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Arc Optimizer v1.2 — UX Overhaul, Standalone EXE

Full audit of 34 issues, UX overhaul with dark/light theme and keyboard nav, standalone EXE compiled, and v1.2.0 shipped.

Arc Optimizer v1.2 — UX Overhaul, Standalone EXE
In this post

What happened

Took Arc Optimizer from a fragile PowerShell script to a Store-ready standalone EXE in one session.

Audit — Ran a full code audit against Store policies and Windows UX guidelines. Found 34 issues (8 High, 11 Medium, 15 Low).

Bugs fixed (all High severity):

  • Swap-based optimization only matched exact values — now uses regex, works with any current setting
  • attrib failures weren’t caught by try/catch — replaced with .NET File.SetAttributes
  • Error results displayed as green success — now red for errors, conditional success messages
  • Game path hardcoded to one Steam library — now searches dynamically via registry + common paths
  • UTF-8 BOM written to config files (UE5 hates this) — now writes UTF-8 without BOM
  • No way to restore from backup — added “Restore Selected” button to Backups tab
  • Orphaned backups on read failure — read file before creating backup
  • Audio detection returned 0 devices — fixed WMI query to use Win32_SoundDevice

UX Overhaul (Store compliance):

  • System dark/light theme detection via registry
  • Keyboard navigation: Tab between controls, Ctrl+O/R/T shortcuts, Esc to close
  • Screen reader support via AccessibleName/AccessibleRole on all controls
  • DoEvents() calls to prevent UI freezing during scans
  • Dynamic status bar showing actual GPU driver + Windows version
  • Version label no longer hardcoded to “v1.0”

Standalone EXE:

  • Converted .ps1 to .exe via PS2EXE (86 KB, no dependencies)
  • Custom .ico app icon with “AO” branding
  • File version metadata 1.2.0.0

Platform:

  • Created project page at byjtt.com
  • Updated agent-status to track 9 live products
  • GitHub release v1.2.0 with full changelog + binaries

System work (same session):

  • SS3-DTS audio driver installed + Sonic Radar III
  • BIOS updated, chipset drivers, NVIDIA tuning
  • 30GB freed from C: drive

What’s next

MSIX Packaging Tool is installed. Need a code signing cert to submit to the Store (Azure Artifact Signing has a free/low-cost option). Otherwise the EXE distribution via GitHub is already working.

Standards reference

This article relates to the Web Development standards.

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Written by Jordan Thirkle

Stay-at-home dad building AI-accelerated products. I write code during naps and after bedtime — every post comes from real work, not theory.

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