MeowMenu | an alternative launcher for XFCE

mbonanomi · 2026-06-19 08:50:15

Hello everyone,

I'd like to introduce an open source project I've been working hard on over the last 2 months: MeowMenu (or xfce4-meowmenu-plugin). It started as a fork of WhiskerMenu, which by now is the default launcher on most XFCE distributions, but it has since taken a fairly different direction.

What it adds compared to WhiskerMenu:

many more customization options available from the plugin settings

4 default Presets, i.e. 3 ready-to-use configurations (a Classic one, the old Whisker; a Modern one, which takes a cue from Cinnamon/KDE launchers; a FullScreen one that resembles GNOME Activities); a Minimal and ditraction-free one

Whisker has a search bar for apps only, whereas MeowMenu also has folder/file search within your Home directory (like many launchers on other DEs)

What it does NOT include yet:

a stable release: it's still in development and the latest versions are satisfactory, but expect weekly updates, mainly aimed at bugfixing ahead of the upcoming 1.0.0 release

a package in the repositories of the major distributions. I personally built deb and rpm packages for Ubuntu / Debian / Fedora (AUR package for Arch is present), but they are of course not officially supported by the distros mentioned above. You can find them in the Releases section of the GitHub repo

If you're interested in trying it out:

THIS is the official documentation

THIS is the source code

THIS is the list of Releases; picking the latest one you'll also find the package download links

Any feedback (or Issue opened on GitHub) is welcome.
Thanks everyone — if there's interest I can update this thread with the highlights of future releases.

eriefisher · 2026-06-19 10:29:16

Interesting. I would give it a try.

The whisker search bar can do more than search apps. Right click on the icon, select properties and under search actions you will see a list of types of searches it can do.

mbonanomi · 2026-06-19 20:17:56

eriefisher wrote:

Interesting. I would give it a try.
The whisker search bar can do more than search apps. Right click on the icon, select properties and under search actions you will see a list of types of searches it can do.

Hi! I know... Actually my project is a fork of Whisker Menu in a very conservative way: excluding bugs, every feature of Whisker is still there. Classic Preset is actually Whisker. All the extra search option are still enable and quite useful, but I made the file search UI a little bit more intuitive for mouse users. For instance (you see it from the gif) you can right click on a folder from the Menu and open the terminal just like you can do in Thunar.

Last edited by mbonanomi (2026-06-19 20:18:12)

daffyduck · 2026-06-26 23:22:55

I would be interested in trying an alternative to WhiskerMenu, due to the flaws I found in it.
Although, now is the bad time, perhaps in a month or two.

I primarily use the keyboard to navigate the Whisker Menu, and there are some problems:

- When moving by arrows through categories, and then to select an item within-category, I press the left arrow key. But, that only "partially" selects the sub-category item. Then I press down-arrow, but that doesn't move the selection, but at least manages to fully select the item, and then afterwards it works fine (but requires that extra and unexpected key press).

- "~/.config/menus" is a total mess, the most disgusting design I have ever seen in my life. Worst of all, it doesn't even work properly. So any improvements there would be welcome. Well, OK, that's not XFCE's fault.

- The worst part is adding a new custom category. Menulibre can't add it properly. If you try manually editing the files, then it has to be added to multiple places, and it is an absolute nightmare.

- Even when you manage to add a new category, for some silly reason, ".desktop" files won't be automatically shown in it when you install them (with proper "Categories=..." line included), unlike the built-in categories where it works properly. That's actually in accordance with the "brilliant" specs, AFAIK. Burn those specs!

- Equally bad is adding a category as a sub-category of another one. They do kind-of work in Whisker Menu, but they are displayed in awkward ways and also require careful key-presses to navigate, i.e. keyboard controls for it are not intuitive. But, they don't work in Menulibre, i.e. Menulibre can't see them properly, and it can destroy the category hierarchy if the user is not very careful.

- The worst part of "~/.config/menus" is the "Name" XML tag, which is 100% redundant, and it simply has to match the first part of the "Directory" XML tag, and cannot be omitted. You cannot put a custom name there, because if the Name doesn't match the Directory, it won't work (and also the entire directory gets automatically deleted because Menulibre thinks it is malformed).

- As opposed to M$ Windows, where adding sub-categories is a breeze and can be performed in seconds. I really don't understand why not just copy their design of it (which is also a lot simpler and much more elegant than "~/.config/menus" et al.).

