Vast 0.5.0 Release Notes

Vast 0.5.0 is the current Direct Windows x64 release, published 2026-10-14. The previous Direct release is 0.4.3. Download the official release or follow Installation & Updates.

What’s new

• Install compatible extensions from a direct Chrome Web Store listing URL through Vast’s browser-owned review flow.
• Use the newer sidebar controls and smoother collapse and expand transitions.

Improvements and fixes

• Improved extension runtime stability and the iCloud Passwords native-host lifecycle.
• Reordering tabs no longer causes unnecessary page reloads.
• Refined fullscreen behavior, keyboard shortcuts, the address bar, Settings, and appearance controls.
• Hardened permission prompts so embedded frames are evaluated against the actual requesting frame origin and conflicting or missing origin evidence is rejected.

Important upgrade information

Installed 0.4.3 Direct copies can update automatically through stable-v2.yml. The legacy latest.yml remains pinned to 0.4.2: close a 0.4.2 installation and run the 0.5.0 setup or standalone updater once. The updater requires an existing Direct installation. Portable users replace their Portable executable; Store users update through Microsoft Store.

Microsoft Store availability is independent of Direct publication. Store 0.5.0 availability is unconfirmed.

Known limitations

• Full Chrome Web Store navigation remains guarded in the packaged release; direct listing-URL installation is available.
• Extensions are unavailable in private and ephemeral workspaces.
• The built-in Password Manager and vast://passwords are retired. Bitwarden, Proton Pass, and iCloud Passwords have smoke-test evidence, not certification of every website or vault workflow.
• Fresh onboarding selects individual Labs features, but each remains experimental and controlled by its own switch. The global labs.enabled field is not the effective gate for those features.
• Persistent isolated workspaces separate website partitions; bookmarks and history remain browser-level state. Workspace isolation is not a guarantee of anonymity or fingerprint separation.

Vast-owned desktop source is GPL-3.0-only. Third-party code and assets retain their own licenses.

Verified release artifacts

The source provenance is canonical commit 7461462f33cc467672284e3ee05e1e63ec77eec9. These Direct binaries are intentionally unsigned; Windows may show Unknown publisher or SmartScreen warnings.

Artifact	Bytes	SHA-256
Installer	331167232	796d5546f64daedf0233a92ceb22aeba8d806cec767659099c85b2b79816431d
Portable	277005285	5dcf2348ba96a79e7a18691ef1a69dc3a8ad6c11827faf55e6dca214ed9ed69f
Standalone updater	35101452	70cb481e0dc9ddd8ca421bec851c92554f7d5480bc142e3ba87ca8a8c1721b4d

Compare downloads with the published checksums before running them. See Known Limits for compatibility and migration boundaries.