Changelog

DeskUtils 0.1.10

DeskUtils 0.1.10 is a hotfix release that improves Window Switcher stability and keeps onboarding at its intended size on macOS 27.

Fixes

• Fixed a Window Switcher crash caused by duplicate window identities, including collisions involving minimized windows.
• Fixed Settings windows appearing as unavailable in Window Switcher, including macOS System Settings and DeskUtils Settings.
• Fixed stale Window Switcher thumbnails. Cached previews now expire and visible windows are captured again so their latest content is shown.
• Fixed the onboarding window stretching to full-screen height on macOS 27. Resize proposals are constrained before display, and the setup window cannot enter full-screen mode.

Notes

• Build 14.
• Requires macOS 15.2 or later.

DeskUtils 0.1.9

DeskUtils 0.1.9 adds Window Switcher with live window previews and Dock Preview, introduces Mouse Jiggler, and fixes the onboarding window height on macOS 27.

What's New

• Window Switcher — an opt-in replacement for the macOS app switcher. Hold Command and press Tab (Shift-Tab reverses) to open a grid of every window on the display under the pointer, in the current Space, including occluded and minimized windows. Move through the grid with the arrow keys and release Command to focus the highlighted window; Return or a click focuses, Escape or an outside click cancels. A close button appears on the selected or hovered card, and closing a window never quits an app or answers a save dialog. Requires Accessibility; Screen Recording is optional and, when granted, enables live thumbnails (otherwise app icons and window titles are shown).
• Dock Preview — hover a running app's Dock icon to preview its windows without leaving the Dock. It shows up to three cards before scrolling, follows the Dock's orientation (horizontal for a bottom Dock, vertical for side Docks), and swaps instantly as you move between icons. Clicking a card restores and focuses it, including a minimized window; hovering a card reveals a close button. It never consumes Dock clicks, and a secondary click (for example the Dock context menu) keeps it hidden so it cannot cover the menu.
• Mouse Jiggler — keep the pointer active inside a screen, window, or custom area you choose, with an adjustable movement interval and automatic pause during user activity.

Fixes

• Fixed the onboarding window growing beyond its intended maximum height on macOS 27. The window remains manually resizable within its supported size limits.

Notes

• Window Switcher is off by default. Enable it in Settings → Window Switcher; it requires Accessibility access, and Screen Recording is optional for live previews.
• Dock Preview is a separate setting, enabled by default once Window Switcher is on.
• Build 13.
• Requires macOS 15.2 or later.

DeskUtils 0.1.8

DeskUtils 0.1.8 rebuilds onboarding around guided feature demos, replaces the inert Pro locks with one shared upgrade panel, and gives Full Annotate backgrounds and pinned screenshots a significant upgrade.

What's New

• New onboarding — a seven-page flow with looping, muted video demos for Quick Ring, Screenshot, Clipboard, Capture Text, and more. Every feature page has an animated fallback when a demo is unavailable, Skip jumps to the end, and the final page offers Accessibility and Screen Recording access without making them mandatory. Launch at Login is set on the last page. Replay it from Settings → General → Help → Restart.
• Shared Pro upgrade panel — every Pro-gated action (menu bar, Settings, Quick Ring, global shortcuts) now opens one consistent panel that names the feature being used, lists the Pro benefits, and offers a single Get DeskUtils Pro button. Locked items stay clickable instead of showing a static lock badge.
• Annotate background sidebar — open it with the toolbar rectangle.on.rectangle button or ⌘B to style the canvas behind your screenshot. Choose gradients, five bundled wallpapers plus your own, blurred backgrounds, or solid colors, then tune padding, shadow, corners, aspect ratio, and alignment. Backgrounds are saved with the document and restored when you reopen it.
• Pinned screenshot windows — pinned images now show Close, Edit, Zoom, Lock, and a drag handle on hover. Zoom with the percentage pill, scroll wheel, or pinch; lock the window to click through to apps underneath; drag the pin into another app as a file; and jump straight to Full Annotate with edits reflected in place.

Improvements

• The curved arrow tool now has a control handle, so you can adjust its curvature after drawing.
• Refined the Quick Ring radial menu: a softer glass background with a gradient rim, subtler slot fills, and active tools marked by a green icon instead of a small dot. The live panel and Settings preview share the same rendering.
• External Display Only now appears in the menu as a session section with an inline on/off toggle, and keeps its explicit retry action when recovery fails.