- How to solve that terrible mess? Provide an alternate category system more akin to M$ Windows.

- And just to post another digression (not Xfce fault): whose stupid idea (I know "who" already) was to make the ".desktop" files to serve both as application shortcuts/links, and also to half-redundantly define file type associations (a completely different purpose)? Some people really like to mix up completely unrelated stuff, and the concept of "file types" still seems foreign to many Unix-heads, who never understood it properly. They should have informed themselves better about the concept of "types", before designing specifications for file types.

- Sarcasm / Rant: Oh, I know, there should be no types, even for files. Therefore, everyone should feel free to create a "README" file without any extension, and then just rely on a very complex and unreliable OS service that attempts to discern file types by file contents; and who needs a category tree, let's go back to DOS 1.0 where you can only create directories at depth 0 to organize the entire filesystem. Also, hooray to case-sensitive file systems, a clear and practical continuation of 300 years long lexicographic traditions (not).

Added later 1 h 13 min 42 s:
This looks promising:
https://matteobonanomi.github.io/xfce4- … ation.html

So, you got me interested.

Anyway, when I test it, I expect that I will find bugs, because my categories are hierarchical and include custom categories, and a myriad of other strange customizations that nobody else uses.

Last edited by daffyduck (2026-06-27 00:27:55)

im145a · 2026-07-06 06:44:25

Looks amazing!!!

I might try it as well, thanks for this awesome project!

mbonanomi · 2026-07-06 12:31:26

daffyduck wrote:

Anyway, when I test it, I expect that I will find bugs, because my categories are hierarchical and include custom categories, and a myriad of other strange customizations that nobody else uses.

Yes, expect some bugs. Others are testing it and nobody reported critical things: every feedback is welcome!
About keyboard: I simplified and bug-fixed the keyboard-only navigation of MeowMenu: your feedback could be really precious. Basically, with TAB you switch between Places (a new feature Whisker does not have) and Apps. WIth Ctrl+Tab you circularly change the region of the menu you are selecting. With arrows you select the items in the selected region of the menu. I hope it is intuitive for most of the users.

im145a wrote:

Looks amazing!!!
I might try it as well, thanks for this awesome project!

Thanks a lot! A new bugfix version is coming by the end of the week, keep a star on GitHub if interested!

daffyduck · 2026-07-07 13:43:15

mbonanomi wrote:

I simplified and bug-fixed the keyboard-only navigation of MeowMenu: your feedback could be really precious. Basically, with TAB you switch between Places (a new feature Whisker does not have) and Apps. WIth Ctrl+Tab you circularly change the region of the menu you are selecting. With arrows you select the items in the selected region of the menu. I hope it is intuitive for most of the users.

I amazed that you actually red my rant.

About keyboard navigation, how to do it properly (guide):

The basic expectation there is that the user must able to select a desired leaf item, starting from top level (i.e. from the initial "region").
Furthermore (still basic expectation), the user should be able to do it using only 5 basic keys (and no modifiers or other keys like shift, control, tab).

The five basic keys are: arrows and Enter.
- Any of the two enter keys is supposed to act the same, and the same for arrows on numpad or the 4-key block. When "Num lock" is on, then numpad should not provide any arrow keys.

The usual way to fulfill basic expectations is to:
- up/down arrows move the selection.
- the "right arrow" key selects a category (i.e. a child, one level down).
Alternatively, Enter key also selects a child.

When selection is on a leaf node, then only "Enter" selects it (runs it), and "Right arrow" MUST be unused (no-op, to indicate a leaf node).

"Left arrow" is usually used for "one level up". Therefore, on the TOP level, the "Left arrow" key is free and either unused, or it can cycle through regions.

The initial active "region" should be either:
- "ROOT categories", or
- favorites / last used items
But, whatever the initial region is, it must be easy and quick to navigate from it to "ROOT categories" region, using only the 5 basic keys.

- Any non-control ASCII/unicode being typed, are typed into the search box. Whenever there is any text in the search box, then the active region immediately switches to the region "select from search results", which becomes visible in the place of some other region, and the up/down arrows can be used to move the selection, Enter selects (runs it), while arrows left / right are used for editing the typed text (i.e. positioning the caret).

