thaw-app/Thaw 3.0.0-alpha.14 on GitHub

macOS 27 only · Build 125

Layout gets a pop-out window and undo for every edit, search becomes Floe's launcher, and Settings fills its gaps.

Tip

If you'd like to help, #1529 lists work that's ready to pick up. Some of it needs no Swift at all.

New

Pop Out Editor (work in progress). Opens Layout in a window with every item in a list, a filter, an editor for the selected item and full keyboard control.
Every Layout edit can be undone, with ⌘Z anywhere on the Layout page.
Drag down the Layout window's checkboxes to show or hide several items at once. A dragged row opens a gap where it will land, and the list scrolls at its edges.
Trackpad taps for Layout and sliders. A drag taps as it crosses into another section and when it lands, and the spacing and item size sliders tap at their defaults.
The current Space in the menu bar, in Displays › Spaces.
Layout warns when items don't fit or macOS hides Focus, with a one-click fix for each. Reported by @JosefGvirt in #1477.
The widget icon shows real readings and Bluetooth audio, in a larger size. Suggested by @joaofrgomes in #1378.
Thaw 2 settings are back: Always Hidden only and inline notch overflow in the Thaw Bar, Settings without a Dock icon, and log size and retention. Your Thaw 2 choices carry over.
Settings that only worked through links have rows in Visibility and Layout.
Export Logs zips logs and capture samples for a bug report, in Troubleshooting.
Privacy shows the Notifications permission.
Displays lists displays that aren't connected, and can forget them.
Hold Option on Capture Hidden Items to retake every picture.
Release notes can stay closed after an update, in Privacy.

Changed

Search is Floe's launcher, grouped by section, with Extended and Compact layouts in Visibility. Detailed and Large become Extended.
Settings search goes to the row and finds each module's switch.
Extras is now Modules.
Segmented choices and the tabs in Settings are the system's own control. The selection is a glass lens you can press and drag across the choices.
One name for each section: Visible, Hidden and Always Hidden.
The Thaw Bar has its own switch again, and so does double-clicking Thaw's icon for Always Hidden. By @malash in #1339.
Apply to All Displays asks first.
Reset Thaw clears everything but your layout and profiles, and Reset permissions forgets the files you picked.
Thaw reads a busy menu bar faster, and profiles and looks follow a Space switch sooner.
The Thaw Bar drops in from the menu bar.
Corners sliders show their value, Square, a percentage or Round, and match the other sliders.
Switch to Reduced mode from Troubleshooting, where Thaw runs as one icon that hides whole apps.
The experimental reorder editor is gone.
Zoom is off for now. ⌘+, ⌘− and the Zoom menu are gone until a zoomed Settings window stops ignoring clicks. Reported in #1244 and #1265.
What's New shows its Stable, Beta and Alpha tabs beside the title.
Thaw does less work while the menu bar sits idle. Unless the menu bar's shape is drawn around the icons, Thaw no longer checks the position of its first visible icon twice a second.

