A modern, fast and lightweight alternative to Epic Games Launcher.

Important

Crimson is an independent, open-source project. It is not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by Epic Games, Inc.

Features

• Sign in through Epic Games' embedded authentication flow.
• Browse your owned games with metadata and artwork.
• Search your library and the Epic Games Store from one place.
• Browse the Store, including authentication and checkout, without leaving Crimson.
• Install, update, verify, repair, move, and uninstall supported games.
• Pause, resume, or cancel downloads and monitor the installation queue.
• Launch games with fresh Epic credentials and ownership tokens when required.
• Optionally create per-game Start menu and desktop shortcuts.

Screenshots

Library	Game page	Downloads

Platform status

The current Crimson frontend supports 64-bit Windows 10 version 1809 or later and requires the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Evergreen Runtime for Epic sign-in and Store access. The runtime is already present on most current Windows installations.

The application is being separated into a portable core and platform-specific frontends, but Linux releases are not available yet.

Crimson is under active development. Back up anything important and expect behavior to change between pre-release versions.

Install Crimson

When a build is published, it appears on the GitHub Releases page.

Portable ZIP

1. Download Crimson-X.Y.Z-win-x64.zip.
2. Extract the archive to a writable folder.
3. Run Crimson.exe.

The portable ZIP includes the required .NET runtime and does not require certificate installation. WebView2 remains a separate prerequisite.

Unsigned MSIX

Release builds also attach Crimson-X.Y.Z-win-x64.msix. This is a raw unsigned package, not a Partner Center upload. Standard Windows installation requires a trusted signature; use the portable ZIP unless you intend to sign the MSIX yourself.

See Installing and releasing Crimson for package differences and checksum verification.

Using Crimson

1. Launch Crimson and sign in with your Epic Games account.
2. Select a title from Library, or search from the title bar.
3. Choose Install and configure the location, optional content, and shortcuts.
4. Follow active and queued work from Downloads.
5. Launch an installed game from its page, the navigation pane, or a Crimson-created shortcut.

The embedded Store can be used to browse and acquire games. Newly acquired titles appear after Crimson refreshes account ownership.

Local data and credentials

The portable build keeps its data under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Crimson. Packaged builds can map that location into Windows-managed package storage. Use Settings → Open Logs Directory to open the effective log location for the running build.

Application data includes logs, the embedded Epic sign-in and Store browser profile, cached metadata and artwork, manifests, and installation state.

Epic credentials stored by the Windows frontend are encrypted at rest with Windows Data Protection API (DPAPI). Crimson attempts to remove temporary ownership-token files after the game exits. Closing Crimson first or an interrupted shutdown can leave those files on disk.

Build from source

Requirements

• Windows 10 version 1809 or later, x64
• .NET 10 SDK
• Visual Studio 2022 with .NET desktop development and the Windows App SDK C# templates

Clone the repository and run:

dotnet restore Crimson.sln -r win-x64 -p:Platform=x64
dotnet build Crimson.WinUI/Crimson.WinUI.csproj -c Debug -r win-x64 -p:Platform=x64

Run the test suites with:

dotnet test Crimson.Core.Tests/Crimson.Core.Tests.csproj -c Release
dotnet test Crimson.Tests/Crimson.Tests.csproj -c Debug -p:Platform=x64

MSIX packaging is intentionally opt-in:

dotnet build Crimson.WinUI/Crimson.WinUI.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 -p:Platform=x64 -p:EnablePackaging=true

Repository layout

• Crimson.Core: framework-neutral models, services, installers, and presentation state
• Crimson.WinUI: the Windows App SDK frontend and Windows platform adapters
• Crimson.Core.Tests: portable tests that also run on Linux CI
• Crimson.Tests: Windows-specific adapter tests
• scripts: deployment, packaging, and release validation tools

See Installing and releasing Crimson for the tagged release process.

License

Crimson is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. A copy of the license is included with binary distributions. Source for each tagged release is available from its matching X.Y.Z tag in this repository.