JBrowser

Welcome to the internet - again.
A spatial, privacy-focused web browser for Windows 11.

Website · Download · Changelog · Developer docs · YouTube

JBrowser replaces the tab strip with an infinite horizontal canvas of web cards and organises them into isolated Spaces, driven from a vertical sidebar and a keyboard-first Lazy Toolbar. It runs in a native-feeling Windows 11 window with its own frosted look, and it is built with Python and PyQt6 / Qt WebEngine (Chromium).

Made with ❤️ by the JBrowser Team. © 2026 The JBrowser Team. See JBrowser in action on YouTube.

Download

JBrowser is free for Windows 10 and 11. The easiest way to install it takes about a minute:

1. Open PowerShell: press the Windows key, type PowerShell, and press Enter.

2. Copy this line, paste it into the PowerShell window (right-click, or Ctrl+V) and press Enter:

   irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/The-JBrowser-Team/JBrowser/main/install.ps1 | iex

3. The JBrowser installer opens. Click through it like any other app.

The command downloads the newest JBrowser from this repository's releases, checks that the file is exactly the one published (its SHA-256 fingerprint), and opens the installer. It needs no administrator rights and changes nothing else. install.ps1 is short, so you can read it first. Run the same line again at any time to update.

Prefer a normal download? Get JBrowser-Setup-<version>.exe from the latest release and open it. Because JBrowser is new and not code-signed yet, Windows may say "Windows protected your PC": click More info, then Run anyway (why).

Highlights

• Spatial canvas. Cards sit side by side and can be resized, split, reordered and stacked in columns of up to three. Keep scrolling past either end to pull in a new card.
• Reading mode (F9). Articles without the clutter, in serif or sans-serif, in four colour themes.
• Spaces. Home, Work, Other, or your own spaces. Each has its own cookies and storage, and you can open incognito spaces too. Favourites and pinned cards sit above them.
• Gallery. See every card of a space, or of all spaces, at a glance; filter, open, close and move them.
• Lazy Toolbar (Ctrl+T / Ctrl+K). One box for addresses, searches, open cards, bookmarks, history, passwords and 100+ commands.
• Private by default. Ad and tracker blocking (EasyList and EasyPrivacy), phishing and malware protection, fingerprinting protection, secure DNS (Quad9), HTTPS-first and link cleaning.
• Built in. An encrypted password manager, protected downloads (keep-or-delete warnings, or a strict mode that blocks risky files), history, the Archive of recently closed cards, DevTools, user scripts and per-space proxies.
• Light on memory. Out-of-sight cards stop rendering, and idle cards hibernate.
• Updates itself. New versions arrive from GitHub Releases and are verified before they install.

See docs/FEATURES.md for the full list and the keyboard shortcuts.

Release notes

2.0.3 (latest) · 5 October 2026 · download

• Frosted, JBrowser's own look: a soft, blurred tint of your wallpaper's colours, painted by JBrowser itself, so it looks the same on every PC. Settings › Appearance offers Frosted (default) and Solid; Acrylic, Mica and Mica Alt are gone.
• A quicker Settings: it opens about three times faster, and colour tints and the look change instantly. JBrowser also does less work when idle.

2.0.2 · 5 October 2026

• No more light or dark box over the top right of the window on some PCs.

2.0.1 · 4 October 2026

• Card width button on the ribbon: 20%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 80% or full width, with the shortcut next to each (Alt+2 … Alt+0).
• Open PDFs with JBrowser: choose it for .pdf files in Windows' Default apps or Open with. The new Settings › Default apps page shows what opens your links and PDFs.
• Local links work: paste C:\…, \\server\share, a quoted path or a file:/// address into the address bar and it opens, spaces and all.
• Settings, reorganised into four groups, with a new Ribbon and sidebar page. The reading mode button moved off the ribbon by default (it's still on every card, and F9 works).
• A smaller app and steadier window colours.

2.0.0 (2 October 2026), JBrowser 2.0, the biggest update yet (▶ YouTube): stack cards in columns, reading mode (F9), download protection levels, a cleaner ribbon with download progress, Google sign-in that fixes itself, and no colour warp when minimising or maximising.

1.6.2 (2 October 2026): windows that keep their colours, Google sign-in through the whole hand-off, frosted menus, an update window that keeps its size.

1.6.1 (1 October 2026): scrolling up and down no longer slides to the next card.

1.6.0 (1 October 2026):

• Dark mode stays dark on Acrylic, even when Windows itself uses light mode (and the other way round).
• Google sign-in, for good: while you sign in, JBrowser presents itself as Firefox in every way Google checks.
• Fewer "I'm not a robot" checks when you're not signed in to Google.
• Smoother horizontal scrolling, especially on slower PCs and large screens.
• Settings → Advanced: a graphics mode for cards that glitch, how JBrowser introduces itself, and the (now optional) note about videos it can't play.
• A translucent Archive, a cleaner right-click menu, and a livelier website.

Earlier versions

Version	Highlights
1.5.4	Encrypted password export (CSV in an AES-256 ZIP), a calmer Archive, Python 3.14.7
1.5.3	The one-line PowerShell install works again, simpler download window, an open-source section on the website, which moved to jbrowser.app
1.5.2	Sites see the current Chrome (155), Google sign-in pages exempt from blocking, card outline in your tint, saved pages can't read your files, ready for SignPath code signing
1.5.1	Google sign-in fix (Firefox user agent for Google's sign-in server), code signing built into the release scripts, a website with real screenshots and versioned developer docs
1.5.0	The Gallery, colour tints, drag cards anywhere, real ad blocking with EasyList and EasyPrivacy, fewer CAPTCHAs
1.4.1	Setup closes a running JBrowser for you, a 30 MB smaller download, nothing lost when Windows closes JBrowser
1.4.0	Automatic updates from GitHub, a proper Windows installer, a livelier welcome animation, open source under the GNU GPL v3
1.2.0	First-run welcome and guided tour, pull to add a card, favourites and pinned cards, the Archive (closed cards from the last 48 hours), an optional Home button
1.1.0	Rebuilt Settings, phishing and malware protection, fingerprinting protection, HTTPS-first, download protection, Clear browsing data and Reset
1.0.0	First release: the spatial card canvas, isolated Spaces, the Lazy Toolbar, memory saver, secure DNS, tracker blocking and the password manager

Every change is listed in CHANGELOG.md, and each release's notes are on the Releases page.

