RoomCaddie - Help & FAQ

Getting started

What is RoomCaddie, in one sentence?

A customizable home screen for your room's PC: your tiles, your pictures, one tap each, that start your golf simulator, your games, your streaming apps and your sites full screen, and bring you back to the tiles when you are done.

What do I need?

A PC running Windows 11 and a screen RoomCaddie can fill: a projector, a TV, or a monitor. Nothing else. No account, and no internet after the download; the weekly update check uses the internet when it is there and does nothing when it is not.

Does it work on Windows 10?

No. Windows 10 reached the end of its support in October 2025 and RoomCaddie is built for Windows 11 only.

Is there an administrator prompt when I install?

No. RoomCaddie installs for your Windows user only, into your own profile, and never asks for administrator rights.

Windows showed a blue "protected your PC" screen. Is that normal?

In 1.0, yes: the installer is not yet signed with a certificate Windows recognises. Choose More info, then Run anyway. A signed installer comes with an update.

Does RoomCaddie start by itself?

Yes, by default: the setup wizard turns it on, so from the first run RoomCaddie opens when you sign in to Windows and the room is ready when the PC is. To change your mind, Settings > Start with Windows > Off removes the start-up entry the moment you save it; On puts it back. Exit from Settings closes RoomCaddie until the next sign-in either way.

How do I upgrade to a newer version?

Run the new installer over the old one. Your room, your pictures, your backups and the start-with-Windows setting all stay. If you run the installer for the version you already have, it offers to uninstall instead; choose Cancel if that is not what you meant.

How do I remove RoomCaddie?

Windows Settings > Apps > RoomCaddie > Uninstall. Your room stays on the PC unless you tick "delete application data" in the uninstaller, so reinstalling later brings the same room back.

The wizard

What does the setup wizard do?

It scans your PC for the programs you already have and builds your first screen from what you tick: your golf simulator and launch monitor, Steam games, the streaming apps from the Store, websites, music, and Windows utilities, each in its own folder. Nothing you did not tick is added.

What does the scan look at?

Steam's library list, the installed-programs list Windows keeps, your Start Menu shortcuts, the Store apps registered for your user, and the golf simulator's usual folder. Names only; nothing is sent anywhere.

The scan says some checks couldn't finish. What does that mean?

One of the places it looks could not be read, so the list may be incomplete. Everything it did find is real. You can add anything it missed from the editor later, by scanning again or by browsing to the program.

I have no golf simulator. Can I still use RoomCaddie?

Yes. Leave Golf unticked and the wizard builds the rest: theatre, games, music, sites, utilities. A tester set up a laptop with no simulator and it worked first time.

Can I run the wizard again?

The wizard runs once, on a fresh room. After that, everything it does is in the editor: scan again, add tiles, folders, artwork, the theme.

The home screen

What does the home screen show?

Your room name, your message, the tiles and folders. No settings, no file names, no paths. Every tile is one tap.

Can anyone using the room change things?

There is no lock in this version. The pencil in the corner opens the editor for anyone who taps it, and every change is saved. What protects you: a backup is taken before every change, so anything can be undone from Settings > Backups.

What is the session bar?

The strip that appears when something you launched is still running behind RoomCaddie. Each running program is a chip; tap the chip to bring it back to the front.

The screen went dark with the room name and a clock. What is that?

The ambient screen: what RoomCaddie shows when nobody has touched the room for a while. Touch the screen or press a key and the tiles come back; that first touch never launches a tile. See the Ambient section.

Tiles and the editor

How do I open the editor?

Tap the pencil in the corner of the home screen. "Done editing" takes you back.

How do I add a tile?

Add tile, then pick where it comes from: the scan (programs RoomCaddie found), a website address, a Windows panel, or Browse to a program on disk. Pick more than one from the scan and each becomes its own tile.

How do I put tiles in a folder?

Create a folder and add tiles into it, or convert an existing tile into a folder. A folder is never left empty: deleting its last tile deletes the folder.

What is a step?

What a tile does when tapped. Most tiles have one step: start this program, or open this site. A tile can have several, run in order: start the launch monitor, then the golf program. Each step can wait a few seconds before the next.

Are my changes saved?

Every change is saved the moment you make it, and a snapshot of the room from before the change is taken first. There is no Save button because there is nothing unsaved.

