# WolOS 0.12: a solid desktop, then a bigger one > An installer that refuses to risk Windows, a system that asks before it changes anything, a redesigned Settings and Control Center, shell plugins, optional modules, and a long list of hardening. A test build. Source: https://wolos.org/blog/wolos-0-12-0 Published 2026-11-03 by WolOS. WolOS 0.12 is the release that made the desktop solid, and then grew it. The idea behind it is the one on the front page: you sat down to do something, and the computer should not be the something. It is still a test build, not a stable release: the image installs and boots in virtual machines, and the full desktop is still being proven on real hardware. Here is what changed for you. The full list is in the [Changelog](/changelog), and the [manual](/manual) was rewritten to match, with a new [Keys](/reference/keys) page and a longer Glossary. ## An installer that explains itself Every page now says what will happen and what is kept, and the summary lists each change in one line before anything is written. ![The summary page, Ready to Install: it lists each change in one line and warns that erasing removes the systems already on the disk.](/img/manual/installer-summary.png) Next to Windows, a bar and a slider show how much room each system gets. The installer refuses a Windows that is hibernated or was shut down with Fast Startup, so its files cannot be damaged, keeps the clock in local time as Windows does, and its last page tells you how to choose Windows at start. If Windows uses BitLocker, you are warned before Secure Boot changes that Windows will ask once for its recovery key. ![The Share the Disk page: a bar shows how much room Windows and WolOS each get, and a slider moves the line between them.](/img/manual/installer-alongside.png) Fixes you may have hit: the US International keyboard no longer stops the install at 90%, an old security chip is no longer offered for unlocking the disk only to fail, your keyboard layout is set before you type the disk password, and **Look Again** checks the disks once more after you plug one in. When an install fails, the Failed page says what failed and why, and the log stays on the installed system. See [Installing WolOS](/manual/install) and [Installing next to Windows](/manual/dual-boot). ## Secure Boot, on the stick and after The live USB stick now starts with Secure Boot on: the first start asks once to enrol the WolOS key from the stick. In the installer, Secure Boot is a choice you make, with the steps of the one blue screen written under the switch. ![The installer's Secure Boot page with Use Secure Boot turned on: under the switch it lists the steps of the one blue screen.](/img/manual/installer-secure-boot.png) On the installed system, **Settings > Privacy & Security > Startup Security** shows how this computer starts, one row each, and finishes a Secure Boot setup that is still waiting. [Secure Boot](/manual/secure-boot) walks through both blue screens. ![Startup Security in Settings: Secure Boot, keys, kernel lockdown, the security chip, measured startup, the sealed system and the release number, one row each.](/img/manual/settings-startup-security.png) ## Settings and Control Center, redone Settings has new navigation and a search that finds every pane and every row. There is a new **Sound** pane (outputs with their codec, a 0 dB mark with *Allow Louder*, balance, an input level meter, automatic level and noise removal, Bluetooth codec, Pro Audio rate and buffer, troubleshooting), a new **Modules** pane, and Displays can change the refresh rate and the arrangement. When a save fails, the control goes back to what is saved, so nothing shows a change that was not kept, and Software Update checks in the background so the window never stalls. ![Software Update in Settings: what is available and when it last checked, Check Now and Update Now, and the three automatic update switches.](/img/manual/settings-software-update.png) Control Center has a tile grid (Battery, Screen Mirroring, Keyboard Brightness, Night Shift, Screenshot, Record, accessibility, Stay Awake, and tiles from plugins) and new Sound and Display pages. See [Settings](/manual/settings) and [Control Center](/manual/control-center). ## The desktop, day to day - **Keys that leave your apps alone.** Spaces moved to Ctrl+Alt (Ctrl+Alt+1 to 4, Ctrl+Alt+arrows), so Ctrl+1 to 4 and Ctrl+arrows go back to your apps. Esc and Super no longer start a helper program in every app. Every shortcut is on the new [Keys](/reference/keys) page, generated from the same table Settings reads. - **Clipboard history** (Shift+Super+V) searches, pins and clears, and never keeps one-time codes. - **Screenshots** can go to the clipboard instead of a file (Ctrl+Shift+Super+3 or 4), and a pen lets you mark one up. - **Overview** works the first time, always shows four desktops and brings the window you click to the front. Clicking a running app in the Dock brings its window back instead of starting a second copy. - **Banners** wait while a game or video is full screen; Notification Center has a Clear button. Force Quit and Overview open over full-screen games. - **The mic-mute and brightness keys work**, and the mic-mute sign shows the microphone, not the speaker. - **Web apps** (`wol webapp add`) open a site in its own window with its own launcher; `wol toggle` and `wol remind` switch Night Shift, Stay Awake and Silence and set reminders; `wol sessions save|restore|list` reopens your terminals where they were. - A new icon set, drawn