All Features, Crafted In The Details

LaunchOS is not just a screen for opening apps, and it is not built around feature stacking or excessive customization. It focuses on the details that quietly shape every daily interaction, the parts that feel obvious until they disappear, the parts that seem effortless on the surface but require a great deal of polishing underneath, the parts your muscle memory reaches for without thinking

Note:LaunchOS Enhancedindicates enhancements and refinements LaunchOS adds on top of the native Launchpad experience

Launch And Close

LaunchOS EnhancedMouse Click Launch

  • Launch from the Dock icon
  • Launch from the menu bar icon, especially if you usually keep the Dock hidden

LaunchOS EnhancedShortcut And F4 Launch

  • Use a custom global keyboard shortcut
  • Take over the system F4 key to preserve long-standing Mac habits
  • Handles key mapping differences across older and newer Mac keyboards

LaunchOS EnhancedTrackpad Gesture Launch

  • Launch with a four-finger or five-finger pinch Native Default
  • Use a three-finger pinch if you want to keep the four-finger gesture for the newer system launcher
  • A five-finger pinch is also available if you prefer to reserve the four-finger gesture
  • The system Show Desktop gesture still works normally

LaunchOS EnhancedHot Corner Launch

  • Move the pointer to a screen corner to open or close LaunchOS
  • Supports multi-display setups and only responds to adjacent corners to reduce accidental triggers
  • Warns about possible conflicts with macOS Hot Corners settings during setup

Gesture-Responsive Motion

  • During a slow pinch, opacity and scale track the gesture progress in real time for a native feel
  • Keeps the original logic that decides whether to open or cancel based on how far the gesture completes

Natural Close Behavior

  • Click a blank area to close
  • Press Esc to close
  • Repeat the launch action to close
  • Use a spread gesture to close the main view

Browsing And Paging

LaunchOS EnhancedPaged And Scroll Modes

  • Horizontal paged browsing Native Default
  • Vertical scrolling mode

LaunchOS EnhancedMouse Wheel Paging

  • Supports both precise-scroll mice and smooth-scrolling mice
  • Includes compatibility handling for third-party smooth scrolling tools such as Logitech Options+
  • Reduces the issue where a single scroll can trigger multiple page turns

Mouse Side-Button Paging

  • Supports paging with devices that have side buttons

Mouse Drag Paging

  • Switch pages by clicking and dragging the page
  • The page offset updates continuously during dragging to preserve the follow-your-hand feel

Trackpad Swipe Paging

  • Switch pages with horizontal trackpad gestures
  • The page offset updates continuously while swiping for a more native feel

Auto-Page While Dragging Apps

  • Dragging an app to the page edge automatically switches to the previous or next page
  • Dragging past the last page can create a new page to receive the app

Natural Scrolling Support

  • Respects the macOS Natural Scrolling setting and adjusts wheel direction automatically

LaunchOS EnhancedRemember Last Position

  • Reopen at the position where LaunchOS was last closed Native Default
  • Always return to the main page
  • Return to the main page after a custom delay

Keyboard Controls

LaunchOS EnhancedKeyboard Navigation

  • Move the highlight with the arrow keys
  • In paged mode, the highlight jumps to the page that contains the target item
  • In scroll mode, the highlighted item is automatically brought to the center of the visible area

Keyboard Paging

  • Brings back the native Launchpad shortcuts ⌘ + ← and ⌘ + →
  • When keyboard selection reaches the end of a page, it continues to the next or previous item and turns the page automatically

Press Enter To Open

  • Press Enter to open a highlighted app
  • Press Enter to open a highlighted folder
  • After entering a folder with the keyboard, the first app is highlighted by default to reduce extra positioning

Esc To Cancel Or Close

  • When a folder is open, Esc closes it
  • During rename, Esc cancels the rename
  • During drag, Esc stops the drag operation
  • From the main view, press Esc to close

Shortcuts

  • Use ⌘ + , to open the settings panel
  • Use ⌘ + Q to quit the app completely

Search

Type To Search

  • The search field is focused automatically when the main view appears
  • Start searching immediately without an extra click

Realtime Search Results

  • Matches update immediately as you type
  • After searching, press Enter to open the target app directly

Esc Clears Search

  • During search, pressing Esc clears the search content

LaunchOS EnhancedMatching Logic

  • Matches the current display name, default name, or custom alias
  • Supports English initial-letter matching
  • Supports abbreviation matching, camel-case matching, and substring matching
  • Orders results by match quality

LaunchOS EnhancedChinese Matching Optimizations

  • Supports full pinyin matching
  • Supports pinyin initial-letter matching

App Management

LaunchOS EnhancedMultiple Sorting Modes

  • Manual sorting mode
  • Sort by first letter, date added, or last opened date
  • Balances spatial memory with faster organization

