LaunchBoards

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Organize your app shortcuts into dedicated launch boards and start what you need, when you need it — fast, local-first, and zero telemetry.

English • Deutsch

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Quick Navigation

• What is LaunchBoards?
• Why Two Names for One App?
• Architecture & Profile Isolation
• Workspace Launch Lifecycle
• Core Features
• Getting Started & How to Run
• System Invariants & Governance
• Canonical Repository & Contributing
• Ecosystem & Sister Projects
• Security & Vulnerability Reporting
• License

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What is LaunchBoards?

LaunchBoards is a specialized second branding of SoftwareCenter — running the identical, battle-tested desktop codebase under a distinct application identity, custom app icon, and separate settings profile (PROFILE_LAUNCHBOARDS).

While traditional app launchers focus on browsing a flat directory of installed programs, LaunchBoards centers the workflow around thematic workspaces ("Boards"). You organize your everyday desktop shortcuts, utilities, IDEs, and project folders into tab-based boards (e.g. Development, Design, Daily Office, Administration), switching contexts with a single click.

Note

LaunchBoards is not a fork or detached clone. It is an officially supported product profile of the canonical SoftwareCenter codebase. Both brandings run concurrently without mutual interference.

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Why Two Names for One App?

SoftwareCenter and LaunchBoards represent two complementary conceptual framings of the exact same utility:

Perspective	Framing	Primary Use Case	Default Profile
SoftwareCenter	Software Catalog	Organizing, categorizing, and launching installed software packages	PROFILE_SOFTWARECENTER
LaunchBoards	Workspace Boards	Organizing shortcuts into tabbed launch boards across active projects	PROFILE_LAUNCHBOARDS

Both apps can run side by side on the same machine without colliding:

• Each profile uses its own independent QSettings namespace (file-bricks/LaunchBoards vs file-bricks/SoftwareCenter).
• Each profile uses an independent single-instance lock (LaunchBoards.lock vs SoftwareCenter.lock), allowing both to run at the same time.
• Both share 100% interoperability with the versioned profile format (softwarecenter-profile-v1.json).

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Architecture & Profile Isolation

The diagram below illustrates how LaunchBoards leverages the shared core engine while remaining completely isolated in runtime state, configuration, and process mutex locks:

flowchart TD
    User["Desktop User / Developer"] -->|"Selects Branding"| Choice{"Execution Profile"}
    Choice -->|"Run LaunchBoards"| LB_Entry["LaunchBoards.exe / launchboards.py"]
    Choice -->|"Run SoftwareCenter"| SC_Entry["SoftwareCenter.exe / SoftwareCenter.py"]

    LB_Entry -->|"Initializes Profile"| CoreEngine["SoftwareCenter.py Core Engine"]
    SC_Entry -->|"Initializes Profile"| CoreEngine

    CoreEngine -->|"Dedicated Registry"| LBSettings["QSettings ('file-bricks/LaunchBoards')"]
    CoreEngine -->|"Dedicated Registry"| SCSettings["QSettings ('file-bricks/SoftwareCenter')"]

    CoreEngine -->|"Dedicated Mutex"| LBLock["SingleInstanceLock ('LaunchBoards.lock')"]
    CoreEngine -->|"Dedicated Mutex"| SCLock["SingleInstanceLock ('SoftwareCenter.lock')"]

    LBSettings -->|"Workspace Framing"| LBUi["LaunchBoards UI ('Tabbed Workspace Boards')"]
    SCSettings -->|"Software Framing"| SCUi["SoftwareCenter UI ('Application Catalog')"]

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Workspace Launch Lifecycle

LaunchBoards provides a responsive, local-first workflow from startup to process invocation:

sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    actor User as "Desktop User"
    participant App as "LaunchBoards (PySide6)"
    participant Store as "QSettings State"
    participant OS as "Operating System"

    User->>App: "Launch application"
    App->>Store: "Load workspace tabs and shortcuts"
    Store-->>App: "Active boards ('Development', 'Design', 'Tools')"
    App-->>User: "Render tabbed launch boards UI"

    User->>App: "Drag & drop shortcut item (.lnk / .exe)"
    App->>Store: "Persist shortcut item in active board"
    Store-->>App: "State updated"

    User->>App: "Click shortcut / Press hotkey"
    App->>OS: "Spawn target process via QDesktopServices"
    OS-->>User: "Application launched successfully"

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Core Features

• 📑 Tabbed Launch Boards: Create, rename, and rearrange custom workspace boards tailored to specific workflows (e.g. Code, Audio, Comms).
• 🖱️ Drag & Drop Organization: Simply drag Windows shortcut files (.lnk), executables (.exe), scripts, or documents directly into any board.
• ⚡ Instant Filter Search: Type to filter shortcuts immediately across all boards without navigating deep menu hierarchies.
• 🔒 100% Local-First & Zero Telemetry: No user account, no cloud servers, no telemetry, and zero network traffic.
• 📦 Portable Profile Migration: Export and import boards effortlessly using the standard JSON format (softwarecenter-profile-v1.json).
• 🔀 True Side-by-Side Execution: Run LaunchBoards alongside SoftwareCenter concurrently with dedicated settings and window states.

