Updates

Everything new in OrbitDrop.

Every update since the first day, newest first. The Microsoft Store version updates itself; the GitHub version installs updates when you're not using it.

  1. 0.4.4

    Updates that always go through

    • Fixed: some updates didn't install, and OrbitDrop didn't come back. OrbitDrop is now closed for an update the standard Windows way, the right-click menu gets a new file name every version so File Explorer can't block it, and if an update ever can't be installed, the version you had starts again by itself.
  2. 0.4.3

    A clearer clipboard setting

    • "Use the clipboard" works through Ctrl + Alt + Space. When that shortcut is turned off, the clipboard setting now greys out and says so, instead of seeming to do nothing.
  3. 0.4.2

    CorelDRAW, built in

    • Nothing else to install. OrbitDrop now reads CorelDRAW drawings (.cdr and .cmx) itself. Drag one, tap Shift, and convert it to PDF, SVG, PNG, JPG, WebP, TIFF or BMP. A drawing with several pages becomes a folder with one file per page.
    • Safe with any drawing. Each drawing is read in a separate, time- and memory-limited helper, so a damaged or unusual file can only fail its own conversion, never OrbitDrop.
  4. 0.4.1

    CorelDRAW files, made easy

    • Get Inkscape, in one click. Converting .cdr files needs the free app Inkscape (or LibreOffice). If neither is on your PC, dropping a .cdr now offers Get Inkscape, which opens its free Microsoft Store page, instead of showing nothing. Once it's installed, OrbitDrop picks it up within seconds, without a restart.
    • Finds them wherever they are: the Microsoft Store versions, per-user installs, scoop and anything on your PATH.
  5. 0.4.0

    Right-click, Undo and the clipboard

    The wheel works exactly as before. Everything new is optional, and the extras that change the wheel stay off until you turn them on.

    • Right-click menu. Right-click files or folders in File Explorer and choose OrbitDrop: the wheel opens for them, ready to click. With the Microsoft Store version it's right in Windows 11's main menu.
    • Undo. Every finished conversion offers Undo for a few seconds. It moves what was just made to the Recycle Bin, so even an undo can be undone, and it never touches your originals or files you moved.
    • The clipboard. Copied a screenshot or an image from a website? Press Ctrl + Alt + Space with nothing selected and the wheel opens for it: save it as PNG, convert it, compress it. It lands in the folder you're in, or Pictures.
    • Estimated size (optional). Rest on a format, Compress or Resize and the wheel shows about how big the result will be, like "≈ 640 KB · −73%".
    • Put my last choice first (optional). The option you used last for a kind of file moves to the top of its wheel.
  6. 0.3.9

    SVG files

    • SVG to PNG, JPG, WebP and more. Drag an SVG, tap Shift, and convert it, or rotate, resize and compress it. Small icons come out 1024 px wide so they stay sharp, and transparency is kept.
    • Safe with any SVG. An SVG can point to images on the internet or to other files on your PC. OrbitDrop never follows those links: it only draws what's inside the file, so opening an SVG never contacts anyone.
  7. 0.3.8

    PDF to Word

    • PDF to Word. Drag a PDF, tap Shift, let go on DOCX, and you get an editable Word document. It uses the Word or LibreOffice on your PC.
    • Fixed: long file names. Documents and CorelDRAW files with very long names, common for downloads from design sites, said "That didn't work". They convert now.
    • Dragging a file straight out of a ZIP now tells you to extract it first, instead of "No files".
  8. 0.3.7

    Long file names, tidied

    • A long file name no longer spills over the centre of the wheel. It's shortened in the middle, so you still see how it starts and its extension, like "Filee is a free,… computer.mp4".
  9. 0.3.6

