Launcher Changelog

1.0.0-preview2 (2025-11-23)

• Added cross-platform support for Linux
• Found a better tray icon library that supports dropdown menus and doesn’t require CGO
• Added a CLI mode for Linux users without a GUI; Windows users can use this version using tvs-launcher-cli.exe

The Linux version installs to ~/.local/share/tvs-launcher.

1.0.0-preview (2025-11-21)

Initial prerelease of Television Simulator Launcher for Windows.

Features

• Download and install latest version of Television Simulator directly from GitHub releases.
• Switch between multiple releases and configurations.
• Integrated HTTP server that serves TVS; no need for a separate web server.
• Runs in the background as a system tray application.

Installation

Put tvs-launcher.exe in a folder where you want to run the launcher from.

When you run it for the first time, it will create the necessary folders and be ready to download the latest version of Television Simulator. Click on the tray icon to open the launcher.

Usage

First, update to the latest version of TVS using the Update command at the top of the menu. Once updated, the server will start automatically, by default at http://localhost:3990

You can change the server port and host in the settings.json file located in the root folder.

Configuration Management

All of your user data and configurations are stored in the configurations folder. When updating to a new version, your existing data will be preserved. New installations will start with the latest demo config file.

You can create multiple configurations and switch between them using the launcher; only one will be served at a time.

The way that the web server serves files is based on merging your configuration folder with the installed release. For instance if you have a config file like this:

channels:
  - number: 1
    image: channel1.png

  - number: 2
    image: placeholders/guide-ad.png

And on your disk you’ve got:

• Directoryreleases

  • Directorytvs-5.4.0

    • placeholders
    • guide-ad.png
• Directoryconfigurations

  • Directorydefault

    • config.tvs.yml
    • channel1.png

The server will treat it as if the files exist in the same folder:

• Directoryplaceholders

  • guide-ad.png
• config.tvs.yml
• channel1.png