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Getting Started & How to Run

Option 1: Standalone Windows Executable (Recommended)

Pre-built binaries for LaunchBoards are distributed as standalone, portable Windows executables alongside SoftwareCenter releases:

1. Visit the canonical release page: SoftwareCenter Releases.
2. Download LaunchBoards.exe (or LaunchBoards-<version>-win64.exe).
3. Run the executable directly. No installation or administrative privileges required.

Option 2: Running from Source

Since LaunchBoards shares the canonical codebase, clone and run it via the dedicated runner:

# Clone the canonical repository
git clone https://github.com/file-bricks/SoftwareCenter.git
cd SoftwareCenter

# Install dependencies (PySide6)
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Launch with the LaunchBoards profile
python launchboards.py

Option 3: Building Standalone Binary Locally

To produce your own portable LaunchBoards.exe via PyInstaller, execute the preconfigured build script in the canonical repo:

build_exe_launchboards.bat

The resulting binary will be located in dist/LaunchBoards/LaunchBoards.exe or bundled into root as LaunchBoards.exe.

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System Invariants & Governance

LaunchBoards adheres to strict operational and architectural invariants:

ID	Invariant	Description
INV-LOCAL-01	Zero Network Egress	No telemetry, phone-home checks, cloud synchronization, or external web requests.
INV-LOCAL-02	Unprivileged Run	Runs strictly in user space (RunAsInvoker). Never requests administrative (UAC) elevation.
INV-LOCAL-03	Non-Destructive Ops	Removing a shortcut only detaches the UI reference; target files and executables are never deleted.
INV-LOCAL-04	Safe Link Resolution	Safely extracts target metadata from .lnk files without executing shell evaluation scripts.
INV-LOCAL-05	Profile Isolation	QSettings key file-bricks/LaunchBoards is strictly isolated from file-bricks/SoftwareCenter.
INV-LOCAL-06	Mutex Independence	Single-instance lock LaunchBoards.lock permits simultaneous execution with SoftwareCenter.
INV-LOCAL-07	Schema Parity	100% interoperability with versioned profile schema (softwarecenter-profile-v1.json).
INV-LOCAL-08	Canonical Authority	The canonical source of truth for code, tests, and CI is file-bricks/SoftwareCenter.
INV-LOCAL-09	Bilingual Parity	All end-user documentation maintains complete German/English alignment (P-006).
INV-LOCAL-10	Security SLA	Security disclosures receive a verified response within 48 hours and triage within 5 days.

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Canonical Repository & Contributing

This repository (file-bricks/LaunchBoards) is maintained as an official branding pointer and entry point for discoverability.

All active development, issue tracking, and contributions occur in the canonical repository:

👉 github.com/file-bricks/SoftwareCenter

• Issues & Bug Reports: Please open issues under SoftwareCenter and tag with [LaunchBoards].
• Pull Requests: Submit PRs against file-bricks/SoftwareCenter.
• Translations: Maintained via manage_translations.py and locales/ in the canonical repository.

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Ecosystem & Sister Projects

LaunchBoards is part of the file-bricks and open-bricks desktop tool ecosystem:

Project	Focus Area	Canonical Repository
SoftwareCenter	Installed software catalog & desktop launcher	file-bricks/SoftwareCenter
LaunchBoards	Tab-based workspace launch boards	file-bricks/LaunchBoards
TextCrafter	Local-first distraction-free text editor & Markdown suite	file-bricks/TextCrafter
TagFolder	Tag-based file navigation and organization tool	file-bricks/TagFolder
lock-master	Deterministic multi-agent file and directory locking	dev-bricks/lock-master
open-bricks	Umbrella registry for open-source desktop applications	open-bricks/.github

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Security & Vulnerability Reporting

Security and user privacy are foundational. LaunchBoards executes completely offline and requires no elevated privileges.

If you identify a security issue or vulnerability, please consult our SECURITY.md policy. We commit to an initial response within 48 hours and triage within 5 business days:

• 📧 Security Team: security@open-bricks.org
• 📧 Maintainer: lukas@open-bricks.org

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE for full details.

Copyright (c) 2026 Lukas Geiger.