Deck 2.1 help guide

Deck is a borderless launcher that opens over the desktop, arranges shortcuts into groups, and can place live widgets in a side panel. Programs, scripts, documents, folders, URLs, dividers, and plugin actions all live in the same searchable workspace.

The main launcher has three working areas:

• Shortcut groups form the central grid. Groups may share rows in Compact mode or occupy one row each in Vertical mode.
• The optional widget panel can show clocks, weather, and system resource graphs.
• The context and tray menus provide add commands, managers, Quick Settings, Options, diagnostics, updates, and exit controls.

Options is the control center. Browse its tree or type in Search options to jump directly to General, Language, Hotkeys, Search & Filter, Appearance, Layout, Widgets, About, or Manage Plugins.

Deck is a portable Windows launcher; there is no installer. Choose the build that matches your operating system, extract the complete archive, and keep its folders together.

1. Download the Win64 build for 64-bit Windows or the Win32 build for 32-bit Windows.
2. Extract the ZIP to a writable folder such as your user tools folder or a USB drive.
3. Run deck-x64.exe or deck-x86.exe.
4. Deck starts in the notification area and shows first-run guidance.

Do not run Deck from inside the ZIP. Extract it first so settings, language files, and plugins remain available.

Deck is designed to appear on demand and disappear when your task is complete.

• Press Ctrl+F12 to show or hide Deck with the default global hotkey.
• Change the binding under Options → Hotkeys or from Quick Settings.
• Enable the edge trigger to open Deck from the top or bottom screen edge with a left or right click.
• Press F2 with the default setup to switch between the top and bottom dock.
• Enable Run at Windows startup if you want Deck ready after sign-in.

The menu also provides theme, icon size, group layout, animation speed, transparency, tooltip, and layout-lock controls without opening the full Options window.

Options → General controls how Deck integrates with Windows and where it stores data.

• Run Deck automatically when you sign in to Windows.
• Add an optional “Add to Deck App Launcher…” command to the Explorer context menu for files and folders.
• Show the standard Windows context menu for file and folder shortcuts inside Deck.
• Ask for confirmation before Deck exits.
• Choose Sub-folder, User AppData, or Beside EXE for data storage.
• Optionally mirror settings to the Windows Registry.
• Enable the clickable top or bottom edge trigger, choose left click, right click, or both, and adjust its thickness.

Changing the data location migrates Deck's active data. Let the operation finish, then verify the selected location before removing an old copy.

Options → Language can follow the Windows display language automatically or use an installed .lng language file. Translation metadata identifies the author and version. Right-to-left language packs can also flip Deck's icon direction.

Options → Hotkeys assigns global controls. Deck 2.1 defaults are:

• Show or hide Deck: Ctrl+F12
• Toggle top or bottom dock: F2
• Move the selected item: Ctrl+Shift+C
• Toggle Compact or Vertical group layout: unassigned
• Move the selected group: unassigned
• Exit Deck: Ctrl+Shift+Q

Select a hotkey field and press the desired key combination. Apply the change and test it while Deck is hidden.

Start typing while Deck is open to filter the launcher immediately. Under Options → Search & Filter, enable the matchers that fit the way you think.

• Exact, prefix, contains, and word-prefix matching cover normal text searches.
• Acronym matching finds Command Prompt from cp.
• Typo tolerance accepts small errors in searches of four or more characters.
• Ordered-character matching allows gaps between typed characters.
• Optional target matching also searches paths and URLs at a lower priority.
• Result ranking puts the strongest matches first.

Normal unmatched text does not execute. A command runs only when a loaded plugin recognizes an explicit prefix and you press Enter.

Right-click an empty area in Deck to add a file or program, folder, URL, or drag-and-drop batch. The same actions are available from the tray menu and Manage Shortcuts.

• Drag one or several files or folders from Explorer into Deck's Drop Zone.
• Enable the optional Explorer command under Options → General to add files and folders from their right-click menu.
• Edit a shortcut to change its label, target, arguments, icon, group, or Run as Administrator setting.
• Add horizontal or vertical dividers when you need visual separation.
• Installed plugins may publish actions that can be added as normal clickable shortcuts.

Open Manage Shortcuts to search, edit, reorder, and move entries. Use Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click to select several shortcuts and move them together. You can also drag items within the tree or between groups.

Open Manage Groups to rename, recolor, reorder, disable, restore, or delete groups. Disabling a group hides it and its shortcuts without losing any data. When deleting a populated group, Deck can move its shortcuts to Ungrouped instead of deleting them.

Compact layout lets groups share rows; vertical layout puts one group on each row. Lock the layout when you want to prevent accidental moves.