LaunchOS EnhancedDrag Sorting

  • Preview animations update continuously while sorting by drag
  • The drag feel is refined to reduce stutter, misfires, and position jumps

LaunchOS EnhancedRename Apps

  • Rename apps from the right-click menu

LaunchOS EnhancedHide Apps

  • Hide apps from the right-click menu
  • Hidden apps can be restored from App Management in Settings

LaunchOS EnhancedClean Uninstall (In Progress)

  • Besides removing the app itself, it is also designed to clean leftover settings, cache, and related traces

Folder Management

LaunchOS EnhancedCreate And Merge Folders

  • Drag one app onto another to create a folder
  • Drag an app into the center of an existing folder to keep merging
  • Move an app to a specific folder from the right-click menu

Folder Actions

  • Open a highlighted folder with Enter
  • Close a folder with Esc
  • Close it by clicking a blank area outside the folder

LaunchOS EnhancedRename Folders

  • Rename a folder by clicking its expanded title
  • Folder renaming is also available from the right-click menu

LaunchOS EnhancedDissolve Folders

  • A folder dissolves automatically when only one app remains
  • You can also dissolve a folder from the right-click menu
  • Apps are placed back near their original positions after the folder is dissolved

LaunchOS EnhancedReduced Line Jumping

  • Refines the response logic to reduce the line-jumping behavior often seen in native Launchpad

Quick Menu Actions

LaunchOS EnhancedApp Context Menu

  • Show the source app in Finder
  • Quickly move it to a specific folder
  • Hide the app
  • Rename the app with an alias
  • Clean uninstall (In Progress)

LaunchOS EnhancedFolder Context Menu

  • Rename folders
  • Dissolve folders

LaunchOS EnhancedBlank-Area Context Menu

  • Open the settings panel
  • Change the sorting mode: manual, by name, by date added, or by last opened date
  • Switch browsing mode: horizontal paging or vertical scrolling
  • Check for updates
  • Quit completely

Window Modes

LaunchOS EnhancedFullscreen Mode

  • The default presentation style of native Launchpad Native Default
  • Can hide the Dock while the main view is visible to increase usable space

LaunchOS EnhancedWindowed Mode (In Progress)

  • A lighter windowed presentation similar to Apps.app while still supporting sorting and folder management

Layout And Multi-Display

LaunchOS EnhancedGrid Layout

  • Set columns and rows independently
  • Fit more apps on a single screen or keep a looser visual rhythm

LaunchOS EnhancedAutomatic Size Adaptation

  • Icon size is calculated automatically from the visible area, grid count, and Dock occupancy
  • Keeps the layout from getting too wide on large displays so scanning stays efficient

LaunchOS EnhancedMulti-Display Strategy

  • Choose whether LaunchOS appears on the main display, the active display, or the display under the pointer
  • Icon and layout sizes recalculate automatically when the display setup changes

LaunchOS EnhancedHide Dock

  • Hide the Dock while the main view is visible to free up more space

Appearance

LaunchOS EnhancedBackground Modes

  • Use the system wallpaper as the background and optionally disable wallpaper blur
  • Or switch to a glass-like background with adjustable material intensity

LaunchOS EnhancedTahoe-Inspired Design Language

  • Keeps the native Launchpad visual hierarchy, motion rhythm, and overall atmosphere
  • Builds on that foundation with Tahoe-style Liquid Glass visuals

LaunchOS EnhancedLaunchpad Icon Styles

  • Switch between app icon styles, including classic Launchpad icons from different macOS eras such as the grid and rocket styles

Follow System Icon Color Modes

  • Adapts to system icon color modes such as dark appearance and tinted icons for a more consistent overall look
  • Also supports automatic switching with system dark mode

Automatic Icon Refresh

  • Refreshes the icon cache automatically after style changes
  • Folder preview icons are also re-rendered to avoid stale cache

Data And Migration

LaunchOS EnhancedImport Native Launchpad Layout

  • Import native Launchpad sorting, paging, and folder data
  • Even after upgrading to macOS 26, you can keep more of your old setup without reorganizing everything from scratch

LaunchOS EnhancedBackup And Restore Layouts

  • Export and import LaunchOS layout backups
  • Makes recovery much easier after moving to a new Mac or reinstalling

LaunchOS EnhancedExtended App Sources

  • Scans system apps and user Applications folders by default
  • You can also add custom app directories such as external drives and virtual machines

LaunchOS EnhancedApp Deduplication

  • When duplicate bundles exist, LaunchOS uses additional identifiers and deduplicates by real file path
  • Excludes apps nested inside other .app bundles to reduce noisy data

LaunchOS EnhancedApp Compatibility

  • Supports alias-based apps

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