Fixes

• Corrected canvas background rendering and constrained backgrounds to the annotation canvas.
• Annotation selection chrome is now shape-specific and matches the selected tool.
• Fixed pinned screenshot windows drifting out of sync: source URLs stay current, Quick Access preview updates are gated by the editor's render generation, and focus and save state stay consistent.
• Aligned and centered the Pro upgrade benefits with the panel subtitle, and fixed a race that could dismiss the panel right after it opened.
• Onboarding now shows the display dimming tool.

Notes

• Build 12.
• The annotate wallpaper library ships five default wallpapers; custom wallpapers you add are stored as bookmarks and stay on your Mac.
• Pinned windows and Full Annotate follow your system Reduce Motion setting.
• Onboarding and upgrade interactions are covered by the existing opt-out anonymous analytics, configurable in About → Privacy.
• Requires macOS 15.2 or later.

DeskUtils 0.1.7

DeskUtils 0.1.7 introduces Quick Ring for fast access to your tools, improves clipboard navigation and search, and makes screenshot copying work better with web apps.

What's New

• Quick Ring — press Command twice to open a radial menu with eight tool slots. Click an action, or hold the second Command press, move toward an action, and release to run it.
• Configure Quick Ring in Settings → Quick Ring, including an alternate shortcut, placement at the pointer or screen center, and haptic feedback. DeskUtils Pro lets you rearrange slots and change their actions.
• Launch at Login is now available during onboarding, so you can choose to start DeskUtils automatically when you log in.

Improvements

• Smoother keyboard navigation and more responsive search in Clipboard Manager, especially with larger histories.
• Screenshot History now offers explicit Copy Image and Copy File actions. Copy a single screenshot as an image for pasting into apps, or copy files for Finder and attachment fields. Multiple screenshots can be copied together as files.
• More balanced spacing for the CPU, memory, and disk gauges in the menu bar popover.

Fixes

• Screenshots copied from Quick Access and Screenshot History now use image clipboard formats that web apps such as Excel Online can accept.
• Fixed typing from the clipboard list being incorrectly handled as a filter search action.

Notes

• Build 11.
• Quick Ring requires Accessibility permission. Individual actions retain their existing permission and Pro requirements.
• Requires macOS 15.2 or later.

DeskUtils 0.1.6

DeskUtils 0.1.6 adds live system monitoring to the menu and makes Screenshot History multi-selection work with copy and drag.

What's New

• System Monitoring — the menu now shows live CPU, memory, and disk gauges at the top. Hover a gauge to swap its symbol for the rounded percentage, and VoiceOver reports the metric name and value. The module is enabled by default and can be turned off in Settings.

Improvements

• Screenshot History now supports multi-selection when expanded: use Select all (or ⌘A) to select every image, then copy or drag the whole selection at once. Copying several screenshots places one file per item on the pasteboard so they land in Finder and attachment fields together.
• Dragging a selected card carries the entire selection; dragging an unselected card selects only that card first.
• Switching to Compact view keeps a single selected item visible instead of hiding the selection bar.

Fixes

• Copying or dragging a selection that includes a missing or unreadable file now cancels with a warning instead of exporting a partial group or clearing the clipboard.

Notes

• System Monitoring reads CPU, memory, and disk usage on your Mac only; the data is never sent anywhere. CPU and memory refresh every second, while disk usage refreshes when you open the menu and every 30 seconds. Monitoring pauses while the menu is closed or your Mac is asleep.
• Requires macOS 15.2 or later.

DeskUtils 0.1.5

DeskUtils 0.1.5 adds a new way to work exclusively from an external monitor, makes Capture Text ready faster, and improves Screenshot History interactions.

What's New

• External Display Only — on supported Apple silicon MacBooks, disconnect the built-in display while using a native external monitor. Turn it on from the menu bar, Settings, or a configurable shortcut; DeskUtils restores the built-in display when you turn the feature off, disconnect the last supported monitor, sleep, sign out, or quit the app.
• Free trial and Pro access — External Display Only sessions last up to 60 seconds on the free version. DeskUtils Pro removes the session limit.

Improvements

• Capture Text now prepares Apple Vision before the first capture, reducing the delay before OCR and QR recognition are ready.

Fixes

• Screenshot History toolbar clicks no longer select the card underneath them.

Notes

• External Display Only requires an Apple silicon Mac with a built-in display and a native HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C, or Thunderbolt monitor.
• Mirrored configurations, DisplayLink, AirPlay, Sidecar, and other virtual displays are not supported by External Display Only.
• Requires macOS 15.2 or later.

DeskUtils 0.1.4

This maintenance release improves the update experience for DeskUtils menu bar users.

Fixes

• The Sparkle update window now appears in front and receives focus after selecting Check for Updates.
• Update prompts found during scheduled background checks no longer remain hidden behind other applications.

