps
  • Run as administrator in an icon's right-click menu
  • Hold a file over an open app's icon and its window comes forward, so you can drop the file on it
  • Web apps from Chrome and Edge show with their own icon and name
  • A floating dock's distance from the screen edge (Settings, Dock)
  • The dock gets out of the way at once when a video goes full screen
  • The Calendar opens Today on its own display
  • On a touch screen a first tap on the dock opens the app, a finger scrolls lists and Settings, Launchpad swipes its pages, and menus can grow for a fingertip (Settings, Accessibility)
  • Icons stay sharp as they grow, with the far end holding still as on a Mac

Fixes

Among them:

  • An app asking for attention that kept bouncing (now three bounces, then its orange dot)
  • Steam kept in the dock that would not open once closed to the tray
  • A shortcut with options of its own (like Firefox -P) that brought the open window forward instead of starting
  • Glassline's Settings missing from Alt Tab and staying on top of every window
  • Magnifier and a few other apps in a white frame in Launchpad
  • An app's name from the dock showing over Launchpad
  • An app in a Launchpad folder also standing outside it
  • Launchpad closing when its page dots or a folder were tapped
  • An app panel or a window preview left on the screen
  • Shortcuts in a dock folder named with .lnk
  • Windows Terminal named Windows Terminal Host in the menu bar
  • Settings that would not scroll with the mouse wheel until the pointer moved again

Earlier versions

1.0.10

  • Launchpad: click the Apps icon in the dock and every app opens across the screen, page after page. Drag them into the order you like.
  • Folders in Launchpad: drop one app on another to make a folder, then click its name to call it what you like.
  • The menu bar can hide by itself, like the dock: when a window is maximized, or always. Point at the edge to bring it back (Settings, Menu Bar).
  • Easier to read on thin glass: panels, menus and Search take their colour from what is right behind them, and each side of the menu bar picks its own text.
  • Bigger icons, same dock: the icons grow and only the room around them gets smaller (Settings, Dock, Icon size).
  • Drag icons between docks: with a dock on every display, pick up an icon in one and drop it into another.
  • Screenshots in one drag: press Alt Shift 4, drag over what you want and let go. The picture is saved on your desktop at once. Alt Shift 3 takes the whole screen.
  • A logo at the left end of the menu bar. Click it for All Apps, Show Desktop, Task Manager, Sleep, Hibernate (where Windows has it on), Restart and Shut Down.
  • Choose where notifications show: where Windows puts them, or at the top right under the menu bar (Settings, Menu Bar).
  • Launch Options: right-click an app in the dock to give it what it should start with, like a private window for your browser.
  • The Windows key can bring out the dock, even over an app that fills the screen (Settings, Shortcuts).
  • The menu bar takes its colour from a live wallpaper too, like those of Wallpaper Engine. With several displays, each bar reads its own.
  • The Apps icon where you want it: drag it out of its place on the right and drop it anywhere among your apps.
  • Also new: a click on the app's name in the menu bar opens its panel, with its windows, its volume, recent files, Keep on Top and Quit (Force Quit when it is frozen); a new setup, Quick setup or Show me everything, with a little clip and the switch for every feature; Separate dock background, for a clear menu bar over a glass dock (Settings, Appearance); Tint the dock like the menu bar, over a maximized app (Settings, Dock); Follow Windows' animation effects, so the dock and the menu bar stop moving when Windows' animations are off (Settings, Accessibility); Reduce transparency keeps the menu bar and the dock almost solid; shortcuts without the Windows key work over Task Manager and games running as admin, and Settings tells you when a combination is taken; Settings shows under an option when another one changes what it does, and greys out what cannot work right now; the date in the menu bar in the format you choose; a Calendar icon in the dock that shows today's date; Search translates into your preferred language when you name none, and single words translate much better; Control Center leaves no empty room when you switch parts off, and Wi-Fi, Sound or Battery taken out of the menu bar come back in Control Center; notifications at the top right stay under the menu bar's place, also while it hides; and the dock moves aside when Start is aligned to the left.
  • Fixes. Among them: a crash on pointing at an icon in the dock; a rare crash tied to Bluetooth; shortcuts of your own that worked only once a run; a click on the weather that showed nothing until Alt+Tab; Show Desktop forgetting the window that was in front; feedback lost while the website could not be reached, now kept and sent later; a menu bar of two shades, or a line of wallpaper under it, over a maximized app; app icons in the menu bar a little blurry at some scales; a small dark bar under an app's icon while it starts (Spotify); ChatGPT's buttons hidden under the menu bar while maximized; the dock left black on the desktop after a maximized app closed; an app's name over the dock left on screen when Start opened; screenshots that closed the moment they opened; Wallpaper Engine's settings window and HoYoPlay treated as games; a game opening as a window on another display instead of borderless full screen (Wuthering Waves); the menu bar in the way of a full-screen video on one display while a game plays on another; a menu bar left halfway down after the main display was swapped; a maximized window dragged onto another display's dock no longer maximized there; Settings on a display of another scale in the wrong size or colour; the size you chose lost when Windows' display scale changed; the weather fetched while its switch is off; Start Glassline when I sign in shown on after you turned it off in Windows' Startup apps; cleanup tools such as AdwCleaner flagging the uninstall helper; and the Windows taskbar on a side of the screen asked about again and again, now with the menu bar fitted around it.