More ways to install

The one-line install above is the easiest. It downloads the release zip, checks its SHA-256 fingerprint, and starts the installer, without Windows SmartScreen's "Windows protected your PC" warning.

Download the zip yourself

1. Open the latest release and download JBrowser-<version>-<date>.zip, for example JBrowser-1.4.0-2026-09-28.zip.
2. Extract it, then run JBrowser-Setup-<version>.exe. INSTALL.txt in the zip explains each step.
3. The installer works for your Windows account without administrator rights. It adds a Start menu entry, and it can register JBrowser as a web browser so you can make it your default in Windows Settings.

The release page also has the installer on its own (JBrowser-Setup-<version>.exe). When a downloaded installer isn't code-signed, Windows SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC"; choose More info → Run anyway (why). To uninstall, use Settings → Apps → Installed apps → JBrowser. Your data is kept unless you choose to delete it.

Updates

An installed JBrowser checks GitHub once a day. When a new version is out, an Update button appears on the ribbon. Click it to read what's new, then choose Install and restart. You can also use Settings → About → Check now, or turn automatic checks off there. docs/AUTO_UPDATE.md explains how updating works.

Run from source

You need Windows 10 or 11 and Python 3.14+ (64-bit).

git clone https://github.com/The-JBrowser-Team/JBrowser.git
cd JBrowser
py -3.14 tools\update_deps.py        # creates .venv, installs everything and checks every import
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe main.py

Run tools\update_deps.py again at any time to update all packages. docs/DEVELOPMENT.md covers the command-line options, test profiles, debugging and code conventions, and the developer documentation explains the architecture, the web engine, privacy, the UI and the release process for every version, with a generated Python API reference.

Build and release

You need Python 3.14+, Inno Setup 6 (winget install JRSoftware.InnoSetup) and, to publish, GitHub CLI signed in with gh auth login. master.ps1 does everything else, from the repository folder:

Goal	Command
Build and package the current version	.\master.ps1
Release a new version (update)	.\master.ps1 -Version 1.4.1 -Publish
Rebuild the current version and refresh its release files	.\master.ps1 -Publish

It updates every package and checks every import, builds the app and the installer, and packages them as distribution\JBrowser-<version>-<date>.zip. With -Publish, it also commits and pushes your changes and publishes the GitHub release. Installed copies then update themselves, and the one-command install above picks it up. Before releasing a new version, describe it in CHANGELOG.md and under Release notes above.

The steps can also be run on their own (tools\build_app.ps1, tools\build_installer.ps1, tools\release.ps1). When the repository is inside OneDrive, the build folder is %LOCALAPPDATA%\JBrowser-build so OneDrive doesn't sync it. Guides: docs/BUILDING.md and docs/RELEASING.md.

Repository layout

Path	What's inside
jbrowser/	The application package: start-up, dependency wiring and file locations
jbrowser/core/	Building blocks with no UI: settings, commands, motion, fuzzy search, URL handling
jbrowser/models/	The browser state: spaces, cards and the per-frame update pipeline
jbrowser/services/	Features without widgets: history, passwords, privacy, network, updates and more
jbrowser/engine/	Qt WebEngine integration: per-space profiles, pages, lifecycle, injected scripts
jbrowser/platform/	Windows-specific code: backdrops, window frame, DPAPI
jbrowser/ui/	Every widget: window, canvas, cards, sidebar, Lazy Toolbar, welcome
jbrowser/ui/dialogs/	Settings and the tool windows (history, passwords, downloads, and more)
assets/	Icon, logo and sound effects bundled with the app
installer/	The Inno Setup script for JBrowser-Setup.exe
tools/	Scripts for dependencies, versions, icons, builds and releases
docs/	Features, architecture, development, building, releasing and updates
site/	The website: home page, download page, changelog and the versioned developer docs
.github/	Continuous integration, the website and signed-release workflows, issue and pull-request templates
.signpath/	SignPath artifact configurations for code signing (docs/SIGNING.md)
master.ps1	Builds, packages and publishes everything in one command
install.ps1	Installs or updates JBrowser from the latest release zip (the one-command install)
distribution/	Zips made by master.ps1 (local only, not in git)
main.py, JBrowser.spec	Entry point and the PyInstaller recipe
requirements*.txt	Runtime and build dependencies

Contributing and security

Contributions are welcome: see CONTRIBUTING.md and the code of conduct. Please report vulnerabilities privately, as described in SECURITY.md.

Licence

JBrowser is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0. You may use, study, share and modify it, and anything you distribute that is based on it must stay under the same licence.

It builds on these projects, each under its own licence:

• PyQt6 and PyQt6-WebEngine (GPL v3)
• Qt 6 and Qt WebEngine, which includes Chromium (LGPL v3 and Chromium's BSD-style licences)
• cryptography (Apache 2.0 or BSD)
• requests (Apache 2.0)
• Mozilla Readability for reading mode (Apache 2.0, included unmodified in jbrowser/engine/vendor/readability)

The sound effects are credited in assets/sounds/CREDITS.txt.