DeskRipple v1.1.0
DeskRipple 1.1.0 adds a 14-day trial for new installs, and it carries a set of fixes, several
of them from user reports since 1.0. If DeskRipple is already installed and running, it updates
itself in the background; a licensed install sees only the fixes. New here? The installer is
below.
🔑 Try DeskRipple free for 14 days, with every feature included. No account or payment details are required to start. If it fits your workflow, DeskRipple is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. Enter a key once, under Manager → About or on the license screen, and there's no expiry — the key is verified on your own PC, with no account and no activation server. DeskRipple asks you to accept the license agreement (EULA) on first run.
🔧 What's new in 1.1.0
• A 14-day trial for new installs. For an install that never ran the beta, DeskRipple runs for 14 days after you install it, then needs a license key to keep working; the About dialog counts the days, and a one-time notice appears near the end. Installs that ran the beta keep the terms they were shown：without a license key they stopped working on September 1, 2026, and a key entered on the license screen unlocks them in place. 1.0.0 had no trial, so a 1.0.0 install that never ran the beta also stopped without a key. Once it updates, its 14 days are counted from the day it was installed, not from the update, so they may already be used up. In every case the license screen's Restore my desktop shortcuts returns every archived desktop original without a purchase.
• A pasted license key with invisible characters now validates. A key copied out of an
email can pick up characters you can't see, such as zero-width spaces or soft hyphens, and
the key box rejected it as malformed even though every visible character was right. Both key
boxes, in About and on the license screen, now ignore those the way they already ignored
spaces and line breaks, and an accepted key is stored in that same cleaned form, so it can't
fail again on the next launch. When a key is still rejected, the message says why：a key of
the right shape that doesn't verify, a genuine key for a different product, or text that
isn't a key at all.
• A one-off clock jump can no longer lock an unlicensed install out. DeskRipple remembers
the latest date it has seen, so that setting the clock back can't stretch a free run. A
clock that briefly jumped years ahead, after a flat CMOS battery, a restored virtual machine,
or a bad time sync, used to leave that recorded date years in the future and end the free
run for good. A date implausibly far ahead is now ignored, one already recorded is healed
back to the real clock, and in the one case that can't be told apart from a set-back clock,
the license screen says what it recorded and how to clear it. That notice now shows for a
trial install as well.
• Web links keep their icon on accented or non-Latin paths. A .url file is an INI file,
and Explorer reads it as the system's ANSI code page, or as UTF-16 when the file starts with
a UTF-16 marker; DeskRipple read and wrote it as UTF-8. So a browser-made web link whose icon
lives under a profile folder like C:\Users\Jürgen\ lost its icon on drag-in, and a web link
DeskRipple wrote back to the desktop on drag-out showed a blank icon there. DeskRipple now
reads .url files the way Explorer does and writes them in the encoding Explorer expects.
Files it writes stay readable by older versions.
• **An open panel follows a desktop icon resize.** Ctrl+scroll on the desktop resized the
icons inside an open panel but left its layout built for the old size until the panel was
closed and reopened：larger icons overran their slots and clipped at the edge, smaller ones
sat spaced for the old size inside an oversized panel. The open panel now re-lays out in
place as soon as the new size lands. Reported by a user in click mode with a panel kept open.
• **Folder names stay sharp after a desktop icon resize.** DeskRipple measures the icon size
off the live desktop, and the measurement can land on a fraction of a pixel. At 100% scaling
that put the folder label on a half-pixel row and blurred it; at higher scales the fraction
happened to multiply back to whole pixels, which is why it went unseen. The folder icon now
snaps to whole physical pixels. In the same code, the label's wrap width was fixed at the
default cell width instead of following the live one, so enlarged icons wrapped and cut off
names earlier than the native labels beside them. Reported by a user on a 2560×1440 display
at 100%.
• **Enter finishes a folder rename in the Manager.** The folder name box, which "+ New folder"
places the cursor in, had no keyboard way out; only clicking somewhere else ended the edit.