Fixed

Layout and items

The Layout window's green button zooms it instead of going full screen, where only quitting Thaw got you out.
The widget icon hides again with the Native hiding method. It stayed on the menu bar in Hidden and Always Hidden.
Native hiding starts again when a hidden app has no entry in System Settings › Menu Bar, such as one you removed. Reported by @SebastienBn in #1513.
Native hiding hides your apps again when macOS puts its list back right after Thaw changed it. Thaw used to leave every app on the menu bar with a warning. Reported by @macdaddy1944 in #1501.
An app you switched back on in System Settings says so in Layout, instead of saying macOS won't let Thaw switch it off.
Undo brings a moved group back whole again. It used to restore only the batch's ungrouped items.
Live item pictures update again when their left part changes, like right-aligned text getting shorter on an item that keeps its width.
Shift and the arrow keys extend the selection down the Layout window's list, and a Shift-click no longer selects rows a filter hides.
Reordering or moving a group, Move to and Move All can be undone, and so can a same-section drag in a list with groups or folders.
A read-only Layout window no longer groups the selection.
The order you drag the menu bar into is pinned, even when an app is slow to answer Thaw at that moment.
Hiding an item from Layout no longer sends Visible items to Always Hidden after Thaw restarts.
Items with a countdown, such as Raycast's calendar, stay put. Reported by @jasonericsiegel in #1489.
Items no longer move at launch when Thaw can't read the whole bar in time, and your saved layout comes back once the bar settles.
Hidden items no longer collapse right after you point at them.
Item pictures are no longer cut off, including on Macs with a taller menu bar, and f.lux gets its picture.
Capture Hidden Items is faster and counts items Native hiding parks. By @Belligerently in #1488.
Layout says when a drag didn't land, and refused moves point to the right setting.
Unresponsive apps show an hourglass, and switched-off system items show their own symbol.
Control-click opens a row's menu in the Layout window's list, as a right click does.
A selection you clear or change right after a move stays that way instead of jumping back to the moved items.
Two same-width items of one app can no longer show each other's picture.
An item with a changing title is recognized after its app restarts, even when the old copy was still quitting.
Capture Hidden Items retakes a picture that is cut off at its left edge, and a cut-off picture can no longer replace a complete one.
Pictures of hidden items survive a restart. Restarting Thaw could lose all of them. Reported by katla on Discord.
Layout keeps your selection when a move is refused or changes nothing.
A chosen icon now shows. Choose Icon kept showing Thaw's picture of the item. Automatic goes back to the picture.
Items that show up late after a restart go back to their place instead of staying next to Thaw's icon. By @Omoeba in #1531.
Opening a hidden item no longer opens the item next to it, and works the first time after Thaw starts. By @Omoeba in #1531.
Opening a hidden item moves the pointer only when it has to, and clicking an item is faster. By @Omoeba in #1531.
"Move items that don’t fit into Hidden" moves only the items that don't fit. On a full menu bar it could move most of your Visible items to Hidden.
Capture Hidden Items says when the menu bar is full, instead of listing every hidden item as missing a picture.
Turning off Automatically rehide also stops hides already on their way. By @Belligerently in #1575.
Closing hidden items stops every section's hide timer, so an old countdown can't close items you reveal later. By @Belligerently in #1571.
Items you reopen with a shortcut no longer close because of an earlier click elsewhere.
A cancelled click no longer opens the item or leaves the pointer on it. By @Belligerently in #1578.
Thaw drops far fewer clicks on menu bar items while an app is frozen. By @Belligerently in #1580.
Thaw no longer crashes when two Apple items swap places while one is briefly unnamed. By @Belligerently in #1576.
Native hiding no longer mixes visible items in with hidden ones after an app launches. By @camguillory.

Thaw Bar

App menus keep their place when Always Hidden opens in the Thaw Bar, and Hidden no longer stays expanded behind the panel.
One click on Thaw's icon works when double-click opens Always Hidden and macOS's double-click speed is slow. Reported by @bortolatto-creator in #1492.
A long click on a Thaw Bar item opens it, and the arrow keys move the highlight at once.
The preview shows what the bar shows, and each display uses its own hover and scroll setting.
The Thaw Bar no longer resizes and repositions itself many times a second while the pointer moves over it.
The Thaw Bar settings stay available when only Always Hidden uses the bar, and the preview shows that section. By @doublezz10 in #1566.
The template has the Open Always Hidden in the Thaw Bar switch, as each display does.

Spaces and profiles

The profile preview shows what your items look like, with Layout's pictures for items in the menu bar and symbols for Wi-Fi, Clock and other system items.
Renaming or duplicating an old profile no longer starts turning Always Hidden off on the next apply or Space switch.
Undo is cleared when a profile applies, so ⌘Z can't write one profile's old order into another's layout.
Spaces settings stay after Thaw quits, and a Space's own look survives a logout.
Editing the look in a Space with its own look changes that Space.
Applying a profile keeps shortcuts added since it was saved, and a new one saved with Always Hidden off turns it off. Older profiles still only turn it on.
Export All includes scripts and shortcuts, and a profile's preview lists everything it changes.
Undoing a new or duplicated profile keeps the profile you're on. By @Belligerently in #1487.
Thaw's list of Spaces updates when a display connects or disconnects.
Switching Spaces on a second display right after the first is no longer missed.
A Space indicator that could not start is fully turned off, so turning it on again starts clean.
Reset Thaw also forgets a Space choice made before macOS listed that Space.
Profile previews show current item pictures after the layout changes.
Spacing set with a thaw:// link is saved to your profile, so applying it no longer puts the old spacing back.
thaw:// reports every per-display setting. A disconnected display now lists its item size, spacing and Always Hidden only choice, and the Thaw Bar location lists all five places.
Use Template copies the Always Hidden only choice too.
A profile applied as Thaw starts keeps its order when some items show up late. By @Omoeba in #1531.
A profile action that arrives after that profile was removed no longer clears another profile’s display or Space association. By @Belligerently in #1555.
Importing profiles no longer assigns one shortcut twice. By @Belligerently in #1556.
Undoing a profile's deletion restores its apply shortcut, unless another profile took it. By @Belligerently in #1557.
An apply shortcut you clear stays cleared through undo and redo.
Profile previews no longer list display changes that won't happen. By @Belligerently in #1572.
Reset all settings also clears menu bar looks saved for single Spaces. By @Belligerently in #1579.

