What is BuffMyBar?
BuffMyBar is a native Windows desktop bar designed for users who love the flexibility of Linux desktop environments while keeping the performance and compatibility of Windows.
It is not a Waybar clone.
Instead, BuffMyBar follows the same philosophy:
- Native performance
- Minimal memory usage
- Beautiful animations
- Follows the Windows look
- Windows-first integration
Everything is built using native WPF and Windows APIs.
No Electron.
No Chromium.
No web technologies.
Features
Desktop
- Native Windows 11 desktop bar, one per monitor
- Multi-monitor support with automatic monitor detection
- Automatic per-monitor DPI awareness
- Taskbar-like reserved space: windows never maximize under the bar
(self-heals, and re-registers when Explorer restarts)
- Fullscreen-app friendly (reclaims its space, pauses the visualizer during games)
Widgets
- Clock & calendar — time + date, with a hover calendar flyout and optional
Google Calendar events
- Weather — official Environment Canada data (no API key), with native
animated icons and a detailed hover flyout (feels-like, humidity, wind, 3-day forecast)
- Audio visualizer — WASAPI loopback spectrum
- System monitor — CPU / RAM / GPU / CPU temperature indicators, with a
hover flyout showing live meters
- Network — local / public IP, optional latency (game mode)
- Media — now-playing via Windows media controls (play/pause, next/previous)
- Bluetooth — connected device + battery
- Battery
- Volume
- Uptime
- OBS integration — recording/streaming status via obs-websocket
Windows Integration
- Follows the Windows 11 theme automatically (light / dark + accent color)
- Acrylic / Mica backdrop
- Dynamic monitor detection (survives sleep, resolution and display changes)
- Optional update check against GitHub Releases
Visuals
- Native WPF animations
- Buff glitch text animation
- Animated weather icons (native shapes, day/night aware)
- Smooth fades
- Modern hover flyouts (calendar, weather, system monitor)
Under the hood
- A single shared widget scheduler drives all polling widgets from one tick
- The audio visualizer idles at ~5 FPS on silence and stops rendering during
fullscreen apps
- Diagnostic logging is opt-in (
BUFFBAR_VERBOSE=1) — no disk writes in normal use
- Zero runtime dependencies beyond .NET 8 (LibreHardwareMonitor is used only for
the optional CPU temperature)
Why BuffMyBar?
Linux users have access to incredible desktop bars such as:
- Waybar
- Polybar
- KDE Panels
Windows deserves the same level of customization.
BuffMyBar aims to become that desktop bar.
Not by copying Linux…
…but by embracing native Windows technologies.
Philosophy
BuffMyBar follows five principles:
- Native first
- Lightweight
- Beautiful
- Fast
- Open Source
Every feature should respect these principles.
Installation
Download
Download the latest release from GitHub:
https://github.com/ineedabuff/BuffMyBar-W26/releases
Once published to winget, it will also be installable with:
winget install IneedABUFF.BuffMyBar
Build from source
git clone https://github.com/ineedabuff/BuffMyBar-W26.git
cd BuffMyBar-W26
dotnet build
dotnet run --project BuffBar
Configuration
Right-click the bar → Paramètres…, or edit
%AppData%\BuffMyBar-W26\settings.json directly.
- Widget toggles apply live — enabling/disabling a widget recomposes the bar
in place, without a restart or a position reload.
- Choose where the system indicators appear: external, primary, or all monitors.
- Set the weather city (any Environment Canada city name, e.g.
Mascouche).
- OBS (obs-websocket) host / port / password.
- Google Calendar (optional): OAuth "Desktop" client id / secret; tokens are
stored separately and never in
settings.json.
Architecture
BuffMyBar is built around independent services.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ BuffMyBar │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Widgets │
│ Clock │ Weather │ System │ Media │ Network… │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Widget Scheduler │
│ one shared tick for polling │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Animation Framework │
│ Glitch │ Fade │ Animated weather icons │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Windows Theme Sync │
│ Light / Dark │ Accent │ Auto-follow │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ AppBar (reserved space) │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Windows 11 / WPF / .NET 8 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
This architecture keeps widgets simple while allowing the framework to evolve independently.
Gallery
BuffMyBar with all options ON
Windows Theme Synchronization
Audio Visualizer
OBS Integration
Roadmap
Shipped
- Native Windows 11 theme synchronization (light / dark + accent)
- Taskbar-like reserved space (self-healing) and live settings (no restart)
- Unified widget scheduler
- Environment Canada weather + native animated icons
- System monitor widget and flyout
- Hover flyout framework (calendar, weather, system)
- Audio visualizer idle throttling + fullscreen pause
- Update check and one-click auto-update (download + install)
- Winget distribution (submitted to winget-pkgs; auto-submitted on each release)
Planned
- Windows toast notifications
- Plugin API
- Workspace support
Performance Goals
BuffMyBar is designed to remain lightweight.
Target specifications:
| Resource | Goal |
|---|
| RAM | < 80 MB |
| CPU (Idle) | < 0.5 % |
| GPU | Minimal |
| Startup | < 1 second |
The shared scheduler and the visualizer's idle throttling exist to keep the
idle CPU target realistic. Measure with Docs/Engineering/measure-idle.ps1.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome.
Before opening a Pull Request:
- Follow the coding style.
- Keep widgets independent.
- Avoid unnecessary dependencies.
- Prefer native Windows APIs.
- Keep memory usage low.
See:
CONTRIBUTING.md
Bug Reports
Please include:
- Windows version
- BuffMyBar version
- Screenshots
- Logs (set
BUFFBAR_VERBOSE=1 for detailed logs)
- Reproduction steps
GitHub Issues are the preferred way to report bugs.
FAQ
Is BuffMyBar a Waybar port?
No.
BuffMyBar is a native Windows application inspired by the flexibility of Linux desktop environments.
Does BuffMyBar use Electron?
No.
Everything is written in native WPF using .NET 8.
Does BuffMyBar replace the Windows taskbar?
No.
It runs alongside the taskbar and reserves its own space the same way the taskbar
does, so maximized windows never cover it.
Does BuffMyBar support multiple monitors?
Yes.
Each monitor gets its own bar, and they all follow the Windows theme.
Where does the weather come from?
From Environment and Climate Change Canada's free, official citypage feed — no API
key required. Set your city in the settings.
Will Windows updates break BuffMyBar?
The goal is to rely on documented Windows APIs to minimize compatibility issues.
License
BuffMyBar is released under the WTFPL (Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License).
See:
LICENSE
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the Linux desktop community for years of inspiration.
Projects that influenced BuffMyBar include:
- KDE Plasma
- Waybar
- Polybar
- YASB
- Cava
BuffMyBar is not a clone of these projects.
It is a Windows-native implementation inspired by the same philosophy.
Made with ☕, 🚬 & ❤️ in Québec 🇨🇦
BuffMyBar — The desktop bar Windows should have shipped with.