on one grid for light and dark. ## One theme for everything Ctrl+Super+T opens a picker with a preview card for every installed theme. One theme colours window borders, the lock screen, the terminal and the prompt in every shell you use. See [Themes in every app](/reference/app-theming). ## Plugins you can make A shell plugin can add menu bar and Dock items, desktop widgets, Control Center tiles, search results, shortcuts, themes and web-app launchers. Each runs in a sandbox with time and size limits, and a plugin that keeps failing is turned off. Tiles, Dock items and shortcuts that run commands do so only after you allow it. The Store has a **Plugins** page fed by a signed index, and **Plugin Maker** lets you write a plugin or a theme and see it live in a sandboxed preview before you package it. See [The Store, Kits and plugins](/manual/store), [Plugin Maker](/reference/plugin-maker) and the [Plugin API reference](/reference/plugins). ## Optional modules The base stays small. Developer tools, AI assistants, local AI, saved sessions, creative apps, gaming tools and a richer console are modules: none is ticked for you, each can be removed again (with what it added), and a module that cannot install is given up after five tries instead of being retried at every start. The installer installs the ones you tick while online; otherwise they install as soon as the network is up, in the background, with the local AI graphics backend chosen for your machine. See [Optional modules](/reference/modules). ## The Store The Store's **Kits** page adds the common media formats (MP3, AAC, H.264, HEVC, AC3 and fonts) in one click, off until you choose them because some of these formats are patented in some countries, and a Kit you already have says *Added*. Community packages stay on their own tab, behind your password, with the risk written first. ![The Store's Community tab, locked: the risk comes first, and the packages stay hidden until you enter your password.](/img/manual/store-community-tab.png) ## Hardening you can feel Apps talking to the system service are identified the moment they connect, and both sides confirm each other before any request, so a program can no longer borrow another program's permissions. Every change made as root shows a sheet on your screen, and the most sensitive actions (accounts, remote login, firewall, permissions, boot environments) always ask for your password. A program running in your account can no longer answer those sheets for you. Services run in a sandbox by default, everything read from files, sockets and plugins has size and depth limits and is fuzz-tested, and the malware check refuses a file it could not scan instead of letting it through. The plugin index and the update feed are signed and carry a serial number, so an old copy cannot be replayed to hold back updates. See [Privacy and permissions](/manual/privacy) and [Security](/reference/security). ## How it is built One build path: code in `wolos`, recipes in `wolos-pkgbuilds`, the image in `wolos-iso`, every package built in a clean chroot on our own build farm, and the ISO only from the published repo. A release is signed only after its ISO passed the VM test. WolOS is GPL-2.0-or-later (libwol is BSD-2-Clause). The Wonderland Doctrine, our code of conduct, is published at [/doctrine](/doctrine). For app makers, 0.12 carries [Cryswol](/cryswol), the Crystal framework that gives apps every WolOS call as an object, and Wolkit, the UI kit, as a preview. ## Measured on the release run The release build was started in virtual machines that click and type through it like a person would, before it was signed: - **37.0 s** from switching on to the live image's first screen. - **2 min 47 s** for an unattended install that erases a disk. - **12 installer pages** on the default path. - **5 of 6 test runs passed**, every step logged. The sixth finished its install; the test harness lost the machine while stopping it, so the installed disk's first start was not checked. These are figures from virtual machines, not from a real PC. ## What is not done yet We would rather tell you than have you find out: - **The desktop is still being proven on real hardware.** Expect rough edges, and report what you hit on [GitHub](https://github.com/wonderlandos/wolos/issues). - **The package CDN is not switched on yet.** Packages come from the release host; the ISO has its own download host, with GitHub as a mirror. - **The update feed does not expire yet.** Only its serial number keeps an old copy out, until a job re-signs it regularly. - **Plugins by id** install only from the Store; `wol plugin add` takes a folder or a `.wolplug` file. - **Planned for 0.13:** `wol jail run` (a workspace jail for AI assistants) and a separate codecs module. Plugin kinds for looks and window manager rules are planned too; `wol plugin check` refuses them for now. - **Wolkit is a preview** for app makers, and the Developer module's Crystal path (Crystal with Cryswol on a fresh install) was fixed after the pre-release run and has not been run again on this image. - **Not proven on real hardware.** The release tests ran in virtual machines. ## Get it The ISO is `wolos-2026.11.03-x86_64.iso` (2,128,435,200 bytes), with its `.sha256` and `release.json` beside it, on the [Download](/download) page together with the Secure Boot and VirtualBox notes. The same three files are on the GitHub release `v0.12.0` of `wonderlandos/wolos-packages`. Choose **Try WolOS** to run it from memory without changing your disk.