    Click instead of holding, documents and CorelDRAW

    • Click instead of holding. Holding the mouse button while you choose can feel like a lot. Turn on Click instead of holding in Settings → Shortcuts, then drag, tap Shift and let go in the centre of the wheel: it stays open and you just click what you want. Click outside or press Esc to close. It's off unless you turn it on.
    • Documents to PDF. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files (DOC, DOCX, RTF, ODT, XLS, XLSX, ODS, PPT, PPTX, ODP) convert to PDF. Older formats can also become DOCX, XLSX or PPTX. OrbitDrop uses the Microsoft Office or LibreOffice already on your PC, invisibly, and only reads your file.
    • CorelDRAW files. With Inkscape or LibreOffice installed, .cdr drawings convert to PDF, SVG, EPS, PNG, JPG, TIFF or BMP. Images are rendered at twice the size, so they stay sharp.
    • A new Documents tab in Settings → Wheel, so you can hide any of these.
  10. 0.3.5

    WebP and JFIF

    • Convert to WebP. Transparency is kept, so logos and stickers stay see-through.
    • Convert to and from JFIF. A website won't take your .jfif? Drop it on JPG. Going between JPG and JFIF only renames the file, so the picture isn't re-compressed at all.
    • WebP pictures open everywhere. Rotating, resizing, compressing and converting WebP no longer needs Microsoft's WebP extension.
  11. 0.3.4

    Your accent colour, in dark mode too

    • OrbitDrop uses the same shade of your Windows accent colour that Windows itself uses: lighter in dark mode, darker in light mode. Dark accents no longer fall back to black and white.
  12. 0.3.3

    Store updates arrive right away

    • The Microsoft Store version checks for updates every few hours and installs them by itself as soon as you're not using it, then starts again. No more waiting for a restart.
  13. 0.3.2

    Rate OrbitDrop from Settings

    • Settings → General has an "Enjoying OrbitDrop?" row: rate it in the Microsoft Store, or star it on GitHub.
  14. 0.3.1

    A steadier keyboard shortcut

    • Ctrl + Alt + Space always reads the File Explorer tab you're looking at, even with several tabs open, and tries again if Explorer is busy instead of saying "Select files first".
  15. 0.3.0

    PDF tools

    • Merge several PDFs into one, in the order you picked them.
    • Split a PDF into a folder with one PDF per page.
    • Compress a PDF: the photos inside get smaller, while text stays sharp and selectable.
    • Rotate pages right, left or 180°.
    • Ctrl + Alt + Space in VS Code (and Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium): select files in the Explorer sidebar, or just have one open, and press the shortcut. Your clipboard is put back exactly as it was.
    • After you've used OrbitDrop a few times, it asks once whether you'd like to rate it, and never again.
  16. ★

    Live on the Microsoft Store, and this website

    • OrbitDrop passed Microsoft's review and is in the Microsoft Store as "OrbitDrop - Drag & Convert": one click to install, no security warning, updates handled by the Store.
    • orbitdrop.essam.biz went live, with the real app looping on the page and a 30-second trailer.
  17. 0.2.10

    Dragging from VS Code, fixed

    • The wheel now reads the real files and folders VS Code sends, and results land next to your original instead of in a temporary folder.
  18. 0.2.9

    Works with VS Code

    • Drag a file or folder from VS Code's Explorer sidebar, tap Shift, and the wheel opens, just like in File Explorer. The same goes for other apps that drag files their own way.
  19. 0.2.8

    Ready for the Store

    • Trimming works on more PCs: if the graphics hardware can't encode the video, OrbitDrop finishes the trim in software instead of failing.
    • The guide's demos are easier to read: the pointer rests beside each option instead of on its label.
    • OrbitDrop can run as a Microsoft Store package, where the Store keeps it updated and Windows' Startup apps handle starting it when you sign in.
    • A privacy policy: your files never leave your PC, and OrbitDrop collects no personal data.
  20. 0.2.7

    Rearrange your wheel

    • In Settings → Wheel, drag a slice around the ring. The others make room as you move, and Save puts your order on the real wheel. Reset brings back the original.
    • The guide keeps one size instead of jumping between steps, and its demo shows dragging too.
  21. 0.2.6

