AnyPS5 Desktop 0.1.7: controllers that just work (with a screen and a troubleshooter for them), play from Steam and the Steam Deck, no unlock without the room and new games prepared in the background, more in Messages, and a launcher that is smooth on laptops and stays out of your game. It also brings everything from the 0.1.6 pre-release: the Glass theme with a see-through window, games that show up by themselves, controller vibration, quiet updates and no more copies across drives.
This is still an early preview. Please report what works and what doesn't in the issues; a game's crash report makes that easy.
You asked, we built it
Our Windows tester's reports, fixed:
- The controller no longer reaches the launcher while you play. With a game (or any other program) in front, the launcher takes nothing from the controller but the PS/Guide button; Cross in the game used to also press what the launcher had focused behind it. Back in the launcher, a button still held from the game does nothing until you press it again.
- Lists no longer follow the mouse. Hovering a row still highlights it, but the list no longer slides away under the pointer. Scroll with the wheel or touchpad, or click and drag like on a phone; a drag never clicks what it started on.
- The launcher is much faster on laptops and integrated graphics. On Windows it now draws with Skia instead of Impeller's OpenGL ES backend: on a Ryzen 7 3700U with Vega graphics a Glass settings panel drew at 3 to 13 frames a second, now it scrolls at 60. Glass draws each surface once and reuses it, and the animated backgrounds cost a fraction of before. While a game is in front the launcher draws nothing at all, so the GPU is the game's (before, the background took a quarter of it). If the graphics card still falls behind with Glass, it turns solid by itself.
- PS/Guide switches both ways. In the game, PS brings the launcher in front; in the launcher, PS takes you back to the game (on Windows the game window could refuse to come back). One press is one switch.
- The game ignores the controller while the launcher is in front, so moving through the launcher over a running game no longer also plays the game.
What's new
- Controllers that just work, and a screen for them. Controllers are read through SDL2, shipped with the launcher: DualSense and DualShock 4 over USB and Bluetooth (and they now vibrate on Windows too), Xbox, Switch Pro, 8BitDo and more, plugged in or paired at any time, several at once; the one used last is Player 1. Settings → Controllers lists them with USB or Bluetooth and their battery, tests every button, stick and the vibration live, sets the light bar's colour, lets Circle confirm (Japanese layout) and sets a stick dead zone for the launcher and your games. Its troubleshooter finds what keeps a pad away: Steam's PlayStation support, DS4Windows, DualSenseX, HidHide, Linux input permissions (with the command to copy), plus Bluetooth and cable tips. Crash reports now list the controllers.
- Play from Steam and the Steam Deck. Settings → Steam → Add to Steam puts AnyPS5 in your Steam library as a non-Steam game with artwork in the Cosmic look (cover, wide capsule, hero, logo and icon), so Big Picture, Steam Input and the Steam Deck's Game Mode start it like any other game. Add My Games Too gives every unlocked game its own entry and art that starts straight into the game; the launcher closes when the game ends so Steam sees it end. With Steam open the launcher offers Close Steam and Add, keeps a backup and never touches anyone else's shortcuts; Remove from Steam takes out only AnyPS5's.
--fullscreen opens the launcher over the whole screen and --play <title ID> starts a game at once.
- No unlock without the room, and new games prepared in the background. Unlock (and Update and Play) checks the games folder's drive first; when it is short nothing starts, and a panel says how much is needed and free, and the ways out. Settings → Game Library → Prepare New Games Automatically (on by default): a new game copied into the games folder is unlocked in the background, one at a time and at the lowest priority; it waits for your own unlocks and for a game you play, pauses when one starts, and never runs on a battery below 30 % or a drive without the room. The New game notice says Preparing…, then Ready to play. Unlocking again is faster too: the relinker's output is kept.
- More in Messages. Pick a message for its menu: react with 👍 ❤️ 😂 😮 😢 🔥 or GG, reply (the answer quotes it), edit your own for 15 minutes, or unsend it for everyone after a confirmation. Reactions show as chips under the message. Your newest message says Sent, Delivered or Read ("Seen by" in groups). △ on a conversation pins it to the top or mutes it. Settings → AnyTogether → Send read receipts turns read receipts off both ways.
- Glass, a new theme with a see-through window: your desktop and the windows behind it show through, blurred under a light tint so the wallpaper's colors glow (Acrylic on Windows 11 22H2 and later, the older acrylic blur on Windows 10). Text sits on soft dark plates; cards, buttons and panels are panes of frosted glass, and the focused one is a bright ice chip, with a new Ice accent. Pick it in Settings → Appearance → Theme. Glass Transparency sets how much shows through, Show Game Art Behind lays the selected game's picture over the desktop, and Reduce Transparency draws everything solid. On Linux the window is see-through wherever the desktop composites, blurred on KDE Plasma (X11).
- No more full copies across drives: a game whose dump is on another drive than the games folder links to its files with symbolic links instead of copying tens of GB (on Windows this needs Developer Mode, or the launcher run as administrator). Where no link can be made, the launcher says before unlocking how many GB would be copied and why, with the fixes or Copy Anyway.
- New games show up by themselves: a game copied into the games folder, in a subfolder too, appears as soon as its copy is far enough along, with New game: and its icon, and is selected on the home screen.
- Controller vibration: soft, short pulses for select, back, errors, trophies, invitations and the end of a row (Settings → Behaviour → Controller Vibration, on by default), only while the launcher is in front.
- Input feel: a held direction repeats at the same pace on the controller and the arrow keys; a resting stick no longer jitters; a direction with nowhere to go answers with a quiet knock; a soft tick plays when the mouse arrives on a tile, row or button.
- Updates while it stays open: a new version is downloaded in the background (signature checked as before), then a quiet notice offers Restart Now or Later. Restart Now with a game running waits for the game.
- Hidden trophies: a hidden trophy you earned always shows its name.
0.1.6 was a pre-release; 0.1.7 replaces it. Everything from 0.1.5 is here too: trophy levels, showcases, Compare trophies, Appear offline, crash reports (Save crash_log.txt, Copy Report, a pre-filled GitHub issue), the trophy card over the game, system fonts, party join codes, full screen, the AnyPS5-ARM engine in the engine picker, family limits, mouse support and signed launcher updates.
Install
Windows 10/11 (x64): run AnyPS5-Desktop-Setup-0.1.7-x64.exe (per user, no admin needed; it installs over earlier versions). SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC": click More info → Run anyway. Portable: unzip AnyPS5-Desktop-windows-x64.zip and run anyps5_desktop.exe (SDL2.dll and the Visual C++ runtime are beside it). Already on 0.1.3 or later: the launcher offers this update by itself.
Linux (x64):
- AppImage:
chmod +x AnyPS5-Desktop-0.1.7-x86_64.AppImage, then run it.
- Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo apt install ./anyps5-desktop_0.1.7_amd64.deb.
- Archive: unpack the .tar.gz and run
AnyPS5-Desktop/anyps5_desktop.
- The launcher runs on glibc 2.34+ (Ubuntu 22.04 or newer). Games run through AnyPS5's current Linux engine, which needs glibc 2.38+ (Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 13, Fedora 39 or newer).
Then open the launcher, press Download the AnyPS5 engine and choose your games folder.
Checksums: SHA256SUMS lists every file, and SHA256SUMS.sig is its Ed25519 signature with the AnyPS5 release key (f8fe0d55df962105).
Requirements: a CPU and GPU that AnyPS5 supports (see upstream), and decrypted copies of games you own.