Kabuk 1.0.9

Install

Download kabuk-setup.exe below and run it; it installs over 1.0.8 and keeps your settings. kabuk-1.0.9.zip holds the same programs to unpack anywhere (kabuk.exe --install from that folder).

New

• The screen saver can be turned off: a switch at the top of Settings › Screen saver. Off, no screen saver starts by itself; the one you chose is kept, and its shortcut and hot corner still start it.
• The bar is closer to Windows' taskbar:
  • Every window the taskbar would show has its app on the bar.
  • A click on an app with several windows shows their previews, each saying its workspace when they are on more than one.
  • A right click on an empty part of the bar opens a menu with Task Manager and Kabuk's settings.
  • An app whose window asks for attention is marked.
• Keyboard:
  • Win+B puts the keyboard on the bar's tray, as in Windows. The arrows move along the bar, Enter clicks, and the menu key or Shift+F10 opens an icon's menu.
  • The launcher's search has a caret, word moves and select all.
  • The overview, the app grid, and the bar's menus and panels take the arrows, Enter and digits.
• Screen readers and high contrast:
  • Narrator finds and reads the bar, the dock, the launcher, the app grid, the overview, the menus and panels, and Kabuk's notices. Volume and brightness are sliders it can set.
  • With Windows' high contrast on, Kabuk draws in its colours.
• Settings:
  • A search field.
  • Export, import and "Reset all", each undoable from a backup.
  • Workspace names.
  • Rows for the keys that were only in kabuk.toml.
  • A full window rule editor that picks an open window or a connected monitor.
  • A mistake in kabuk.toml is shown and explained instead of silently using defaults.
• Notices:
  • Kabuk says when something you asked for did not happen.
  • Notices come on the monitor you are using.
  • A do-not-disturb holds Kabuk's own notices back.
  • Starting Kabuk while it runs says so.
• More:
  • A brightness OSD when Kabuk changes the brightness.
  • Tooltips on the bar's modules.
  • The mouse wheel steps workspaces, the track and the brightness.
  • kabuk msg covers every shortcut action.
  • kabuk --version.
  • The calculator does percent, roots and hexadecimal.

Faster

• The first bar frame comes sooner: it no longer waits for icons, the network, pins or the figures, which load right after.
• Less work while idle:
  • Pictures, brushes and text layouts are cached.
  • The window manager's state is shared instead of copied.
  • The app grid keeps its apps between openings and takes the screen only when it opens, which also leaves about 10 MB less in use.
  • Settings answers a change in a few milliseconds.
  • The bar's figures (CPU, RAM, network) update every five seconds instead of two, which took most of the idle time.
  • The app grid loads only its first page of icons ahead (the next pages' come when you turn to them), about 6 MB less.

Fixed

• Windows Security's tray icon now shows on the bar.
• A taskbar left in a certain state by an earlier run could show through again; it is hidden properly.
• In the app grid, a hide badge under a long app name next to it now works.
• Messages Kabuk sends itself were sometimes lost while it was busy (a focus change, the late start).

Known

• NVIDIA's and WhatsApp's tray icons appear only when those programs start after Kabuk: Windows does not let Kabuk ask them for their icons.

If something goes wrong

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+End, or kabuk --restore, brings back every hidden window, the taskbar, the work area, the cursors, the screen saver and the wallpaper.

Checksums (SHA-256)

• kabuk-setup.exe: 48414BC57E13FEBEAAC61B6C354DA0B5FF525947F4B62D366FF65059527EE8A0
• kabuk-1.0.9.zip: 05bd06fcdd6f74deb216aaa09224598790c4f7311600748319a72e44df50c77e

Kabuk 1.0.8

Kabuk 1.0.8

Install

Download kabuk-setup.exe below and run it; it installs over 1.0.7 and keeps your settings. kabuk-1.0.8.zip holds the same programs to unpack anywhere (kabuk.exe --install from that folder).

New

• Each monitor's brightness from the quick settings: with more than one monitor answering, a chooser above the brightness level ("1 (main)", "2", …) picks which monitor it sets. A laptop's own screen is set through Windows, every other monitor over DDC/CI.