Notes

• Automatic update checks continue to follow Sparkle's scheduled interval. Use Check for Updates to check immediately.
• Requires macOS 15.2 or later.

DeskUtils 0.1.3

This release brings a faster, more capable screenshot workflow, smarter capture tools, and a new local screenshot history.

What's New

• Screenshot Quick Access — captured images now appear in a lightweight card where you can copy, save, open, edit, pin, or delete them without interrupting your current workflow. Actions, gestures, and keyboard shortcuts can be customized in Settings.
• Screenshot History — revisit recent captures in a compact carousel or searchable grid, select multiple images, reopen them for editing, reveal them in Finder, or move them to Trash. History and retention preferences are stored locally on your Mac.
• Capture Active Window — quickly capture the currently active window, with an option to include its shadow.
• Capture Smart Element (Pro) — point at an interface element to capture it precisely without manually drawing a selection.
• Frozen area selection — the desktop is held visually still while selecting an area, making it easier to capture menus, animations, videos, and other changing content.
• QR code recognition — Capture Text can now detect QR codes in the selected region and append their payloads to recognized text.

Improvements

• Smoother Quick Access gestures, card animations, History scrolling, and live annotation zoom.
• More reliable handoff from Quick Access to Full Annotate, including editable-session recovery and clearer copy/save feedback.
• Improved screenshot storage, retention, cleanup, and failure recovery.
• Reorganized Screenshot settings with dedicated Capture, Annotate, Quick Access, and History sections.
• Improved Clipboard preview reliability when using Option-Space.
• Refined utility settings, menu status, and localized dynamic messages.

Privacy

DeskUtils can send anonymous usage statistics and diagnostics to help improve the app. Clipboard contents, screenshots, recognized text, file paths, window titles, and license information are never included. You can turn this off at any time in Settings → About → Privacy → Share Anonymous Usage Data.

Requirements

• macOS 15.2 or later.
• Screenshot capture and Capture Text require Screen Recording permission.
• Capture Smart Element requires DeskUtils Pro and Accessibility permission.

DeskUtils 0.1.1

DeskUtils 0.1.1 expands the beta with on-device text capture, a new Prevent Sleep utility, and a redesigned Settings experience.

Highlights

Capture Text (OCR)

• Capture text from any selected screen region with ⇧⌘2.
• Supports selections across multiple displays.
• Uses Apple Vision locally on your Mac—captured images are not uploaded or saved.
• Automatically detects supported languages and copies recognized plain text directly to the clipboard.
• Optimized for horizontal paragraph-style text; multi-column layouts and vertical CJK text are best effort.
• Requires Screen Recording permission.

Prevent Sleep

• Keep the display awake and prevent idle system sleep with ⌘⇧P.
• Available as a session-based menu bar toggle.
• Does not block manual sleep, closing the MacBook lid, Lock Screen, or screen saver policies.

Redesigned Settings

• New General, Modules, Shortcuts, Permissions, and About pages.
• Configure and restore global shortcuts in one place.
• View Screen Recording, Accessibility, and Input Control permission status centrally.
• Manage Launch at Login and check for updates from Settings.

Clipboard Manager Improvements

• Refined clipboard cards, previews, and search highlighting.
• Improved labeling for copied image content.
• More consistent module settings and permission guidance.

Notes

• DeskUtils remains a menu bar app and keeps existing clipboard history, module preferences, shortcuts, and granted permissions after updating.
• This beta requires macOS 26 or later.

DeskUtils 0.1.0 — First Beta

DeskUtils is a lightweight macOS menu-bar toolkit for everyday utilities.

Included

• Clipboard Manager — browse, search, and paste clipboard history.
• Color Picker — pick a color from your screen and copy its value.
• Clean Keyboard — temporarily lock your keyboard while cleaning it.
• Prevent Sleep — prevent idle system sleep while enabled.
• Keyboard shortcuts, per-feature settings, and built-in update checking.

Requirements

• macOS 26 or later
• Accessibility, Input Monitoring, or Screen Recording permission may be requested only when a related feature needs it.

Installing

1. Download DeskUtils.dmg.
2. Drag DeskUtils into Applications.
3. Open DeskUtils from Applications.

This is an unsigned beta build and is not notarized by Apple yet. macOS may show a warning on first launch. Open the app once, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.

Notes

• Clipboard history stays on your Mac.
• DeskUtils does not use analytics or collect usage data.
• Prevent Sleep blocks idle system sleep only; it does not prevent display sleep, manual sleep, or lid-close sleep.

Please report issues and feedback through the project issue tracker.