Retro DOS Launcher

Your home screen, as a command line. Type a few letters, press Enter. Apps, people, timers and focus on one C:\> prompt.

No icon grid. No widgets. Just a DOS prompt, a few quick launch keys and your next appointment. A text launcher for people who would rather type than hunt for icons, and for anyone who misses the blinking cursor.

TYPE A FEW LETTERS. PRESS ENTER.

Type part of an app name and the best match is marked with > and opens on Enter. Results are ranked by match and by how often you open each app. Initials and small typos work too: "ps" finds Play Store, "gogle" finds Google. Hands full? Tap the mic.

PEOPLE

Turn on contacts in settings and type a name: "anna" calls, texts or opens a messaging app, whatever you did last time with that person. "anna sms" picks the action. Calls only fill in the dialer; nothing is dialled by itself.

A COMMAND LINE FOR YOUR PHONE

TORCH, WIFI, BT, VOLUME, BATTERY, ALARM 7:30, TIMER 10m. The row above the prompt shows what Enter will do. Plus DIR, RECENT, DOWNLOAD, GOOGLE [search], GEMINI [prompt] and SD SET 1 [app] for speed dial. Type HELP for the full list.

FOCUS

Mark the apps that pull you in. During FOCUS ON 25m, or on a schedule such as FOCUS AT 9-17 weekdays, they leave the app list and wait behind a countdown if you open them anyway. Type the name and they are still there: it never locks you out.

NEXT APPOINTMENT + SCREEN TIME

Turn on the calendar and the header says what is coming: "in 25m | Team standup". Type AGENDA for today and tomorrow. Turn on screen time and the same header shows today's minutes and unlocks, with the time per app next to each name in DIR. A daily LIMIT or DELAY never blocks, it only adds a countdown before the app opens.

YOUR LIST, YOUR WAY

Long-press any app for a menu: shortcuts, pin, focus, delay, limit (needs screen time), app info, uninstall. HIDE and RENAME tidy your list; UNHIDE brings an app back. A hidden app still opens when you type its full name. Above the header you get a greeting in your device language; under it, your next alarm when it rings within 24 hours, on by default.

APP SHORTCUTS

Type an app's name and part of an action, "chrome incog" or "maps home", and that long-press shortcut opens directly.

SEARCH AND ASK, FROM THE PROMPT

GOOGLE [terms] searches in your browser. GEMINI [prompt] asks the Gemini app. Say "google ..." into the mic for the same.

DIR + A-Z

Type DIR, or swipe up, for every installed app in one list with its screen time. Drag along the A-Z letters on the right edge to jump. The list is ready the moment you press Home.

ONE THUMB

• Swipe up: every app (DIR)

• Swipe down: notifications

• Swipe right or left: speed dial 1 and 2

• Quick launch keys above the prompt: [1] PHONE, [2] MESSAGES and more. Edit them in settings, in 1 or 2 rows

• BACK returns to a clean prompt

3 THEMES

Phosphor Green for night, Inverted Amber and LCD Green for day. Switch by hand, at set times, or at sunrise and sunset. A guided TOUR in 7 languages (EN, NL, DE, FR, ES, PT, IT) shows the essentials, and NEWS lists what changed after each update.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN

• No ads, no accounts, no analytics, no tracking

• No microphone permission: the mic button hands off to your phone's own speech input and only gets the text back

• The launcher's own code makes no network connections. The internet permission is there for Google Play Billing, used only by the optional "Buy me a coffee" donation

• Contacts, calendar and screen time are off by default. Switched on, they are read on your device only, to show them to you; never sent anywhere

• Notification marks (*) are off by default. The launcher sees only which apps have a notification, never the title or text, and stores nothing

• Approximate location is used only if you choose automatic day/night, on your device, to calculate sunrise and sunset. It is never stored or shared

Free, made by one person. If you like it, the coffee button is optional.

Not affiliated with Microsoft.