We’re excited to announce Desktop Mode 0.9.6! This is another huge release, packed with new features, UX improvements, performance optimizations, and bug fixes.

This version also celebrates our amazing open source contributors. Many of the improvements in this release come directly from community contributions, and we’re proud to introduce a new Contributors section on this blog to recognize everyone who helps make Desktop Mode better.

THANK YOU!

The previous release was already one of our biggest. Somehow, this one is even larger.

We’re working hard to deliver the features people ask for while fixing as many bugs as possible. Looking at everything included in 0.9.6, we think we’re moving in the right direction.

Let’s start with the fun part.

🎮 Games

Desktop Mode now includes a game framework.

Think of it as a small version of Steam built directly into WordPress. It provides everything needed to create games inside Desktop Mode, including invitations, leaderboards, play time tracking, and even a shared dictionary that developers can use to build word games.

The first two games are available today:

InkFall
Alphabet Soup

We can’t wait to see what the community creates next.

🤖 AI

We’ve redesigned the WordPress Command Palette and fully integrated it with the AI Assistant.

Everything is now unified in a cleaner interface that is faster, simpler, and much easier to use.

📁 File Manager

Turn your WordPress installation into your own cloud storage.

Create folders, upload files, organize your content, and download entire folders as ZIP archives.

We’ve also improved the upload window experience, making file management much smoother.

📝 Notes

Notes have become much more powerful.

You can now pin notes to your desktop, share them with other WordPress users, and even create a new post directly from a note.

And yes… they also look beautiful.

✨ Better User Experience

Editing content is now much easier thanks to a new relationship system.

When you open a post, Desktop Mode can automatically show related information such as:

Comments
Categories
Tags
Other posts linking to the current post

Everything you need is only one click away.

⚡ General Improvements

Desktop Mode 0.9.6 also includes many improvements across the entire project:

Better loading states and improved accessibility for the Desktop Mode Controls Library button.
Improved window minimization, dock badges, and window states (minimized, active, unfocused, and more).
Selecting a window from Overview Mode no longer maximizes it automatically.
The WordPress Admin Bar now hides while using Focus Mode.
Fixed folder renaming, which previously required refreshing the window.
Fixed a regression in our heuristic window generation system that affected plugins such as Advanced Custom Fields (ACF).
Improved overall plugin performance.
Improved the authentication system.
Many bug fixes and stability improvements across Desktop Mode.

Desktop Mode continues to evolve with one goal: making WordPress feel like a modern desktop operating system.

Thank you to everyone who reports bugs, suggests new ideas, contributes code, or simply uses the plugin every day.

See you in the next release 🚀

👀 P.S.

You may have noticed the little eye icon that now appears at the end of the last screenshot window’s title bar…

Well…

That’s for the next release. 🙂

Stay tuned.

Desktop Mode 0.9.6