Fixed

• The quick settings no longer flicker while a level is dragged. Every open panel (quick settings, calendar, network, tray, volume) is now drawn again in place instead of on a new surface.
• Rıhtım's dock no longer blinks as its tiles grow under the mouse: a resized dock is shown only once it is drawn.
• Quick settings tiles line up: a tile without an on/off line has its icon and name in its middle, not at its top.

If something goes wrong

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+End, or kabuk --restore, brings back every hidden window, the taskbar, the work area, the cursors, the screen saver and the wallpaper.

Checksums (SHA-256)

• kabuk-setup.exe: C0B85B2BA0289B1B4DF717A509A543C2AB9725E7C3E32799E036F51C8DD5155C
• kabuk-1.0.8.zip: 8ad3694507c669b3f7913de622fdc4c536f09cf2060930223efa7589b169f6e8

Kabuk 1.0.7

Kabuk 1.0.7

Install

Download kabuk-setup.exe below and run it; it installs over 1.0.6 and keeps your settings. kabuk-1.0.7.zip holds the same programs to unpack anywhere (kabuk.exe --install from that folder).

Changed

• Sleep is easier to find in the power menu: it has a moon of its own and a short name ("Sleep"), instead of the power icon that restart and shut down share.

If something goes wrong

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+End, or kabuk --restore, brings back every hidden window, the taskbar, the work area, the cursors, the screen saver and the wallpaper.

Checksums (SHA-256)

• kabuk-setup.exe: E5507DD8A07AEADA2800D869DB820709E54766DA274481A17EA56BA317594F71
• kabuk-1.0.7.zip: 16a3211745b243bff0584763ba475a350a39c9b476d06b605e9bd9cf2b8af531

Kabuk 1.0.6

Kabuk 1.0.6

Install

Download kabuk-setup.exe below and run it; it installs over 1.0.5 and keeps your settings. kabuk-1.0.6.zip holds the same programs to unpack anywhere (kabuk.exe --install from that folder).

New

• Windows' system indicators on the bar, each a module you can turn off in Settings › Bar:
  • Network: Wi-Fi signal, Ethernet or no connection. A click opens Kabuk's network panel: Wi-Fi on and off, the networks around, joining one (asks for the key of a new protected network), leaving it. Windows shows Wi-Fi names to desktop apps only with location access; the panel tells you when it is off.
  • Battery: the charge, in the warning colour when low, a bolt while charging (only on a computer with a battery).
  • Keyboard language: the input language of the window in front (only with more than one); a click lists the languages and switches.
  • Privacy: an icon while a program uses the microphone, the camera or the location; a click names the programs.
  • Quick settings: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, airplane mode, mobile hotspot, brightness and volume in Kabuk's own panel, with links to Windows' night light, focus, battery saver, accessibility and project.
  • Calendar and notifications: a click on the clock or the bell opens Kabuk's panel with your notifications (dismiss one or all) and a month calendar.
  • Show desktop: a thin corner at the bar's end puts every window down; a second click brings them back.
• Rıhtım's dock comes over your windows when it slides in, as macOS's dock does, instead of pushing them up. The auto-hiding top bar still makes room.

Fixed

• The test VM's connection is made again when its agent stays silent (development only).

If something goes wrong

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+End, or kabuk --restore, brings back every hidden window, the taskbar, the work area, the cursors, the screen saver and the wallpaper.

Checksums (SHA-256)

• kabuk-setup.exe: 625437DC63EB4002EC0D8B75B5BA1646014272FC624A9BB4D971F43844B2AC46
• kabuk-1.0.6.zip: c7d20fc75b2c6e63ce1b0de9cd5126e48df70c88bb7962f9f9529796d49f1dcb

Kabuk 1.0.5

Kabuk 1.0.5

Install

Download kabuk-setup.exe below and run it; it installs over 1.0.4 and keeps your settings. kabuk-1.0.5.zip holds the same programs to unpack anywhere (kabuk.exe --install from that folder).

