The Home screen

What it does

The home screen shows the room's name, a line below it, and a tile for each thing you can do in the room. Tap a tile to start it, or tap a folder to see the tiles inside. Small buttons in the corners let you minimize RoomCaddie, turn off the PC and open the editor.

Step by step

Start something

1. Tap its tile.
2. RoomCaddie shows the tile's name and "Starting — big programs can take a moment to appear…" until the program opens in front.
3. To stop waiting, press ← Back to home. Anything that has already opened keeps running.

A tile for a Windows panel, such as VOLUME, opens the panel and leaves the home screen in place.

Open a folder and come back out

1. Tap the folder's tile. Its tiles fill the screen, with a path such as "Home › GAMES" above them.
2. To go back up, press the ‹ button in the bottom left corner, press Esc, or tap Home in the path.

Go back to something that is running

1. While a program monitored by RoomCaddie is open, its tile shows "⏵ RETURN TO" and the tile's name.
2. Tap that tile to bring the program back to the front. Nothing starts a second time.

The GOLF folder works the same way while a golf program inside it is running, so you can use the whole folder to return to the round.

Use the bar along the bottom

The bar appears along the bottom edge while anything opened by RoomCaddie is still open, with the newest first.

1. Tap a name to bring that program to the front.
2. To close a program, press END beside its name, then Ask it to close. RoomCaddie asks the program to close, just as clicking its ✕ does, and never forces anything to close. If the program asks about unsaved work, answer it there.
3. The bar shows the 3 newest programs. Press "+N MORE" or ALL, or tap the bar itself, to see the full list.
4. A row starting with "OPENED:" reminds you of something RoomCaddie opened but does not monitor. Press ✕ to dismiss the reminder; this does not close the program.

Minimize RoomCaddie

1. Press the – button in the top right corner.
2. RoomCaddie moves to the Windows taskbar. Everything keeps running, and the home screen is unchanged when you bring it back.

Shut down, restart or sleep the PC

1. Press the power button beside the – button.
2. Choose Shut down, Restart, Sleep or Exit to Windows.
3. For Shut down or Restart, RoomCaddie asks you to confirm. Press Shut down or Restart again, or Stay.
4. RoomCaddie asks each main program it watches to close. It waits up to 5 seconds, then gives Windows control of the PC. Windows closes the remaining programs itself.

Sleep and Exit to Windows take effect on the first tap. Exit to Windows closes RoomCaddie and leaves the PC on.

Leave RoomCaddie for the Windows desktop

1. On the home screen, press Esc. RoomCaddie says "Press Esc again to exit to Windows".
2. Press Esc again within 3 seconds.

Settings

Setting	Where	What it does	Default
Room name	The editor	The large name at the top of the home screen.	"ROOMCADDIE"
Room logo	The editor	Your own picture on the home screen, including its position and size.	No logo
Theme and tile names	The editor	How the tiles look and where each name appears.	Set by the setup wizard

Good to know

• The clock in the top left corner shows the time in hours and minutes, for example 7:05 PM.
• Press the ✎ button in the bottom right corner to open the editor for your current screen.
• RoomCaddie ignores a second tap on the same tile within 1 second, so a double tap does not start anything twice. RoomCaddie says "One moment — already starting…".
• Tap the tile of a running program monitored by RoomCaddie to bring it to the front instead of starting a second copy. For any other program, RoomCaddie follows its card in the editor. A program's card has the If it's already open setting. A Store app comes to the front. A Steam game, a website or a Windows tool always starts again.
• When a program monitored by RoomCaddie closes, RoomCaddie shows the home screen again and says "Welcome back".
• Sleep appears only when this PC can sleep.
• After a Restart, RoomCaddie opens automatically when Start with Windows is on.
• Ctrl+Alt+Q is the emergency exit. It closes RoomCaddie immediately, even while another program is in front.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What to do
"Couldn't start" and the tile's name, with "program not found"	The program has moved or been uninstalled. Point the tile to it again in the editor.
"isn't set up yet — point it at a program first"	Open the tile in the editor and assign a program to it.
"Couldn't finish starting" and "part of it already opened"	Close what opened as you normally would, then tap the tile again.
"is already running — Alt-Tab to it if you don't see it"	The program is open behind something else. Press Alt+Tab to find it.
"didn't close." after Shut down or Restart	The program may be asking you a question. Press "Show" and the program's name to answer it, Cancel to cancel, or Shut down anyway / Restart anyway to close it without saving.
"Windows didn't shut down the PC."	Something on the PC prevented it from shutting down. RoomCaddie is still running and nothing was lost. Press Try again or Close.
"RoomCaddie couldn't minimize"	Use RoomCaddie's entry on the Windows taskbar, or exit with Ctrl+Alt+Q.