1.0.9

  • Better with more games: Glassline now finds more of your games by itself and keeps the menu bar and the dock out of their way, also when you switch apps.
  • Fixes for games. Among them: games that started windowed while Glassline ran; a game that became a window after Alt+Tab; the menu bar over a game's own news and pop-ups, or over a game in a borderless window; and the dock staying open over a game run as administrator.

1.0.8

  • Know when an update is ready: Glassline can tell you when a new version is waiting in the Microsoft Store, and a click on the notification opens it. Turn it on or off in Settings, General.
  • Opens on every PC: Glassline no longer needs Visual C++ installed.
  • Fixes. Among them: the volume pop-up in games that run as administrator; files found faster in Search without Everything; Glassline back sooner when Windows holds it back at sign-in; and a square shadow around the volume pop-up.

1.0.7

  • Lighter and faster. Our biggest update yet: most of Glassline was rebuilt under the hood. On our Windows 11 test laptop it now takes about 90 MB of memory where it took 200, starts in 1.6 to 2 seconds where it took 3.4, and takes 37 MB on disk where it took 234.
  • Skins for Control Center: two new looks, Aurora and Deck. Pick yours in Settings, Appearance, Skins.
  • The menu bar can move to the bottom of the screen, where the Windows taskbar was, and the dock to the top (Settings, Menu Bar).
  • Multiple monitors: the dock follows the display you click, stays on one, or shows on every display (Settings, Dock).
  • Folders in the dock: right-click the dock, choose New Folder in the Dock, and drag apps onto it.
  • Hide from Dock, on a right click, keeps a background app out of the dock.
  • For gaming: Settings has a Games page, and the menu bar and the dock get out of the way of a full-screen game.
  • Follow your feedback in Settings, Feedback: see what became of it and reply right under it.
  • Also new: three levels of glass transparency; every option found from Search; Keep Awake as a quick switch; dots or dashes under open apps; quick actions of each app on its dock icon; and badges that count notifications that were waiting.
  • Fixes. Among them: download progress on the dock icon for Edge and Chrome; files found in Search on a non-English Windows; dock menus that were cut off; and no Battery tile on a PC without a battery.

1.0.6

  • The new Apps icon in the dock opens the list of every installed app. Switch it on in What's new or in Settings, Dock.
  • Choose your own shortcuts for Search and Today in Settings, Shortcuts, or give the Windows key back to Windows. With Start open, the dock gets smaller and stays under it.
  • The background of the menu bar and the dock goes from clear to solid, and their text can be light or dark: Settings, Appearance.
  • The dock can stay out until a window is maximized or reaches it: Settings, Dock, Automatically hide, When covered.
  • Quick Look plays videos: press Space on one in File Explorer.
  • Fixed: apps that need administrator rights start from Search and the dock again; dock menus no longer close by themselves, and closing one no longer minimizes the app; closing one window preview leaves the others in place.

