What Is SuperLauncher? A Free, Minimalistic Minecraft Launcher

SuperLauncher is a free Minecraft: Java Edition launcher for Windows, made by a small team of Ukrainian developers. It is in beta, it is deliberately small, and it does a short list of things well instead of a long list of things badly. This page explains what it does, what it does not do yet, and whether it is the right tool for you.

If you only want the short version: it installs vanilla Minecraft, Fabric, Quilt, Forge and NeoForge from one window, finds and installs mods and modpacks from Modrinth, and keeps every modded setup in its own folder so they stop breaking each other.

What SuperLauncher is

A launcher is the program that downloads Minecraft, signs you in, picks the right Java and starts the game. The official one does that and not much else. SuperLauncher does the same job and adds the parts modded players normally have to do by hand.

It is free, with no paid tier and no account on our side. It is not affiliated with Mojang or Microsoft, and it is not an official product. You still need your own copy of Minecraft: Java Edition to play online. The launcher is currently beta software for Windows 10 and 11 only. macOS, Linux and Android are planned, not available.

The interface is dark, with five accent colours (mint, ice, amber, violet and coral) and nothing else to configure. There is no light theme. The default language is Ukrainian, and 16 languages are available in Settings, including English, German, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Turkish and Japanese.

What it can do today

Install any release version of Minecraft. The version list comes straight from Mojang's manifest and contains releases only. You pick a Minecraft version, pick a loader, pick how much RAM it gets, and that becomes a saved "version" in the launcher.

Install mod loaders. The wizard offers Vanilla, Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt. "Auto" picks the latest stable loader build for the Minecraft version you chose. Fabric and Quilt are ready in a few seconds. Forge and NeoForge run their official installers on the first launch, which can take several minutes, so do not assume it has frozen.

Pick Java for you. You do not install or configure Java. The launcher reads Mojang's metadata and uses the right major version: Java 8 for old versions, 17 for 1.18 to 1.20.4, 21 for 1.20.5 and every 1.21.x release. If your system has exactly the right major version it uses that. Otherwise it downloads a Temurin runtime from Adoptium into %APPDATA%\SuperLauncher\java.

Search and install from Modrinth. The Resources tab has Modpacks, Mods, Shaders, Resource packs and Data packs. You can filter by Minecraft version and loader, sort by popularity or newest, and install with one click. The launcher checks that the file matches the Minecraft version and loader of your version, and warns about missing dependencies and conflicts.

Install Modrinth modpacks. Modpacks use the .mrpack format. Files download in parallel, are checked against their SHA-512 hashes, and server-only files are skipped. If you change your mind halfway, "Stop installation" removes the half-built version.

Keep modded setups separate. Every Fabric, Quilt, Forge or NeoForge version gets its own mods folder and its own config. Worlds, resource packs, shader packs, logs and crash reports are shared across all of them, so your saves are still in one place.

Handle three kinds of accounts. You can sign in with Microsoft, with Ely.by, or with an offline nickname. You can save several and switch with a click. More on this below.

Save your servers. The Servers tab keeps a list of addresses with a "Copy IP" button. It does not join them for you. You launch a version and add the address inside Minecraft as usual.

How the accounts work

Microsoft. The launcher opens a small window with the real Microsoft sign-in page. Your password goes to Microsoft, not to us. If that window does not work on your machine there is a fallback: sign in through your normal browser and paste the code back into the launcher. The Microsoft flow is implemented, but treat it as beta: it has not been confirmed on every account type, and accounts without a Minecraft licence and child (family) Xbox accounts will get an error.

Ely.by. Username or e-mail and password, plus the six-digit code if you use two-factor authentication. The launcher uses the Ely.by session server for that account, which is what makes Ely.by skins show up in game.

Offline. A nickname of 3 to 16 characters, using Latin letters, digits and underscores. No password. This is for LAN worlds, testing and servers that run their own authentication. Offline accounts cannot join regular online-mode servers, which is how Minecraft itself works. If you do not own the game, the right move is to buy it.

What it does not do (yet)

This is the part most launcher pages skip, so here it is plainly.

• No OptiFine. There is no install or launch support. Shaders go through Iris on Fabric, Quilt or NeoForge, installed as a normal mod from the Resources tab.
• No CurseForge. Resources come from Modrinth only, and modpacks must be .mrpack.
• No snapshots or old alpha and beta versions in the version wizard. Versions that already sit in .minecraft\versions from another launcher are picked up as they are.
• No custom Java path and no custom JVM arguments. The launcher launches with -Xmx set to your chosen RAM and -Xms at 1 GB. That is all you can change.
• No skin or cape manager. The only skin feature is the small head icon of the active account.
• No import wizard for TLauncher, Prism, MultiMC or CurseForge instances.
• No "update all mods" button.
• No one-click server join.
• No automatic updates for users. To update, download the new version from the site.

The Home screen also has a news panel with two built-in cards and a "popular modpacks" list. Treat both as decoration for now, not a live feed.

What to expect on first run

The exe is about 180 MB. It is not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen will probably show "Windows protected your PC". That is normal for unsigned programs. Click "More info", then "Run anyway". Your browser may also warn that the file is "not commonly downloaded". Because of this, download SuperLauncher only from superlauncher.org and nowhere else.

Only one copy of the launcher can run at a time. The window opens at 1280 by 720 and cannot go smaller than 1000 by 600. F11 toggles full screen.

Everything lives in two places:

• %APPDATA%\.minecraft holds the game: versions, saves, resourcepacks, shaderpacks, logs and crash-reports.
• %APPDATA%\SuperLauncher holds the launcher: its settings file, the Java runtimes and the log.

If the game fails to start, the launcher shows a red notice that points at its log, %APPDATA%\SuperLauncher\logs\superlauncher.log. That file is overwritten on every launch, so copy it before you try again. For crashes inside the game, logs\latest.log and the crash-reports folder in .minecraft are still the place to look. If you are stuck on a crash code, start with the Exit Code 1 guide at /help/articles/minecraft-exit-code-1-how-to-actually-fix-it.

Who it is for, and who it is not for

SuperLauncher fits you if you play Fabric, Forge, NeoForge or Quilt, you install mods from Modrinth, you want separate setups that do not wreck each other, and you do not want to manage Java yourself. It also suits people who find bigger launchers cluttered.

It is the wrong tool if you depend on OptiFine, CurseForge modpacks, snapshots, custom JVM flags, a skin manager, or if you are on macOS or Linux. In that case Prism Launcher or the official launcher will serve you better today, and there is no point pretending otherwise.

Is it safe?

The launcher passes your Microsoft password to Microsoft's own login page and never sees it. The honest caveat is the missing code signature: it is why Windows warns you, and it is why you should only ever download from the official site. If you want to remove it, close the launcher and delete its folder. To wipe the launcher's own data as well, delete %APPDATA%\SuperLauncher. Your game files in %APPDATA%\.minecraft stay where they are.

Where to get help

Search this Help Center for your error code first. For anything about the launcher itself, the About tab in Settings links to the support e-mail, Discord and Telegram. When you ask for help, include the contents of superlauncher.log and say which Minecraft version and loader you were launching. It saves a day of back and forth.