Improvements

• Implemented option to configure the toolbar hover time (https://github.com/BiGilSoft/WindowTop/issues/269)
  
• Stability improvement: Improved the recovery logic that was used to avoid the case that the app UI thread froze. The old logic avoided it by allowing the app to crash silently and exit. Now the logic will interrupt the UI thread so the app UI can show the actual fatal error while allowing the user to continue running the app or exit the app and report the error.
• Implemented “Restart program” button in the global error handler:
  
  Now you can easily restart the app instead of relaunching the app (useful when the error does not go away until restart)
• Removed unneeded logs and improved a few logs
• Improved a few English text’s grammars

Bugfixes

• Fixed the issue that the toolbar does not show when the “Whitelist the specified programs” is selected and no programs are added to the list (#275)
  
  This time it will not allow you to use this option if the list is empty.
  
• Fixed: updated fix for #235 that sometimes the app froze
• Fixed bug in the Microsoft Store version that when enabling a feature like always on top for an elevated window and confirming the admin permission request, the app froze for a few seconds and failed to enable the feature.
• Fixed the issue that the toolbar does not show when the “Whitelist the specified programs” is selected and no programs are added to the list (#275)
• Potential fix for some NullReferenceException exception from the Dispatcher queue (the bug possibly happen when Anchors are enabled in Windows 11)
• Fix for possible InvalidOperationException exception in RendererManager when killing a renderer process (can happen when disabling dark-mode / glass-mode)
• Fixed exception in HoverPreviewItem when it sets an invalid Width value for the hover preview in some cases (the bug can happen via the PiP feature when it tries to show a bigger preview when the mouse hovers over the small PiP thumbnail window)
• Fixed exception when removing hotkey via the getting started window via the backspace button
• Fixed fatal error in WTToolBarArrow that reported in the Microsoft store version by three users
• Fixed other different fatal errors that were reported by 8 users (see #282 )
• Fixed bug: “Disable when Game Mode detected” setting does the opposite (#268)

Changes

• (v5.19.3) Rename “BiGilSoft” publisher to “WindowTop.Info”

Dark & Glass Modes (#264)

Improvements

1. A massive improvement in the rendering performance of the dark-mode feature by using GPU (graphic card) hardware acceleration.
   Before this version, GPU acceleration was possible only for NVIDIA GPUs, and now the renderer was rewritten to take advantage of Direct2D API by using filters implemented by standard GPU drivers. The NVIDIA CUDA acceleration option was deleted and replaced with an optimized code that uses acceleration anyway. (#264)
2. The “Filter Images” option (which allows you to exclude images from color inversion/glass) was improved:
   2.1. The accuracy of the detection algorithm improved a lot, and the difference is noticed more in non-4 K displays
   2.2. The speed of the “Filter Images” option improved by implementing logic to automatically disable the additional processing (of image detection) when we know that the window frame is unlikely to contain any images. The additional algorithm for this task (evaluate if the frame may contain images) is hardware accelerated by the GPU using Direct2D filters.
   2.3. memory usage is optimized by automatically cleaning extra buffers that are unnecessary when we know that the window does not contain images.
3. The algorithm to determine if the window is bright/dark was optimized and rewritten by using Direct2D acceleration.
4. Battery usage & rendering speed optimization by:
   4.1. Suspending the re-render process of any window fully covered by other windows. If the window is not minimized, but you still can’t see it because it is entirely behind the windows above, the renderer of this window will be suspended. This will reduce a lot of CPU/Power usage and improve rendering speed in case of enabling these effects for multiple windows simultaneously.
   4.2. Stopping the renderer capture & processing threads and freeing all buffers memory in case the window is minimized or in a different virtual desktop. In these cases, the renderer processes for such windows will not consume any resources until the window returns from minimized state/ visible in the current virtual desktop

Bugfixes

1. Fixed: when having multiple monitors and each monitor has different DPI scaling – the dark/glass modes were not rendered correctly (#9)
2. When combining dark mode with the always-on-top mode, the border around the window was not visible because it was created behind the dark frame.
3. When closing windows in dark mode, an empty frame is left on the screen that cannot be moved or closed (#257)
4. Partially fixed (the issue is not with any window..): Window position in the maximized state when dark mode is on (#256)
5. Improve stability on Windows 10
6. Fixed bug in the NVIDIA GPU CUDA acceleration of the Glass feature due to an issue that the code compiled with Cuda toolkit 11.8, which does not support old GPUs, and this option is now enabled by default.
7. Fixed input delay lags that may happen when any of these effects are enabled
8. Fixed in v5.19.1: Issue that the filter images option did not apply after enabling/disabling it (needed to re-enable the dark-mode effect for the change to take effect)

Changes

1. The sliders of the Glass effect (smart transparency) were simplified to Opacity, Blur Level, Images, Texts, Filter Images (checkbox), and the effect will render any text in bright with dark background
2. The default settings of the Glass effect changed, and now the blur filter is disabled by default (because the performance has never been good when it is enabled)

Other improvements

None

Other bugfixes

• [Toolbar] When the “Integrate with the minimize button” option is enabled, and the DPI scaling is not 100%, in some cases, the edge of the toolbar is placed after the edge of the monitor.
• [Toolbar] Fixed UI bugs in a few toolbar themes when the windows theme is in light mode
• Fixed bug that sometimes the app fails to parse the settings, and as a result, it removes them (so all settings, including activation deleted)
• Fixed the issue that, in some cases, the Microsoft Store version may crash when changing activation settings.
• Fixed a few English strings (for example: stop using the word “Shrink” and instead always use “PiP”)
• Fixed bug with wizard pages that their settings did not update when returned back to them
• [Anchors feature] Improve stability (fix the potential error)
• Fixed some UI bugs

Other changes

• Few minor changes in the general tab
• Toolbar Settings: The settings page reorganized

New Features / Improvements

• Add a small button in the toolbar to open the toolbar settings directly (#262)
  
• Added Swedish translation (#261)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a critical issue from v5.17.0 (released a week ago) due to a new build configuration that was added a week ago…
  The issue was that the app was simply unstable and used to hang, crash, and freeze much more frequently. The solution was just to revert most of the problematic build configurations. I hope that the app will run stable this time as it was before 5.17.0

Changes

None

New Features / Improvements

None

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug with “Save window configuration” that, in some cases, the configuration is not applied automatically (#259)
• Fixed bug that when exiting the app, the app does not restore the window state (such as opacity, always-on-top, etc.) the default state (relates to #259)
• Fixed issue with UI on the new Windows 11 version (22H2) (#260)

Changes

None

New Features / Improvements

• [PiP + Mouse Interact Mode] Implemented feature to show preview also of the mouse pointer (#249)

This feature will help a lot when you want to control the PiP window while it is tiny because you see what you are doing, thanks to the advanced preview that also shows the mouse pointer.

You can enable/disable this feature via the INTERACT options under the toolbar:

The option is “Enable read mode,” and when checked, you will get this behavior.

By default, the option is enabled. You can disable/enable this option via PiP settings:

• Added option to configure PiP auto move in quick settings/wizard
• Implemented saving more specific PiP configurations

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue that sometimes the app freezes when using hotkeys
• Fixed issue that sometimes HotKeys are not working for shrunk/PiP windows (#247)
• Fixed old regression bug that the fatal exception handler did not work

Changes

• Rename the feature “Shrink” to “PiP”