Fixed

• Short stutters in games: a game could still freeze for about a second now and then. Game mode followed whatever window was in front, so a moment of anything else over the game (a launcher, a notice, an app keeping itself on top) ended it, and Kabuk brought back its bars, wallpaper, GPU renderer and window layout under the running game, then took them all away again. Game mode now belongs to the game's window: something in front of it for a moment changes nothing; a window that stays in front for 3 seconds (you went to it) ends game mode, and closing, minimising or leaving full screen ends it at once.
• Game mode ends when the game does: a game closed, hidden or minimised ends game mode at once, also while you are on another monitor.
• Nothing of Kabuk's on the GPU during a game: the app grid's screen capture device is let go while a game runs, and the genie's renderer is no longer made when Kabuk starts while a game is already running.
• Quiet during games: the look's change at its hour waits until the game is over, programs are not asked to put their tray icons back during a game, and tabbed groups' strips are not raised over it.

If something goes wrong

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+End, or kabuk --restore, brings back every hidden window, the taskbar, the work area, the cursors, the screen saver and the wallpaper.

Checksums (SHA-256)

• kabuk-setup.exe: EBBFFCDDA1E53EAD2C7CF99F64032310679CBECA2DFA8FE31E0780D0634B539C
• kabuk-1.0.5.zip: 9eb454b5d0c8e01d02f72edf5c6717eba3483c1bb8db8e366c404af877855b1b

Kabuk 1.0.4

Kabuk 1.0.4

Install

Download kabuk-setup.exe below and run it; it installs over 1.0.3 and keeps your settings. kabuk-1.0.4.zip holds the same programs to unpack anywhere (kabuk.exe --install from that folder).

New

• Drag a file onto an app: hold a file or a picture over an app's icon on the bar or Rıhtım's dock for a moment, and that app's window comes forward so you can drop it in, as on Windows' taskbar. A drag that only passes over the icons brings nothing forward, and an app without a window is not started.

If something goes wrong

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+End, or kabuk --restore, brings back every hidden window, the taskbar, the work area, the cursors, the screen saver and the wallpaper.

Checksums (SHA-256)

• kabuk-setup.exe: 5A3A50161631422409A8B3BEC919DDC3B11E887EFC87D50D87B1D3AE0AC4473A
• kabuk-1.0.4.zip: 3cb3b7375b4a686aefdbdbe94a707cebb9229a12c1eaaac380a51fc7056107af

Kabuk 1.0.3

Fixes since 1.0.2.

Install

Download kabuk-setup.exe below and run it; it installs over 1.0.2 and keeps your settings. kabuk-1.0.3.zip holds the same programs to unpack anywhere (kabuk.exe --install from that folder).

New

• Rıhtım's dock grows under the mouse: as macOS's dock does, the icon under the mouse comes forward and its neighbours grow less the further they are (with full animations).

Fixed

• Genie coming back over the window: a window brought back from the bar could show at its place first, and the genie then poured out over it. Kabuk's bars could sink under ordinary windows in the window order (a window moved over a bar covered it), and the genie's scene went under the windows with them. The scene now always goes above the windows, and the bars are raised back whenever a window gets over them.
• Rıhtım's dock in games: the dock no longer stays over a full-screen game; it steps aside with the bar and comes back after.
• Stutter in games: Kabuk steps back while a game is in full screen. Its keyboard hook comes off (the game's keys no longer wait for Kabuk), it runs below normal priority, and its hidden bars, dock and volume indicator are not drawn. It does not read the CPU, memory, network and GPU figures, and the wallpaper drift waits until the game is gone. A game renaming itself (a frame rate in its title) no longer costs anything. A game on a monitor without a bar, or one already running when Kabuk starts, is now seen too.
• Black live wallpaper: a live gallery wallpaper no longer turns the desktop black in game mode, or under the genie on some machines; its still picture shows instead.
• Black desktop under the genie: on some machines (two monitors) the desktop showed black behind a window minimising or coming back, on the primary monitor. The genie no longer copies the desktop at all: it plays over the real desktop and windows, so nothing behind it can go black.
• Flash as a window comes back: a window brought back from the bar no longer flashes; the genie draws the picture the window had when it went into its icon, and the window shows once the genie has played. A window brought back by Windows itself (Alt+Tab, another program) shows at once, without a genie over it.
• Genie smooth from the first time: the first window minimised after Kabuk starts, or after a while, no longer pours into its icon in coarse steps; the genie's renderer stays ready while the genie is on.
• Genie after a game: a window minimised while a game was in full screen plays the genie again once the game is over.
• Rıhtım's dock coming and going: with auto-hide on, the dock no longer slides off and comes back again and again while the mouse rests at the screen's edge under it.
• Black strip as the bar slides off: a maximised window's bottom no longer flashes black for a moment as the auto-hiding bar slides off and the window grows into its room.