    A simpler Wheel page

    • Settings → Wheel shows your actual wheel. Pick the kind of file and mode at the top, click a slice to hide it (it turns into a dashed outline), click again to bring it back, then Save.
  22. 0.2.5

    Make the wheel yours

    • Turn off what you don't use, by kind of file: whole groups like Resize, or single choices like Compress 25%. The wheel shows only what's left.
    • With Ctrl + Alt + Space, click the centre of the wheel (or press the shortcut again, or tap Shift) to switch between Convert, Tools and Actions.
    • The guide shows both, and the option under the pointer lights up correctly in dark mode.
  23. 0.2.4

    Automatic updates

    • OrbitDrop downloads updates quietly, checks them against their published checksum, and installs them when you're not using it. It's back in a few seconds with your settings. Prefer to be asked? Turn it off in Settings → About.
    • Update checks keep working on shared office and school networks.
  24. 0.2.3

    A brand-new guide

    • Animated, step-by-step demos built from the real wheel: dragging and tapping Shift, choosing, switching modes, groups and the keyboard shortcut. It ends with a hands-on practice where you convert a sample photo yourself.
    • Tap Shift while dragging files out of the Float shelf, too.
  25. 0.2.2

    Trim and Float

    • Trim video and audio: drag the start and end of the part to keep, play it, save a copy.
    • Float: park files on a small always-on-top shelf and drag them out later, one at a time or all at once. Great for email attachments and uploads.
  26. 0.2.1

    No dragging needed

    • Ctrl + Alt + Space: select files in File Explorer or on the desktop, press the shortcut, and click an option.
    • Video to GIF: a looping animated GIF of the first 10 seconds.
    • Normalize audio: quiet recordings become as loud as they can be without clipping.
  27. 0.2.0

    The big one: far more than converting

    A smarter wheel

    • Related options are grouped. Rest on a segment like Compress and its choices open; rest on the centre to go back. Dropping straight on the segment runs the most common choice.

    Photos

    • A photo editor: crop (free or fixed shapes), adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and warmth, mark up with pen, arrows, boxes and text, and redact with black boxes or pixelation.
    • Compress to 75, 50 or 25% of the size, or under 1 MB, 500 KB or 200 KB. Resize to 50%, 1920, 1280 or 800 px.
    • Rotate and flip, copy text out of an image (recognised offline), set as wallpaper.
    • Images to PDF, one each or several combined, and PDF pages to PNG or JPG.
    • Reads WebP, HEIC, AVIF, JPEG XL and camera RAW when Windows has the codec. Phone photos always come out upright.

    Metadata

    • Info for any file: camera, exposure, location, size, length and more. Edit title, tags, rating, artist and album into a copy.
    • Remove all metadata, or just the location from photos, without re-compressing.

    Video and audio

    • Compress video to 1080p, 720p, 480p or half size; take a snapshot; join clips into one video.
    • Compress audio, switch between mono and stereo, convert to FLAC.

    Actions, for files and folders

    • Copy to or move to a folder (never overwrites), Share, Zip, open a Terminal there, copy path or name, show in folder.
    • Extract ZIP, TAR, TAR.GZ and GZ archives.
  28. 0.1.3

    Tidier labels

    • Every label fits neatly inside its slice of the wheel.
  29. 0.1.2

    Updates inside the app

    • OrbitDrop tells you when a new version is out and installs it for you, after checking the download is genuine.
  30. 0.1.1

    A new look

    • The orbit icon and the clean black-and-white style you see today.
  31. 0.1.0

    Day one

    • The idea: drag a file, tap Shift, and a wheel of choices opens under your pointer. Let go on one and the result appears next to the original. No app to open, nothing uploaded, and your original is never changed.
    • Three modes on one wheel: Convert, Tools and Actions. Tap Shift again to switch.
    • Images between PNG, JPG, BMP, TIFF and GIF; video to MP4 or WMV; the soundtrack out of a video as MP3, M4A, WAV or WMA; audio between those formats.
    • Light and dark themes, a tray icon, Settings, progress pop-ups and a first-run guide. Free and open source from the start.

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