User:Exhelah/sandbox/launcher rewrite

The Minecraft launcher is the front-end tool used to download and manage the stand-alone Minecraft client. Its main purpose is to download and organize all the required libraries and assets needed for the game to run (see .minecraft for more info). Along with running the game it can also be used to manage different user profiles and instances.

Main Features

 * Self-updating
 * When a launcher update is available, it will automatically be downloaded and installed
 * Asset and Resource Management
 * All game directories and JARS are automatically downloaded and sorted
 * The launcher will, at startup, check Mojang's servers for updated assets and libraries and will sync if needed
 * Users
 * The launcher can support multiple users
 * To switch users, click the Switch User button at the bottom-right of the launcher and type in new credentials
 * Profiles
 * Each profile can have a separate name, version, directory, and many more options
 * All users access the same profiles
 * Versioning
 * You can specify which version you want to play when creating/editing a profile
 * You can also access Alpha, Beta, Prereleases, and Snapshots
 * Credentials
 * Login credentials are not stored on your computer - instead, the launcher uses an access token to verify your information with Mojang's servers
 * Offline mode
 * If an internet connection is unavailable, the launcher will let you play Minecraft in offline mode
 * When in offline mode, your achievements, statistics, name, skin, and data will all be set to defaults
 * When an internet connection is restored, you will be able to again access your data, etc.
 * Crash reporting
 * The launcher can automatically report crashes to Mojang through a service called Hopper
 * Console viewing
 * The game console can be viewed by clicking the Development Console tab
 * Here you can see what the game is logging while it runs (can be useful for reporting bugs)

Using the Launcher
A complete tutorial for the launcher can be accessed through the link above.

Current Launcher
The below is a changelog for the different versions of the current Minecraft launcher.

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Old Launcher
Before the current launcher began development, there was a launcher that was updated in tandem with various versions of Minecraft. Below is a list of those updates:

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