Enter now ends it.
• **A two-line shortcut name no longer spills out of a panel that opens upward.** Grid, Column
and Row panels that open above the folder budgeted one line of label under each icon, so a
name that wrapped to a second line hung past the panel's bottom edge and the whole panel read
as sitting a little high over its icons. That edge now reserves the second line. Panels that
open downward were already fine.
• **The desktop check leaves settled icons alone.** Every 5 seconds DeskRipple makes sure its
folder icons still sit just above the desktop, behind normal windows. It used to re-pin every
icon on every check, and with two or more folders that moved them through the window order
every time. A user with two 1080p monitors reported a periodic flicker near the desktop
icons, and this was the only periodic change DeskRipple made to its windows. The check now
re-pins only an icon that a window has actually displaced; when everything is in place, it
touches nothing.
• **Opt-in usage diagnostics, data format v7.** For installs that turned diagnostics on, the
daily summary now labels why an update check failed, as one of a short fixed list
("timeout", "dns", "http403"), never a message or address; it counts launches on which the
PC's clock, or the install date the trial is measured from, looked wrong to the license
check, again as fixed labels and never the dates; and the counter for "pushed a folder icon
back into place" now counts only genuine corrections. It had been counting DeskRipple's own
5-second pin as a correction, so its earlier values say nothing. Off by default and unchanged
unless you turned it on; the
privacy policy lists every
field.
• **Smaller fixes.** The Move/Copy setting for dragged-in desktop shortcuts now says what it
covers：shortcuts and web links only. Documents and other files always stay where they are
and DeskRipple opens them from that location, so moving or deleting one breaks the entry; a
user had read "Move it" as covering documents, deleted an original, and lost the entry. A
.url file's icon index is read the same way on every Windows language.
Everything else — desktop folder docks, five expand styles, drag-and-drop, desktop-icon
displacement, multi-monitor and mixed-DPI support, multiple profiles, automatic updates, and
opt-in diagnostics — carries over from 1.0.
📦 Install / update
• Already installed and running: nothing to do — DeskRipple checks this repo in the
background and applies the update silently at an idle moment. A tray notification confirms
it. (Prefer to update on your own schedule? The About dialog has an "Install updates
automatically" toggle.)
• Stopped on the license screen: a stopped DeskRipple doesn't check for updates. Click
Get the latest version on that screen; on an installed copy it updates in place and
restarts DeskRipple. What each install gets from there is in the first bullet above.
• New install: download DeskRipple-beta-Setup.exe below and run it (the file name
keeps the update channel's name; it installs 1.1.0). It installs per-user (no admin prompt),
adds a Start Menu entry, and launches.
🛡️ SmartScreen prompt on the installer. DeskRipple is code-signed (Microsoft Trusted
Signing). Because it's still building download reputation, Windows SmartScreen may show a
prompt — if it does, click More info → Run anyway.
🔎 Can't find the tray icon? On Windows 11 it starts hidden in the ^ overflow chevron
near the clock. Drag it onto the taskbar, then right-click → Open Manager.
System requirements：Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit.
Full details.
(The .nupkg, releases.beta.json, and meta.json assets are the updater's feed;
DeskRipple-beta-Portable.zip is an unsupported convenience — the installer is the supported
path.)
🐛 Feedback
Found a bug or have a suggestion? Report it here — no login
required. The easiest path is right-click the tray icon → Send feedback (it pre-fills your
version, OS, and DPI scale, which makes reports far easier to act on).
🔒 Privacy: DeskRipple runs locally — no account, no login. Out of the box its only network
traffic is the background update check against GitHub (no identifiers; can be turned off), and
the license key is checked on your PC, not on a server. Anonymous usage diagnostics are
strictly opt-in and off by default — you choose on first run and can change it anytime in
Settings. Purchases are handled by Lemon Squeezy as merchant of record.
Privacy policy.