- Also, Home / End / PgDN/PgUP keys are usually expected to move the selection in a way that replaces multiple moves by arrow keys, while not changing the active region or the active (current) tree level.
- If there is text in the search box, then home/end are used to position the caret in the search box.

Last edited by daffyduck (2026-07-07 14:21:07)

mbonanomi · 2026-07-17 10:58:57

Hi! Some of the things you mentioned are actually implemented... the only issue I see is that navigating though different "areas/regions" require the combination Ctrl+Tab, while switching from apps to places is just Tab. Apart from this, arrows do whatever you like and any typed character will be placed in the search bar: in case of numbers, calculator will do its job, in case of letters, the standard search will apply (just like Whisker).

By the way, v0.8.0 has been release and it has some good new features. If you are testing it, please let me know how it feels.

daffyduck · 2026-07-17 14:42:45

mbonanomi wrote:

Hi! Some of the things you mentioned are actually implemented... the only issue I see is that navigating though different "areas/regions" require the combination Ctrl+Tab, while switching from apps to places is just Tab.

The important feature is "basic keyboard navigation":
- When the user opens MeowMenu, he/she MUST be able to navigate to the desired category and leaf item using only the 5 basic keys (arrows and Enter), and then the selected leaf item MUST execute when the user presses ENTER.

How the user is going to switch between areas is much less important. Tab, Ctrl-Tab, whatever.
However, if you want it really smooth, then find a way for the user to switch areas using only 5 basic keys. As I have noted, the "left arrow" key is usually free for that, but other ways of doing it are also acceptable.
Below, you will find full specification on how to do it, with only 5 basic keys (I made it based on your screenshots / animations).

More important:
- think about the initial area: if it is "favorites", or "recently used", then how does the user move from it to the area for categories selection, but using only 5 basic keys?

===============================
I noticed you posted a screenshot of "MeowMenu". Here are my comments:
- the two important panels are:
- - the items panel ("items array" in the "Full screen" preset, the big main area with items)
- - the items panel ("items list" in the "Classic" preset)
- - the "top categories" sidebar panel (with topmost categories, on the left side in "full screen" preset)

==== in "Full screen" preset: ======
- if the "item array" panel is active, then it should not have "wrap-around" on the LEFT side, i.e. when an leftmost item is selected and the user presses "left arrow", then the active area should move to the "top categories" panel on the left (i.e. steps back one level). Currently you have "ESC" key assigned for this function, and that is OK, but "ESC" key is hard to reach, so it is better to have the alternative as described.
- IMO, the best candidate for "initial area" is: "Recently Used", with "item array" panel active.
- when "item array" panel is active, the ENTER key opens the selected item.

- on the "top categories" panel (when it is selected), the user should be able to navigate through the list by pressing up and down arrow keys. It is the best that the "ENTER" key does nothing in the "top categories" panel (so that the user doesn't accidentally open a leaf item).
- on the "top categories" panel, the "right arrow" key should cause the "item array" area to become active.
- on the "top categories" panel, the "up arrow" key should NOT wrap around. Instead, pressing "up" at "all applications" should activate the "apps/places" selector area.
- on the "top categories" panel, the "down arrow" key at bottom category: here you have a choice. It can wrap around to "apps/places", or to "all applications", or to "settings/Session buttons" area. Or, it can be a no-operation instead of a wrap-around. Choose wisely.
- on the "top categories" panel, the "left arrow key" can be used to switch to another area, i.e. to "settings/Session buttons" area.

- on the "apps/places" selector area, the "up arrow" should switch to the "settings/Session buttons" area, and "down arrow" should switch to "all applications" in the "top categories" panel.

- on the "settings/Session buttons", the "down arrow" should switch to the "top categories" panel, and the "up arrow" is free, so whatever you want for it, but try to assign some useful action to it.

===== in "Classic" preset ====
The basic problem here is that the "top categories" panel is on the RIGHT side of the "items" panel. That's tough. The keyboard navigation can still work as described, although the "left-right" spatial intuition is reversed in that case.

You can keep it as-described, but there are other options, like:
- reverse functions of left and right arrow keys (and instead of left-wraparound being special, make right-wraparound special)
- or, don't allow the arrangement of "top categories" panel on the right side at all.
Your choice.

=== Sub-categories =======
- i don't see any sub-categories in the "item array". I need sub-categories to work. Have you tried /tested / thought about how will sub-categories work? They work in Whisker-menu.

