The launcher¶
The launcher installs Minecraft, keeps your game files in an instance, signs you in, and starts the game. It has one main screen and one settings drawer with six tabs.
The main screen¶
| Area | What it does | More |
|---|---|---|
| Top bar | The connection line when Xol is offline, the settings button and the account button. | Accounts, versions and notices |
| Notices strip | The update banner and announcements from the Xol service. At most two rows tall until you open it. | Accounts, versions and notices |
| Profile | The name of the selected profile, Xol 1.8.9 or Xol 1.7.10, and a short note about it and your platform. | Profiles and add-ons |
| Version switch and All versions | Chooses the Minecraft version. | Accounts, versions and notices |
| Add-ons | Two cards, OptiFine and Forge mods, each switched on or off for this Minecraft version. Each card says its state in words, for example "Off", "Not added yet" or "2 in your mods folder". | Profiles and add-ons |
| Lines under the add-ons | A line when mods sit in your mods folder while Forge mods is off, with Turn on Forge mods. Add OptiFine for better performance while OptiFine has not been added, which its close button hides for good. A line when a newer OptiFine build is available. | OptiFine |
| Accounts | Your signed-in accounts with their skins, Add account, and the state of each sign-in. Ctrl+Shift+A (Cmd+Shift+A on a Mac) switches to the next account. | Accounts, versions and notices |
| Performance preset | Maximum FPS, Balanced, Quality or Battery Saver, with the trade-offs written out. | Performance presets |
| Launch options | Memory, window, Java, instance and when you last played. Change opens settings. Open folder is a menu of the instance's folders. | Launch options, Instances |
| Dock | The state line, the progress bar and the Play, Cancel or Stop button. | First launch |
While a game is being prepared or is running, the version switch, the add-ons and the preset are locked. Switching accounts still works and applies to the next launch.
The settings drawer¶
| Tab | Contents | More |
|---|---|---|
| Game | Memory, window size, fullscreen | Launch options |
| Java | On Apple Silicon Macs only, Java runtime for 1.7 / 1.8. Custom Java executable, automatic Java arguments, extra JVM arguments | Launch options, Apple Silicon |
| Instance | Instance picker, the shared resource packs switch, the open-folder buttons, the mods list with Open mods folder, OptiFine (add, update or remove), Repair and Clone | Instances, OptiFine |
| Discord | Whether Discord shows what you are playing, and whether it names the server | Accounts, versions and notices |
| Service | Launcher updates, the online status switch, the connection to the Xol service | Updates, Privacy and data |
| Support | Export support log, the diagnostics switch, About | Support log and crash reports |
The left and right arrow keys move between tabs. Settings are saved as you change them, and there is no Save button. A value the launcher cannot accept is refused with a message under the field, and the previous value stays.
How the launcher is built¶
The launcher's interface is a sandboxed page with no remote content. It cannot read files or start programs itself. It asks the main process, which validates every request. Links open only if their host is on a fixed list (Microsoft's sign-in and account pages, minecraft.net, xbox.com, optifine.net and Xol's own sites). Your Microsoft tokens live in the main process only and are never passed to the interface.