1.0.5

  • Rest the pointer on an icon under Other controls in Control Center and click its pin, or choose your icons in Settings, Menu Bar. They move to the menu bar, and you can drag any of them along it into your own order.
  • Rest the pointer on an open app in the dock to see its windows, live, and click one to bring it forward. Settings, Dock has how long the dock waits before showing them and the effect they open with.
  • Control Center has a Hardware page: the load of the processor, the memory and the graphics cards, with temperatures where Windows knows them. Choose the figures shown beside Hardware on the Controls page. HWiNFO or MSI Afterburner can add fan speeds and more readings while one of them is running.
  • Type translate good morning to spanish and read the answer in Search. It is made on your own PC, so what you type stays there. Turn it on in Settings, Search and download the languages you want from 49. It is in beta: whole phrases come out well; a single word sometimes does less well, and can be looked up in Wiktionary with a second switch.
  • Type 100 usd to eur and Search answers with the European Central Bank's rate, kept on your PC for when you are offline. An amount alone, like 100 usd, is answered in your own currency and the ones you convert into most.
  • Search converts volume, speed, area, file sizes, connection speeds and time, next to length, weight and temperature. Try 100 km/h in mph or 1500 mb to gb. Unit names work in all six languages.
  • Add the address of an .ics calendar in Settings, Control Center, and its events show in Today next to your own. Each calendar can have its own colour, name and reminder.
  • Settings, General saves your whole Glassline to one file: settings, the dock, your own events and what Search has learned. Load it after a reinstall or on another PC and everything is back.
  • Right-click anything in the dock and choose Change Icon to give it a picture of yours: a PNG, an ICO, an SVG, a photo. Use Default Icon brings the original back.
  • Settings, Control Center has a switch for each module and quick switch of the Controls page, and for the calendar, Now Playing and the notifications of Today. What you switch off leaves the panel.
  • With an app in front the dock stays hidden. Turn on Come out when an app asks for attention in Settings, Dock and it slides in when another app has something for you, and stays until you answer. It no longer goes up and down with every blink.
  • Some apps open their window with the title bar behind the menu bar, where you cannot take hold of it. Glassline now moves such a window straight down to meet the bar.
  • Settings has an Accessibility page with two switches. Follow Windows' text size makes Glassline grow with the text size you set in Windows. Follow Windows' contrast themes draws Glassline in the solid colours of the contrast theme that is on in Windows.
  • With Everything installed, Search finds files as fast as you type. That now holds for Everything 1.5 as well as 1.4.
  • With two displays, a click on a display brings the dock to it, in that display's own colours. The dock hides only for windows on its own display: on one that shows the desktop it stays out while you work in an app on the other.
  • Also new: painted weather: a picture for every kind of sky; extra app menus wait under » when the bar is full; Settings has sub-pages and a field that finds any setting, minimizes to the dock and keeps its place; Search finds programs kept only on the Desktop; middle-click Downloads or the Recycle Bin to open it; and the What's new screen opens after each update.

1.0.4

  • Glassline now comes in Spanish, German, Polish, French and Brazilian Portuguese. It follows the language of Windows; to choose another, open Settings, General, Language.
  • Add your own events to the calendar: click the clock, then the plus under the calendar. Events can repeat every week, month or year.
  • Search learns from what you open: results you pick often move to the top. A pointer resting over the results no longer changes what Enter opens.
  • Weather in Celsius or Fahrenheit. Esc closes Control Center, Today, Weather and dock stacks. File previews show photos the right way up.
  • Choose the accent colour in Settings, Appearance: the Windows colour, or one of eight of Glassline's own. In Control Center, the switch between Controls and Today is clearer and buttons that are off are easier to see.
  • Interface size: make Glassline smaller or larger on each display, in Settings, Appearance. Made for televisions and large monitors, where Windows makes everything very big. Each display keeps its own size.
  • Control Center does more: switches for Night Light and VPN, Disconnect on the Wi-Fi network you are on, a mute button for the sound, Bluetooth headphones and speakers that connect or disconnect with a click, and every app that is playing something. Right-click any quick switch to open its page in Windows Settings.
  • Search opens what you type when it is a web address or the path of a folder or file. The new button in the search field (or the Down key) lists all your apps. Store apps get Run as administrator and Uninstall, as in Windows, and you can choose the search engine in Settings, Search.
  • In the dock, a file dropped on an app opens in that app and one dropped on the Recycle Bin is deleted. Icons show the app's progress bar and status icon, an app's menu lists its recent files, and Downloads and the Recycle Bin can be taken off the dock.
  • Also new: reminders for your own events, delivered by Windows; the weather of a place in its own time; SVG pictures in Quick Look; a dot on the bell when there are new notifications; hover text on Wi-Fi, Sound and Battery; a Shortcuts page in Settings that lists every key Glassline answers to; and a setup guide that shows each thing happening, in the language you pick on its first screen.
  • More than a hundred fixes. Among them: apps that close to the tray no longer go missing from Alt+Tab; apps kept in the dock stay there after they update; games in windowed full screen are moved to fill the screen; the menu bar follows the switch between light and dark mode right away; the dock stays away over full-screen windows; the dock and Search are no longer cut off with two displays at different scaling; the menu bar no longer slips behind windows after you leave a full-screen app; apps' progress bars and status icons reach the dock; Bluetooth headphones disconnect fully and take their sound back; the Recycle Bin shows whether it is empty; with a second display, the menu bar, the dock and the panels keep their size and place when its scale, resolution or refresh rate changes; and closed panels no longer slow the PC down.

1.0.1

  • The first version in the Microsoft Store: a menu bar with the active app's menus, a dock with magnification, Search on the Windows key, Control Center and Today, the weather, file previews with Ctrl+Space, and Settings that explain every option.
  • Quit or uninstall Glassline, and the Windows taskbar and Start menu come back exactly as they were.

Not on Glassline yet?

Get it from Microsoft Store

Something not working, or something you'd like Glassline to do? Send it from Glassline Settings, Feedback, or see Support. What may come next is on the Roadmap.