How do I rename a tile or pick artwork?

Open the tile in the editor. The name, the artwork (a picture from the built-in galleries or your own), and the theme for the whole room are all there.

What are the themes?

Clubhouse, Cinema, Aurora Glass, Game Day, Arcade, Fairway Morning, Speakeasy, Nordic, Brushed Metal, Chalkboard. One tap changes the whole room; it is saved like any other change.

Golf and the main program

What is "the main program"?

The program RoomCaddie watches. When the main program closes, the home screen comes back by itself, and tapping its tile again brings the running program forward instead of starting a second copy. Today only GSPro's real program can be the main program.

GSPro added from the scan: is it set up already?

Yes. Adding GSPro from the scan marks it as the main program and turns on "come back to the home screen when GSPro closes". A tile you built earlier, before this was automatic, can be fixed in one tap: open the tile, find Main program, press "Make this the main program".

I tapped my golf tile twice and got two copies of the game.

That tile is not watching its program. Open it in the editor and press "Make this the main program" under the GSPro step. From then on a second tap brings the running game forward.

My launch monitor starts GSPro itself. Which tile do I use?

Use the launch monitor's tile (VTrack, for example). It starts the monitor, the monitor starts GSPro. RoomCaddie cannot watch a Store app, so that tile stays on screen until you press Ctrl+Alt+S; a second tap starts the monitor again, and the monitor will tell you it is already running.

The game closed three seconds after it started.

The program itself quit, usually a configuration window it wanted answered first; RoomCaddie's log notes that it ended quickly. Start the program from Windows once, answer what it asks, then the tile works.

Websites and streaming

How do websites open?

Full screen, in a browser window that RoomCaddie keeps separate from your everyday browser: its own sign-ins, its own history. Press F11 to leave full screen, or Ctrl+Alt+S to come back to RoomCaddie.

The site asks me to sign in, but I am signed in on my browser.

RoomCaddie's browser window is its own. Sign in once there and it remembers, just as your everyday browser does.

Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV: apps or websites?

Both work. If the Store app is installed, the wizard offers the app; otherwise it offers the website. The app is usually the better picture.

The program opened on another monitor, or at half size.

It should not any more. When a tile's program shows its window, RoomCaddie moves it to the room's screen and maximizes it, even if the program was already open somewhere else. Three things are left alone on purpose: a window already filling the screen, a game or program that runs its own full-screen window, and the main golf program. If Windows refuses to bring a window forward, a short note at the bottom says so for four seconds.

An app I installed is not in the scan.

Add a tile, choose "Launches a program", then Scan this PC. Every Store app on the PC is listed, with Windows' own apps folded under one row; installed programs and Steam games are there too. Scan again re-reads the PC. A program the scan still misses can be browsed to directly, and a Desktop or Start-menu shortcut works there as well.

Can a site tile be the main program?

No. RoomCaddie cannot tell when a browser window closes. A site tile stays until you press Ctrl+Alt+S.

Coming back

How do I get back to RoomCaddie from a program?

Press Ctrl+Alt+S. RoomCaddie comes to the front; the program keeps running behind it, shown as a chip on the session bar. Tap the chip to go back to it.

Ctrl+Alt+S did nothing while the game was loading.

Some programs draw a loading screen over everything for a few seconds. RoomCaddie did come to the front; the loader painted on top of it. Press the shortcut again once the program is up.

Ctrl+Alt+S does nothing while a game is running.

Games behave differently. Some take the whole keyboard for themselves while they hold the screen in an exclusive full-screen mode; the hotkey and even Alt+F4 never reach anything else. Leave the game through its own menu (Esc, then quit), and RoomCaddie is back. If the game has a windowed or borderless mode in its settings, that mode lets the hotkey through.

How do I exit RoomCaddie entirely?

Settings > Exit. Or press Escape twice within a few seconds on the home screen and confirm. Ctrl+Alt+Q is the emergency exit. Closing the window from the taskbar also exits.

What does Restart do?

Closes RoomCaddie and opens it again fresh, on the same room, in about a second. Anything running is left alone.

Backups

What gets backed up, and when?

The whole room, before every change you make, automatically. RoomCaddie keeps the ten most recent of those. A snapshot you name yourself ("Snapshot now") is kept outside that ten until you delete it.

