PhotoLab EDGE Companion

Install in three steps

This page covers the companion. The PhotoLabEdge widget itself is installed in iCUE (Home, then XENEON EDGE, then Widgets). It is not on the Elgato Marketplace yet. Give it a page of its own at Extra Large: the strip, the preview, the sliders and the keys want the whole panel.

1. Add PhotoLabEdge to a XENEON EDGE page in iCUE

   In iCUE choose Home, then the XENEON EDGE, then Widgets, and drop PhotoLabEdge on a page of its own at Extra Large. Until the companion answers, the panel shows a setup screen with the download address and the localhost step.

2. Download the companion and double-click it once

   That double-click is the whole install. PhotoLabEdgeCompanion.exe copies itself into your local app folder, registers a task that starts it with every sign-in, lists itself under Settings, then Apps, and starts. It then checks its own list (iCUE, PhotoLab, the widget, the two XENEON EDGE page keys) and shows you what, if anything, is still missing.

   The program is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC" on that first run. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Compare the SHA-256 above if you want to be sure of the file.

3. Allow localhost once when iCUE asks

   The first time the widget reaches the companion, iCUE shows a permission request for a localhost address. That address is the companion on your own PC. Allow it; iCUE asks only once. The setup screen closes by itself and the panel follows whatever PhotoLab shows.

Turn the XENEON EDGE's pages from the panel

iCUE turns the XENEON EDGE's pages with two keystrokes you record once in iCUE: hover the XENEON EDGE, open Screen Setup, set Previous Display Screen to Ctrl+Alt+Shift+PageUp and Next Display Screen to Ctrl+Alt+Shift+PageDown. The companion reads what you recorded, so other keys work too.

With those recorded, the chevrons in the widget's header turn the pages, and the companion brings the PhotoLabEdge page up whenever PhotoLab comes to the front while the XENEON EDGE shows another page. The keys fire only while PhotoLab is the active window, so a chevron tap from another app brings PhotoLab forward first.

What the companion does, and does not do

• Reads PhotoLab's window through Windows UI Automation to show the strip, the selected image and the slider values.
• Moves a slider or selects an image the way a mouse would, through PhotoLab's own controls, so PhotoLab records every change in its History. The keys send PhotoLab's own shortcuts to its window.
• Reads PhotoLab's own thumbnail cache on this PC for the frames on the strip. It never writes to your images or your PhotoLab database.
• Listens on your PC's loopback address only (127.0.0.1, port 47620). No internet, no account, no telemetry.
• Uses about 200 MB of memory and under one percent of a core while PhotoLab is closed; it idles until PhotoLab appears.
• Removal: Settings, then Apps, then PhotoLab EDGE Companion, or Uninstall.cmd in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PhotoLabEdge. That ends the task, removes it and deletes that program folder. Its logs stay in %LOCALAPPDATA%\PhotoLabEdge; delete that folder to remove them.

If the panel keeps showing the setup screen

• The task named PhotoLab EDGE Companion must be running. It starts at sign-in; after the first install, signing out and back in, or running the task from Task Scheduler, starts it. The panel reconnects by itself within a few seconds.
• Check the port: the widget's "Companion port" setting in iCUE must say 47620 unless you changed what the companion listens on.
• If you missed the localhost prompt, it waits in iCUE's notification centre (the bell, top right): find the request for localhost:47620 and choose Allow.
• Sliders need PhotoLab's Customize tab with an image selected, and PhotoLab in English. In the PhotoLibrary tab the strip and the keys work and the sliders wait.
• If a finger press on the panel lands on another screen, Windows has the touch digitiser mapped to the wrong monitor: close iCUE, run "Calibrate the screen for pen or touch input", choose Setup, Touch input, and tap the XENEON EDGE when it asks.
• The companion writes a log at %LOCALAPPDATA%\PhotoLabEdge\logs\helper.log. Attach it when you write.

Still stuck? Email [email protected] with the widget version from iCUE and the companion version from Settings, then Apps.