DeskRipple

DeskRipple·DeskRipple.DeskRipple

Expandable desktop folders for Windows 11.

DeskRipple puts folder icons directly on your Windows 11 desktop — they sit behind your windows like native icons and expand into shortcut panels on hover or click, then collapse back to a single icon. Five expand styles (Grid, Fan, Column, Row, Ring), acrylic-blur panels, live desktop-grid snapping, and Per-Monitor V2 DPI awareness. Drag in .lnk shortcuts, .url web links, files, and Microsoft Store apps; DeskRipple keeps its own copy so a dock survives the original being moved or deleted. Dragging a desktop shortcut into a dock safely archives the original (it returns when you remove the entry or uninstall). Switch between named desktop profiles. Free during the public beta; a one-time paid version is planned later.

winget install --id DeskRipple.DeskRipple --exact --source winget

Latest 1.0.0·August 25, 2026

Release Notes

DeskRipple v1.0.0

DeskRipple 1.0 is out, and it's the paid release the beta pointed at all along:a one-time purchase, not a subscription, with the price shown at checkout on deskripple.com. If DeskRipple is already installed, it updates itself in the background — the next launch asks you to accept the updated license agreement once, and beta testers get their founder discount inside the app. New here? Grab DeskRipple-beta-Setup.exe below (the file name keeps the update channel's name; it installs 1.0).

🔑 Without a license key, DeskRipple stops working on September 1, 2026. Enter a key once under Manager → About and there's no expiry — the key is verified on your own PC, with no account and no activation server. Until that date the app runs free, exactly as the beta disclosed. By downloading you agree to the license agreement (EULA).

🎟️ Tested the beta? You get 50% off. The founder code is shown inside the app — on the license screen and in the one-time founder notice — and subscribers to the mailing list got a personal code by email. Codes are time-limited; the app has the details.

🔧 What's new in 1.0.0

License keys. Buy once at deskripple.com, and your receipt links a key page that shows your key from the order number and checkout email. Enter it under Manager → About; the same panel shows your license status and what the license promises about updates. Validation is offline — no account, no phone-home. • The September 1 screen is a way through, not a dead end. From that date an unlicensed DeskRipple shows a license screen with the buy link, the founder code for beta testers, key entry that unlocks in place, a Restore my desktop shortcuts button that returns every archived desktop original, and a link to the latest version. • Updated license agreement. 1.0 replaces the beta license with the full EULA — perpetual license, at least two years of Windows-compatibility updates from purchase, 14-day refunds via the terms of sale. Every install, updated or fresh, accepts it once on first 1.0 launch. • The beta is wrapped up. Version labels, dialogs, and the welcome screen no longer say "beta"; the founder pre-notice from v0.5.1 became the real founder offer with the live code. • The founder discount has a permanent home in the Manager. The one-time founder notice can be dismissed, and until September 1 nothing else puts checkout in front of you. The Manager footer now carries a Buy link on any install without a key:"Get 50% off" for beta testers, "Buy DeskRipple" otherwise. It disappears the moment a key validates. • DeskRipple no longer changes your "Auto arrange icons" setting. A checkbox on the first-run desktop notice used to let DeskRipple clear that Windows setting for you, and it re-cleared it on every startup, with no way to switch it back off once the setting's own toggle was removed in a July release. The notice is informational now:DeskRipple still tells you when auto-arrange is on and what it does to folder placement, but it never touches the setting. Reported by a beta tester. • A settings file that's locked when DeskRipple starts can't be overwritten. If an antivirus scan, a backup, or a second copy of DeskRipple held global.json or a profile's config.json at the wrong moment, DeskRipple started on empty defaults and then saved them over the real file, losing a license key, your diagnostics choice, or the folder list. A related path could fall back to the backup copy and quietly roll the install back one save, dropping the folder you had just added. A file DeskRipple couldn't read is now never written to for the rest of that session, and the next launch reads it normally. • Deleting a profile can't destroy desktop shortcuts it failed to put back. Profile delete returns the desktop originals DeskRipple had moved into its archive, then removes the profile. A shortcut locked at that instant was returned by neither step and went with the folder. The restore now counts what it couldn't hand back and asks before going ahead, and it keeps those files where the other restore paths can still find them. • About and the welcome screen fit on a small screen. Both had grown taller than the room a taskbar leaves:on a 1366×768 display at 125% scaling the welcome screen ran off the bottom, and About's buttons sat under the taskbar. That matters more in 1.0, because every install has to accept the license agreement once, and a dialog that can't show its own "I Agree" button is a dead end. Both are capped to the usable area now, and About is shorter, with Updates and Diagnostics collapsed until you open them. • Smaller fixes. Esc closes every dialog. The license key box and its accept-or-reject message are announced by screen readers. The tray menu no longer offers a profile switcher when there is only one profile.

Everything else — desktop folder docks, five expand styles, drag-and-drop, desktop-icon displacement, multi-monitor and mixed-DPI support, multiple profiles, automatic updates, and opt-in diagnostics — carries over from the beta unchanged.

📦 Install / update

Already installed: nothing to do — DeskRipple checks this repo in the background and applies the update silently at an idle moment. A tray notification confirms it, and the next launch shows the updated license agreement once. (Prefer to update on your own schedule? The About dialog has an "Install updates automatically" toggle.) • New install: download DeskRipple-beta-Setup.exe below and run it. It installs per-user (no admin prompt), adds a Start Menu entry, and launches.

🛡️ SmartScreen prompt on the installer. DeskRipple is code-signed (Microsoft Trusted Signing). Because it's still building download reputation, Windows SmartScreen may show a prompt — if it does, click More info → Run anyway.

🔎 Can't find the tray icon? On Windows 11 it starts hidden in the ^ overflow chevron near the clock. Drag it onto the taskbar, then right-click → Open Manager.

System requirements:Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. Full details. (The .nupkg, releases.beta.json, and meta.json assets are the updater's feed; DeskRipple-beta-Portable.zip is an unsupported convenience — the installer is the supported path.)

🐛 Feedback

Found a bug or have a suggestion? Report it here — no login required. The easiest path is right-click the tray icon → Send feedback (it pre-fills your version, OS, and DPI scale, which makes reports far easier to act on).


🔒 Privacy: DeskRipple runs locally — no account, no login. Out of the box its only network traffic is the background update check against GitHub (no identifiers; can be turned off), and the license key is checked on your PC, not on a server. Anonymous usage diagnostics are strictly opt-in and off by default — you choose on first run and can change it anytime in Settings. Purchases are handled by Lemon Squeezy as merchant of record. Privacy policy.

Installer type: exe

x649048D969D3378998A01FBE3FE6C5F5812FE65D108D1570BB6ADFC5183E569177

Details

Homepage
https://deskripple.com/
License
Proprietary
Publisher
DeskRipple
Support
https://github.com/DeskRipple/deskripple/issues
Privacy Policy
https://github.com/DeskRipple/deskripple/blob/main/PRIVACY.md
Copyright
Copyright (c) 2026 DeskRipple
Moniker
deskripple

Tags

desktopdockfoldersorganizerproductivityshortcutswindows-11

Older versions (3)

0.5.1
x64F9A61B3A4A9A7CDCDCA0060C8F1191A37A665625CFB1387FFC7C71A7C310CA07
0.4.10
x64262C864BC83AA764D91D65BB7168F9CDC816AB17C46283EC341EA2EF0ECCA1CD
0.1.2
x6423863E505FF82644BDB28B3761C29A7B435036129CC0AE36F08DC4E58530EA0D