Pulse v1.4.0 — Explain the crash

Pulse v1.4.0 answers the questions people paste into help threads: why did my PC restart, what was that blue screen, and what does this log from another computer say. It also makes reports safe to share.

Highlights

• Blue screens and sudden restarts, explained. Pulse reads the event data instead of showing a generic title:

  • Windows restarted after a blue screen — with the stop code name (for example DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (0x0000009F)), what usually causes it and what to check
  • PC was forced off with the power button
  • PC lost power or stopped suddenly — no error recorded: power cut, power supply, overheating or a freeze
  • Windows crashed with a blue screen — the stop code and the crash dump path
  • Hardware reported a fatal error / Hardware corrected an error (WHEA)

  The restart and the blue screen are grouped as one Blue screen and restart incident on the Timeline.

• Open an .evtx from another PC. The folder button on the Timeline opens an exported event log (for example System.evtx from a customer's PC) and explains it the same way, even while PulseService is offline. Back to live returns to this PC (ADR-014).

• Reports you can share. Settings → Privacy → Mask personal details in exports (on by default) hides user and computer names, profile paths, account SIDs, e-mail, IP and MAC addresses and serial numbers in reports, Timeline exports and diagnostics bundles.

• Update notice (GitHub edition). Settings → Updates → Check tells you when a newer Pulse is out and links to its release page. Optional weekly check, off by default. Nothing is downloaded or installed.

Fixes

• The Timeline could list a days-old event above recent ones once it held more than 32 events
• Exports failed with PathNotFoundException when Windows Security's Controlled folder access blocked Pulse from Documents; exports now go to Downloads\Pulse (or a folder you choose) until releases are code-signed
• Store edition: notifications showed a raw package id instead of "Pulse Diagnostics"
• Repeated "Critical memory usage" notifications piled up; Pulse now keeps one on screen per alert and repeats at most hourly by default
• A stuck step on the first launch after Setup could skip the start-with-Windows setup; each start-up step now runs on its own with a time limit and is logged

Also in this release

• README: what Pulse sends (nothing by default), how it compares with Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor, and how it is built (with AI coding assistants)
• New security guide; the old PulseMCP guide is gone
• Releases are built in GitHub Actions with SHA-256 checksums
• ADR-015 (proposed): kernel activity will come through ETW, not drivers

Upgrade notes

• Confirm Diagnose → Service shows 1.4.0 after installing
• Exports now land in Downloads\Pulse; earlier exports stay in Documents\Pulse
• The notification repeat interval default is now 60 minutes (a value you changed yourself is kept)

Downloads

Windows x64 Installer

Pulse-Setup-1.4.0-windows-x64.exe

Payload ZIP

Pulse-1.4.0-windows-x64.zip (PulseService is still required; see portable vs service)

Checksums

SHA256SUMS.txt

Pulse remains read-only and local-first: no telemetry, no cloud, no account.