Search

With Compact search showing only its field, keys no longer act on a row you can't see. The arrow keys move the cursor in the field.
A wrong letter no longer clears what you typed, the arrow keys keep working after the menu bar changes, and recent items show once.
A failed move from search stays up and is read aloud.
A row is listed once while its item is mid-move, so the arrow keys don't stall on it.
Return and the arrow keys are left to a Japanese or Chinese input method while it is composing text.
A rename ends when its item leaves the search results, instead of blocking keys until Escape.
Tab reaches the search buttons after the last section, and Shift-Tab before the first.
⌘E during a rename keeps the name you're typing, without a beep. By @doublezz10 in #1565.
Search shortcuts no longer act on an item when the key is meant for another window. By @Belligerently in #1570.
Search shows an item's new name at its next refresh. By @Belligerently in #1573.

Settings

A search result that jumps to a row which isn't showing no longer flashes that row later.
Hide the menu bar opens Displays on its Spaces tab.
Each permission row has its own search target, so the jump lands on the one you picked.
Log rotation rows are left out of search while diagnostic logging is off, since the rows aren't there.
The Swap Bar stays off after an upgrade from a version that called it the Transport Bar.
Simple Mode mentions double-clicking Thaw's icon only while that shortcut is on.
Show Samples turns on as soon as a capture sample is saved.
Buttons in Settings are all one height. The button groups on About and Tools and the filled buttons were taller, and the buttons on Displays and the Thaw Bar page were smaller.
The Logs and Item list buttons in Tools no longer look turned off.
About's update rows have the same separators as the other pages.

Other

The widget icon is redrawn only when what it shows changes, which cuts the Widgets module's memory and processor use.
With the Native hiding method, Thaw no longer watches every click and drag for a press on the clock. Only Standard needs that.
Turning "Show release notes after an update" off keeps the window closed after Thaw updates.
A Mac without a battery draws its widget icon in the menu bar's own ink instead of as a fixed grey picture.
Reset Thaw also puts back the widgets switch, the recording alert position and Remember last search, and forgets what it checked about your allowed apps.
The Widgets and Scripts windows open at full size.
The capsule border comes back after the Mac wakes.
Reduce Motion keeps short fades and no longer pauses the notch panel.
Setup names the permission it's waiting for and what you give up without Accessibility.
Diagnostic logs no longer warn on every layout pass.
Reset Thaw no longer brings old item pictures back when a window opens right after it.
Setup's checkmark bounces when you grant a permission, not each time the page opens.
Turning diagnostic logging off no longer leaves a new log file open.
Restarting Thaw keeps saved item pictures it hadn't loaded yet.
Show Emoji & Symbols in Thaw's Input menu opens the viewer. Reported by @Macador in #1518.
What's New opens on the version you have installed, not the newest release.
Closing What's New or a Settings page no longer leaks a little memory each time.
The Split shape shrinks back sooner after hiding. Once the hidden icons were gone, the shape around the icons could stay stretched for a second or two with nothing in it. It now shrinks as soon as the menu bar has settled.
Zen Mode stays off when you turn it off during a screen share or call, until the share or call ends. By @Belligerently in #1577.
The CPU widget no longer crashes after about 248 days of uptime. By @Belligerently in #1581.

Thanks

@Omoeba stopped the test suite from resetting your Mac's menu bar spacing (#1533).
@elior-esh took on the November review in #1529. They documented every thaw:// action and setting (#1532), added tests for the Profiles pages, tips and widgets (#1538, #1539, #1541, #1542, #1546, #1548) and tidied the code behind them (#1544, #1545). They also fixed six weak tests (#1550), moved the Layout list's checkbox sweep out of its page (#1551), fuzzed a missing thaw:// route (#1552), ran each package's tests in CI (#1553) and tested the Displays pages (#1561, #1564).
@doublezz10 added isolated previews for the Visibility settings and documented them (#1567, #1568).
@Belligerently made the accessibility read test independent of timing (#1574) and tested the Settings pages (#1582, #1584, #1586, #1587).