Roomist 1.1
==========

Roomist creates tailored desktops for Windows. You tell it what you're about to do 
("write an essay on land reform for an hour", "email for 20 minutes")
and it gives you a room for it: a dark screen, the apps and files that 
belong to that work, and nothing else. When the time is up, your desktop 
comes back.

It was built by one person and this is its first outing, so it isn't signed
by Microsoft and it isn't polished everywhere. The notes below cover the
things you'd otherwise have to guess at.


GETTING IT RUNNING
------------------
1. Unzip the Roomist folder somewhere it can stay, like Documents rather
   than Downloads. Keep the folder together: Roomist.exe needs what's beside
   it.

2. Wherever you downloaded it from may warn that it can't scan the file
   for viruses. That is what they say about any program; it isn't a
   finding about this one.

3. Double-click Roomist.exe. Don't run it from inside the zip window --
   Windows lets you, and Roomist then runs from a temporary folder that gets
   cleared away. Extract first, then run it from where you put it.

   The very first launch takes several seconds while Windows checks the
   newly arrived files. After that it opens in about a second.

4. Windows will show a blue "Windows protected your
   PC" box, because the app isn't code-signed. That costs money, and this
   is a first version. Click "More info", then "Run anyway". If you'd
   rather not, that's an entirely reasonable place to stop.

5. The first run asks two things: whether Roomist should start when you log
   in, and whether you'd like its icon on your desktop. Either answer is
   fine, and both can be changed later in Options.


USING IT
--------
Type what you're going to do, and for how long. "write for 30m" or
"research for 1h". Roomist works out which apps that needs, shows you, and
starts when you say so.

During a session:
  - Everything on screen is put away, and you start with a clear desk in
    front of a dark screen. Nothing is opened for you: you choose what to
    begin with.
  - Roomist's own taskbar sits along the bottom: the room's apps, the time,
    how long is left, and a "•••" menu. A grey dot under an app means it
    is already running, so clicking it brings your work back rather than
    starting something new.
  - If you have worked in this room before, it offers what you worked in
    last time: documents, wherever they live, including ones kept in
    SharePoint or OneDrive. Click Open, or click anywhere else to dismiss
    it; the "•••" menu brings it back.
  - That menu is where you change your mind: end the session, extend it,
    allow an app you turn out to need, or take a "quick check": ten
    minutes with your normal desktop back, then the room returns.
  - Screenshots, the magnifier, the narrator and the on-screen keyboard
    always work and are never blocked.

When a session ends, Roomist goes to the tray: the little door icon near the
clock, possibly behind the "^" arrow. Right-click it for Open, Options,
and Quit.


WHAT ROOMIST KNOWS ABOUT YOU
----------------------------
Roomist watches what you work in, so that it knows what a room is for. At the
same time, none of that information ever leaves your computer, and you can
delete the whole of it whenever you like.

While a session is running, Roomist writes down which window is in front and
for how long. That means the program, and the window's title. A title is
often the name of the thing itself: a presentation, a document, the page
you were reading. It goes into one file on your own computer, along with
what you typed as your intention and how long you asked for.

When you come back to a room, that record is what fills its collection. To
turn a remembered title back into something it can actually open, Roomist also
looks at:

  - the folders you keep work in, such as Documents, Desktop, Downloads
    and OneDrive
  - Office's own record of files you opened from SharePoint or OneDrive
  - your browser's history, to find the address a page title belongs to
  - the list of programs installed on this computer

It reads all of that. It changes none of it.

None of it leaves your computer. There is no account and nothing is
uploaded. Roomist connects to the internet only once a day, to ask
roomist.app whether there is a newer version, and that question carries
nothing about you. You can switch it off: Options, General, Further
options, Varia, Check for updates.

Where it's kept, and how to be rid of it. Everything is stored on your own
computer, in %LOCALAPPDATA%\RoomOfRequirement. Options → General →
Further options → Varia → Delete my history erases every session, every window
title and every stretch of time Roomist has recorded, empties its log, and
shrinks the file to match; your rooms and your settings stay as they are. In Options → Rooms,
removing a tailored room permanently deletes every session ever logged
under that wording, not just the entry in the list. Uninstalling asks
whether to keep what you've set up; say no and the folder goes with it.

One thing worth knowing. A room's collection shows what you actually did
in that room. That can include reading you did while you were meant to be
working, and it appears on screen as the room opens, possibly with
someone sitting beside you. Every row has a small × that permanently stops
Roomist offering it.


IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG
-----------------------
  - Stuck in a session: right-click the tray icon and choose End Session.
  - Windows' taskbar hasn't come back: quit Roomist from the tray. It puts the
    taskbar back on the way out, and again next time it starts.
  - Roomist won't start at all: it may already be running, so look in the tray.
    Only one copy runs at a time, on purpose.
  - Anything else: there's a log at
       %LOCALAPPDATA%\RoomOfRequirement\room.log
    Copy that into an email and it'll usually say exactly what happened.


UPDATING
--------
When there is a newer Roomist, it tells you once, with a small Windows
notice. Updating takes a minute:

1. Download the new zip from roomist.app.

2. Quit Roomist: right-click the door icon in the tray and choose Quit.
   If a session is running, end it first.

3. Open the new zip and drag its Roomist folder onto the place where your
   current Roomist folder is. When Windows asks, choose to replace the
   files.

4. Start Roomist again.

Your rooms, your history and your settings are kept in a folder of their
own, so nothing of yours is lost.


REMOVING IT
-----------
Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Roomist → Uninstall. It asks whether to
keep what you've set up, and removes everything else it put on the
computer: the way it starts at login, the Start menu entry, the desktop
icon, and its own folder.


WHAT WOULD BE USEFUL TO HEAR
----------------------------
Whether the first run made sense without being told what to do. Whether
Roomist understood what you typed. Anything that looked broken, and anything
you expected it to do and it didn't.

Two things already known: a second screen has only just been made to work
and has had very little use, and Roomist takes a second or two to appear when
you start it.