How do I undo a change?

Settings > Backups, pick the snapshot from before the change, Restore. Restoring takes a snapshot first, so a restore can itself be undone.

How do I move my room to another PC?

Settings > Backups > "Back up to a file" on the old PC; "Restore from a file" on the new one. The file carries the room and its pictures, never your license key. A file over 256 MB or with more than 512 pictures is refused before anything changes.

RoomCaddie refused a backup file.

It reads every file before it changes anything: a file from a newer RoomCaddie, a file edited by hand, or a damaged one is refused with the reason, and the room you had stays exactly as it was.

Pictures

Can I use my own pictures on tiles?

Yes. Open the tile, choose "Your own picture", pick a JPG, PNG, WEBP or BMP up to 20 MB. RoomCaddie keeps its own copy, so moving or deleting the original does nothing to the tile.

Where do the built-in pictures come from?

They are RoomCaddie's own, made or licensed for it. RoomCaddie ships no logos, no box art and no streaming artwork; program and site names appear as plain text.

Are my pictures in my backups?

Yes, in every snapshot and in the file you export. They never leave your PC unless you send that file somewhere.

The ambient screen

What is it?

What the room shows when nobody has touched it for a while: the room name, your message, the clock, and optionally your own photos fading one into the next. Touch the screen and the tiles come back.

How do I change it?

Settings > Ambient screen: turn it on or off, "Starts after" (one to sixty minutes, ten by default), "Photo background" (a folder of your photos), and the message line under the room name.

The folder I pointed at is empty or gone.

RoomCaddie says so in Settings and shows the ambient screen without photos until the folder has some.

Updates

Does RoomCaddie update itself?

No. Once a week, when nothing is running, it fetches one small file from roomcaddie.com to learn whether a newer version exists, and tells you under Settings > Updates. A newer version is only ever a link: you download and install it yourself.

It says roomcaddie.com didn't answer.

No internet at that moment, or the site is down. Nothing changed; press "Check for updates" later.

What does the update check send?

Nothing about you or your PC. The request carries only "RoomCaddie" and its version number, the way any web request identifies the program making it.

The license key

Where do I enter my key?

In the wizard's last step, or later under Settings > License. In this version the key is stored on your PC, checked there for its shape, and not sent anywhere. An online check against the store arrives in an update before the store opens.

What happens if the key check fails?

Nothing. RoomCaddie keeps working. A key never blocks the room.

Is my key in my backups or the support info?

No. The backup file and the support info both have the key removed before they leave the PC. Settings shows only its last four characters.

Can I move my key to another PC?

Yes. One key is yours on any of your own PCs; there is no activation limit. Enter it under Settings > License on the new PC.

Troubleshooting

A tile says "untested" or "fix needed".

Untested means the tile has not launched since it was made or changed; it clears the first time it runs. Fix needed means the program it points at is missing: open the tile and browse to the program, or delete the tile.

The home screen has a scroll bar.

It should not. Tell support which theme you use and how many tiles are on the screen.

Settings says the carried-over record couldn't be read, or the key file couldn't be read.

Another program held the file open at that moment. Nothing was changed. Open Settings again in a minute; if it keeps happening, send the support info.

RoomCaddie came back after I told it to exit.

It should not. If it ever does, send the support info; the log in it says what happened.

The picture I chose was refused.

It must be a JPG, PNG, WEBP or BMP under 20 MB, and a real image. A file with the wrong extension or a damaged one is refused with the reason.

Support and refunds

How do I get help?

Settings > Support info > Copy support info, paste it into an email to support@roomcaddie.com with what you saw. That summary carries versions, screen sizes, tile counts, recent launches and the last 200 log lines, with your Windows user name, every folder path and your key removed first.

What does support cover?

RoomCaddie itself: installing, the wizard, the editor, its own behaviour, backups, the key, the update check. Not the golf software, the launch monitor, Steam, streaming apps, websites, Windows or drivers: for those, support says what it can see in the support info and where to get help, then stops. The full scope is on the support page.

Will support connect to my PC?

No, never. The support info was built so that support can answer without touching your PC.

How do I get a refund?

Fourteen days from purchase, no questions: reply to your purchase email and ask.