If something goes wrong

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+End, or kabuk --restore, brings back every hidden window, the taskbar, the work area, the cursors, the screen saver and the wallpaper.

Checksums (SHA-256)

• kabuk-setup.exe: F67F6EFAF6FCCB3FFA6CF42092D7F31F6A1733D2A7BDF43CF62982176FC830AE
• kabuk-1.0.3.zip: 36d5b4effa86eee382577f843472f00ba1aa447c7c4c645f6d18557b35ab027a

Kabuk 1.0.2

Fixes since 1.0.1.

Install

Download kabuk-setup.exe below and run it; it installs over 1.0.1 and keeps your settings. kabuk-1.0.2.zip holds the same programs to unpack anywhere (kabuk.exe --install from that folder).

New

• Volume mixer: the volume panel lists the apps playing sound, each with its own level, as Windows 11's quick settings do; a click on an app's icon mutes it.
• Thumbs on the levels: every level in the volume panel has a round thumb to hold and drag.

Fixed

• Games dropping to the desktop: with Kabuk running, a game could open and then keep falling back to the desktop. Kabuk no longer takes full-screen programs into its layout, never moves a window that went full screen, keeps game mode on when an overlay (a graphics driver's, Game Bar, a voice chat) comes up over the game, sees a game running at its own resolution as full screen, and does not rebuild the bars under a game when the resolution changes.
• Auto-hide: the bar no longer comes down whenever the mouse passes the edge (on its way to a window's tabs); the mouse has to rest there a moment. Shown, it pushes the windows instead of lying over them, and gives the room back when it slides off: the windows, maximised ones too, slide with the bar instead of jumping, and the bar itself slides at the screen's pace. It stays while one of its panels or menus is open, and Rıhtım's dock now hides too.
• Windows' taskbar flashing: Windows' own taskbar no longer flashes at the bottom of the screens as the auto-hiding bar comes and goes.
• Genie coming back: a window brought back from the bar no longer shows at its place, black, before its genie pours out; and windows that were minimised when Kabuk started (Chrome, for example) get the genie too.
• Black desktop during the genie: on some computers the desktop went black behind a window minimising or coming back, and the whole screen for a moment. The whole desktop now shows under the animation.
• Devre: with a solid bar background, the groups are filled instead of a dark strip behind the whole bar.
• Two volume icons: Explorer's own volume icon no longer appears beside the bar's volume module (a click on it did nothing).
• Bluetooth menu: the Bluetooth icon's menu opens next to the icon instead of at the screen's top-left corner. Any program whose tray menu opens far from its icon gets it moved there.
• Tray icon place: programs asking where their tray icon is get its right size.
• Tray overflow panel: a left click on one of its icons no longer closes the panel, as with a right click. It closes when you click somewhere else: another program, the desktop or the bar.
• Apps on the bar at start: the windows open when Kabuk starts no longer go missing from the bar when the bar meets the window manager a moment late, and minimising them plays the genie into the right icon.
• Responsiveness: switching workspaces no longer waits for the disk.
• Setup: installing over Kabuk while its settings are open no longer fails with "exit code: 13".

Kabuk is now open source under the Apache License 2.0.

If something goes wrong

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+End, or kabuk --restore, brings back every hidden window, the taskbar, the work area, the cursors, the screen saver and the wallpaper.

Checksums (SHA-256)

• kabuk-setup.exe: EA3AA31EA8325ED75353C258023541A7C09D0B68FB0F998F1FD33E427D515C84
• kabuk-1.0.2.zip: f828fe25ee0d2d0551d8de49eeee576f70a8b882a1854ab1793a980d416d64fa

Kabuk 1.0.1

Fixes since 1.0.0.