Deck includes coordinated light and dark presets for several color families. Select Custom Theme to edit the global background, labels, selection, borders, headers, and group body colors with live preview. Each preset remembers its own customization.

Choose a shortcut-label font, set icons from 16 to 256 pixels, switch between compact and vertical group layouts, and adjust transparency and animation speed. Individual groups can override the current theme's border, header, text, and body colors.

Options separates visual sizing from color themes so each can be tuned independently.

• Appearance → Font chooses the shortcut-label typeface and point size.
• Layout → Icons offers standard 32, 48, and 64 pixel sizes, exact 16–256 pixel choices, and a custom slider.
• Layout → Groups switches between Vertical, with one group per row, and Compact, where groups share rows.

Large icons are easier to recognize but reduce the number of visible shortcuts. Compact groups make better use of wide or multi-monitor desktops; Vertical groups keep each category visually distinct.

Enable the panel under Options → Widgets → Panel, place it on the left or right side of Deck, and set its width as a percentage of the launcher. The panel reserves its own area, so shortcuts remain separate from live information.

The panel displays only widgets enabled on their individual pages. Clocks and cities can be reordered by dragging their lists or with Move Up and Move Down. The Deck menu also provides widget movement commands and direct links to widget settings.

Options → Widgets → Clock controls the local system clock and any number of additional time zones. You can show local time, use 24-hour format, display seconds, and reorder extra clocks.

To add a clock:

1. Choose Add.
2. Select a Windows time-zone identifier.
3. Enter a clear label such as a city, office, or team name.
4. Confirm, then move the clock to the desired order.

Additional clocks use Windows time-zone data, including daylight-saving rules when the selected zone provides them.

Options → Widgets → Weather enables forecasts supplied by wttr.in without an API key. Choose Celsius or Fahrenheit and add one or more locations.

Each weather entry has two values:

• Location is the query sent to wttr.in. A city, region, airport code, or postal code can be used.
• Label is the friendly name shown in Deck.

Drag cities to reorder them, or use the list commands to add, remove, and move entries. Weather needs internet access; the rest of Deck continues to work when the service is unavailable.

Options → Widgets → System Monitor enables live CPU and RAM graphs for the whole computer and for Deck itself. The panel reports system CPU, system memory, Deck CPU, and Deck working-set memory.

Use these graphs to spot a sustained resource spike, compare Deck with total system load, or capture useful context for a performance report. Readings are informational and update while the widget panel is visible.

Open Options → Manage Plugins to install, remove, enable, disable, reload, configure, or inspect a plugin. Install only the DLL that matches your Deck build.

Deck 2.1 plugins can extend the launcher in three visible ways:

• Actions become normal shortcuts through Manage Shortcuts → Plugin Action.
• Search commands respond to explicit prefixes such as cmd: and run only after Enter.
• Menu commands can add tools such as Folder Scanner to Deck's menu.

The Deck repository includes Command Runner, Folder Scanner, and Window and Workspace Manager plugins. Plugin settings follow Deck's active data backend; plugin DLLs stay in the plugins folder beside Deck.

The About branch in Options records the exact Deck version and architecture, release date, official website, help, donation, update, and bug-report links. Credits lists the open-source components and services used by Deck, while License displays the Deck End User License Agreement and third-party license notices.

Check About Deck before downloading a plugin or reporting a problem: Win32 and Win64 use different native plugin DLLs, and the exact version helps identify whether an update already contains a fix.

Deck keeps its user data local and lets you choose where it lives under Options → General.

• Sub-folder stores data under data beside Deck and is ideal for a self-contained portable folder.
• User AppData stores it under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Deck\data.
• Beside EXE places the data files directly next to the executable when that folder is writable.

Back up Deck.ini, shortcuts.json, recents.json, their .bak files, and the plugins folder for a complete setup. Deck writes shortcut and recent data atomically, rotates backup copies, and can recover from a valid .bak file if the main JSON is damaged.

When moving a portable copy, copy the entire Deck folder so plugin DLLs, language files, and relative %DECKDIR% shortcut targets remain together.

Try these checks before reporting a problem:

1. If the hotkey fails, open Deck from its tray icon and assign a combination that another app is not using.
2. If a shortcut fails, edit it and verify the target, arguments, working path, and elevation setting.
3. If changes do not save, confirm the active data folder is writable or switch to User AppData.
4. If a plugin action or prefix stops working, confirm the matching-bitness plugin is installed, enabled, and loaded.
5. If weather is unavailable, check the internet connection and try again later in case wttr.in is rate-limiting requests.
6. Open the tray menu → Open log folder or Show diagnostics to collect useful support details.

Deck is single-instance: starting it again toggles the already-running launcher instead of opening a second copy.