Windows 10 / 11 · x64 · Apache-2.0

Your desktop,
organized the way you think.

Maktaby groups your shortcuts, folders and files into resizable, snap-able boxes that float above the Windows desktop instead of being buried in it — then adds the two things a plain desktop organizer never has: widgets you write yourself and live wallpapers.

Download for Windows Download Beta

Latest: —

Requires the .NET 10 Desktop Runtime (x64). Web widgets additionally need the WebView2 Runtime.

Maktaby — desktop

Boxes, tabs, widgets and a live wallpaper — all above a desktop that still works.

Zeroicons moved on disk
Tray-firstno main window
1 clickhide everything
HTML + C#write your own widgets
SHA-256verified downloads

Features

Everything a desktop organizer should have done years ago

Boxes stay exactly where you put them. Widgets and wallpapers render behind the Windows icons, per monitor. And when you want the desktop back, one double-click gives it to you.

Boxes

Group shortcuts, files and folders into resizable containers that sit on top of the desktop.

  • Drag & drop creation — drop from Explorer, Start Menu or another Box
  • Snap to boxes and screen edges with live guide lines
  • Roll-up to Top / Bottom / Left / Right to reclaim space
  • Multi-tab containers for large collections
  • Per-box transparency, colors, border and title bar

Web widgets

Self-contained HTML / CSS / JS widgets, each in its own WebView2 instance — fully client-side.

Native widgets

C# / WPF plugins compiled at load via Roslyn, or dropped in as a DLL. WPF, WinForms, raw HWND, D3D11, SkiaSharp.

Live wallpaper

Any image, animated GIF or video behind your icons, laid out across every monitor — with auto-pause when nothing is visible.

A trust model that says so out loud

Native widgets are arbitrary .NET code running with your privileges, so Maktaby prompts once per content hash before running anything you wrote or dropped in — and fails closed the moment you edit it. Built-in widgets are implicitly trusted. Everything else about the app is local-first: your layout, settings and widgets stay in %LocalAppData%\Maktaby.

Read the plugin guide →

Dark & light

Follow the system theme or pick one. App theme, widget theme and per-box overrides are independent.

In-app updates

Checks GitHub Releases at startup, every 6 hours, or on demand — downloads, SHA-256 verifies, installs.

Performance Monitor

Memory, CPU, handles, render tier, WebView2 processes and per-widget state — with one-click suspend.

Backups

Export your layout, settings and widgets as a single .dbe1 bundle and restore it later.

Screenshots

It looks like your desktop, because it is your desktop

Real captures — click any image to open it full size.

Boxes on a real desktop Tabs, roll-ups, per-box styling and a clock widget — with the Windows taskbar untouched.
Light theme Same layout, light chrome. Widgets can follow the app theme independently.
Folder portals A box that opens a folder in Explorer — icons or details view.
Settings with live preview Every change renders in the preview panel before you save.
Marquee → Create new Select empty space and a menu offers to drop the selection into a new Box.
Everything lives in the tray New box, widgets, wallpaper, settings, hide-all, exit.

How it works

Three steps, then it stays out of the way

  1. 1

    Install

    Run the setup, accept the UAC prompt. The installer closes a running copy before updating and reopens it afterwards.

  2. 2

    Arrange

    Drop files onto empty desktop space to create a Box. Drag, resize, snap, add tabs, drop a widget on top.

  3. 3

    Get it back whenever

    Double-click the empty desktop to hide every box and reveal a clean screen. Double-click again to bring it all back.

Gestures & shortcuts

GestureAction
Double-click empty desktopToggle hide / show all boxes
Ctrl + Wheel on desktopChange icon size
Right-click box headerBox menu — delete, hide, lock, roll, tabs
Alt + Enter on an itemShow properties
Drag onto empty spaceMarquee → Create New Box

Install

Download, run, done

Maktaby ships as a single win-x64 installer. It installs to %ProgramFiles%\Maktaby, asks for elevation once, and then lives in the system tray.

  1. Grab the latest Maktaby-<version>-x64-setup.exe from the buttons above or the releases page.
  2. Run it and accept the UAC prompt.
  3. On the last page choose whether to launch Maktaby and whether to start it with Windows (both ticked by default).
  4. The tray icon appears on first launch. There is no main window.

Each release publishes a SHA-256 checksum on the release page. Installed copies can update themselves from Settings → Updates or Check for updates… in the tray.

Requirements

  • OS Windows 10 version 2004 (build 19041) or later, or Windows 11 — 64-bit
  • Runtime .NET 10 Desktop Runtime (x64) — required, the installer is framework-dependent
  • WebView2 Edge WebView2 Evergreen Runtime — only for web widgets and HTML wallpapers; preinstalled on Windows 11 and most Windows 10 machines
  • Architecture x64 only — no x86 or ARM64 build yet
  • Elevation Requested once, to install into Program Files

FAQ

Reasonable questions

Does Maktaby replace or modify my Windows desktop?

No. It layers its own windows above the desktop and wallpaper. Explorer keeps running, your icons are untouched, and nothing is written to your files or registry beyond the optional startup key.

Is it free?

Yes — Apache-2.0. You can use, modify and redistribute it, including commercially, as long as you keep the license and state your changes. It comes with no warranty.

What is the difference between Stable and Beta?

Stable is tagged from main; Beta is a pre-release tagged from develop. Installed copies follow the channel of the build they are running, or you can pin Auto / Stable / Beta in Settings → Updates. Portable copies skip in-app updates — there is nothing installed to update.

Are widgets safe to install?

A native widget is arbitrary .NET code executing inside the app with your privileges. Maktaby prompts once per content hash before running a user widget and refuses to run one you have edited since — but only install widgets from folders you trust. The plugin guide explains the model in full.

Where does my data live?

Locally, under %LocalAppData%\Maktaby — layout, settings, your UserWidgets folder and one log file per day. There is no telemetry and no account.

Does it work on multiple monitors?

Widgets, containers and the desktop surface currently target the primary display only, and live wallpapers render across all monitors with per-monitor layout tracking. Multi-monitor positioning for widgets is not there yet — open an issue if you need it.

How do I build it from source?

Clone the repo and run dotnet run --project src/Maktaby on the .NET 10 SDK. To produce an installer you need Inno Setup 6 and ./build.ps1 -Action Publish. Releases are tag-driven — see docs/releasing.md.

Give the desktop a second job.

Free, open source, and about to be deleted from your Downloads folder forever.

Download for Windows Star on GitHub

Windows 10 / 11 · x64 · Apache-2.0