Install

Download kabuk-setup.exe below and run it; it installs over 1.0.0 and keeps your settings. kabuk-1.0.1.zip holds the same programs to unpack anywhere (kabuk.exe --install from that folder).

Fixed

• Tray overflow panel: a right click on one of its icons no longer closes the panel. It stays while the program shows its menu, and closes when you click somewhere else.
• Tray menus: a program's tray menu (Chrome's, for one) no longer closes by itself a moment after it opens.
• Tray menu placement: programs asking where their tray icon is (the Bluetooth menu, for one) get its place on the bar, so their menu opens next to it instead of at the screen's edge.
• Apps on the bar: programs run as administrator, windows that were minimised when Kabuk started, and windows that get their title only after they appear (Unity, some Electron apps) are no longer missing.
• kabuk msg query tray lists every tray icon the bar holds, with its tooltip and program.

If something goes wrong

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+End, or kabuk --restore, brings back every hidden window, the taskbar, the work area, the cursors, the screen saver and the wallpaper.

Checksums (SHA-256)

• kabuk-setup.exe: AD4EDD46A3DD1A35838CCAEBD6E71D02416164ED9F3F8E27C0A8E72BA392BAF0
• kabuk-1.0.1.zip: d1e16c8deb1eab687b4c196daca9f055cd19ccdabd78c37140b66e92a3b473e0

Kabuk 1.0.0

The first release of Kabuk: a desktop shell for Windows 11 built from scratch. A bar on every monitor, dynamic tiling and floating windows, a launcher, notifications, wallpapers, a screen saver and a settings app. The Windows taskbar is hidden and Explorer is left untouched; when Kabuk exits, Windows returns to its previous state.

Install

Download kabuk-setup.exe below and run it. Windows 11 is needed; no administrator rights are asked for. The setup installs Kabuk for you, adds it to the Start menu and the kabuk command to your Path, and can start it when you sign in. kabuk-setup.exe /S installs without asking.

kabuk-1.0.0.zip holds the same programs to unpack anywhere; run kabuk.exe --install from that folder.

To remove it: "Uninstall" in Windows' Installed apps, or kabuk --uninstall. Your settings stay in %APPDATA%\kabuk.

What is in it

• Ten looks, each in dark and light mode: Ada, Çizgi, Devre, Ray, Konsol, Rıhtım (with a dock), Etkinlik, Pano (a task-list panel), Izgara and Defter. Every text keeps at least 4.5:1 contrast with any accent colour you pick.
• Bar on every monitor: workspaces, the window title, clock and date, media, CPU, RAM, GPU, network and volume, the system tray, notifications, the power menu and your pinned and open apps, which you can drag, pin and preview.
• Window manager: dynamic tiling (dwindle and master) and floating, workspaces across monitors, window rules, a hidden workspace, tabbed groups, an overview of every workspace, a drop-down terminal and layout profiles. Moves and the minimise genie are animated.
• Launcher (Win+R) for apps, files, folders, bookmarks, open windows, system commands and a calculator. Also an app grid like Launchpad that you can rearrange and hide apps on.
• Wallpapers and screen savers: a gallery of live and still designs, your own picture, and wallpapers created from a prompt (Claude, OpenAI or a local Ollama model, with your own key).
• Game mode: a full-screen game gets its monitor to itself, and notices wait until it ends. Nothing is injected into other processes, so anti-cheat is not disturbed.
• OLED care: dimming when idle, still pictures that drift by two pixels, and screen savers made for OLED.
• Settings app, in Turkish and English, with every change applied live. It also covers cursors, the bar's colour, hot corners, touchpad swipes, Windows' own colours following the look, and checking for updates.
• kabuk msg <command> drives the running shell from the command line (kabuk --help).

If something goes wrong

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+End, or kabuk --restore, brings back every hidden window, the taskbar, the work area, the cursors, the screen saver and the wallpaper. The watchdog does the same by itself if the shell crashes.

Checksums (SHA-256)

• kabuk-setup.exe: EB7466CC80B0BB77FB76D00BB9333D3EF17ED131B4EAF402A5C8CF7C924E6529
• kabuk-1.0.0.zip: 1d5d2bf04df83efa96c773c59cccab0ac8ec094563aded61334d195ea5321a48