- in "Classic" preset, when in "item list", ensure that "right arrow" expands the selected sub-category.

- in "Full screen" preset, when in "item array", ensure that "ENTER" opens the selected sub-category. Given the layout, it is obvious that "ENTER" key is the only possible candidate (and consistent) for opening a sub-category, since right-arrow is obviously used up for movement through item array.

- now a clever trick: when a sub-category is opened in the "item array", then wrap-around on the LEFT side should not wrap-around. Instead, "left arrow" wrap-around should open the parent category in the "item array" (i.e. steps back one level).

===== Other comments: =======

- on the screenshot ("full screen" preset), the icons in the "item array" are too big (the user is not blind), so hopefully there is a way to choose icon size, but also the text size.

- my favorite preset is none of the provided presets. What I prefer is closest to the "modern" preset, but with the "items panel" changed to a list instead of an array.
Also, I usually make the Whisker-menu pop up at the bottom-left, since my taskbar-panel is on the bottom, because when taskbar/panel is at the TOP of the screen, as in your screenshots, then it is harder to aim the mouse at any open window's close/minimize/maximize buttons.
Alternatively, my taskbar/panel is on the LEFT side of the screen, but the Whisker menu still pops up at the bottom left.

- also, I would suggest that MeowMenu should generally imitate M$ Windows, which is exactly what my specification does. XFCE is full of M$ Windows refugees, M$ Windows-alike themes are the most popular ones, and M$ Windows is by far the most used desktop OS on the planet, so imitating it increases familiarity, intuitiveness and usability.

Last edited by daffyduck (2026-07-17 17:46:53)

mbonanomi · 2026-07-21 20:23:27

Again, thanks a lot for your precious feedback. Let me try to answer a few points you raised, since they might become new features:

moving only with arrows is something I can do, navigating across various regions simply with arrows to about complex combinations of button

WhiskerMenu allows to move every component on the right, left, top or bottom. so, moving arrow to the right or left or top or bottum should be as effective in my Presets as in any other custom preset a user might want to save. this is the most complicated part of making your suggestion a real feature. The actual keyboard setup might not be efficient or intuitive, but it is robust to any user customization. I have to carefully think about it, I don't want to reduce the level of customization, but I reckon keyboard controls can be improved

Sub-categories are not shown in my examples because, as far as I know, are not shown in the default XFCE session. I am not using them, so I have not tested them. The way to handle sub-categories is the "Tree" view in the "Sidebar" object. You can select it from Properties, just like you can do in Whisker. What it does, or does not, I honestly don't know. I'll generate a fake custom menu in Garcon to understand if the implementation is effective. Do you expect to view the subcategories as "indented items" of the corresponding category in the sidebar? can you share a screenshot of how Whisker (or any other launcher you like) handles it?

Presets are just meant to be initial default settings for new users: you can edit or create a brand new one and save with a name you like to share it in different xfce sessions or devices

the menu should work in any position of the panel it belongs to... the example I recorded is MacOS-like... I admit another recording with a more Windows-friendly ricing could be useful as well

A real imitation of windows menu is not that straightforward... my idea was to add the features of modern menus (like cinnamon, kde and even windows launcher) in XFCE, not to copy-paste their UI. More specifically talking about microsoft: Win11 launcher is more minimal than Win10 one, and Win7 or even WinXP menus are beloved software that meny users could love to use once again... it's not easy to find a way to clone any of these UX/UI... I hope I give so many customization options in Properties window to allow anyone to get the most out of this tool

Last edited by mbonanomi (2026-07-21 20:24:53)

daffyduck · 2026-07-21 21:44:43

mbonanomi wrote:

Again, thanks a lot for your precious feedback. Let me try to answer a few points you raised, since they might become new features:

Thank you very much for your detailed reply and interest in my suggestions.
I promise I'm going to test MeowMenu next week. I'll compile it from the sources. I use Xfce 4.18, so I'll test it on that.

WhiskerMenu allows to move every component on the right, left, top or bottom. so, moving arrow to the right or left or top or bottum should be as effective in my Presets as in any other custom preset a user might want to save. this is the most complicated part of making your suggestion a real feature. The actual keyboard setup might not be efficient or intuitive, but it is robust to any user customization. I have to carefully think about it, I don't want to reduce the level of customization, but I reckon keyboard controls can be improved

You don't have to worry that much about left-right spatial positioning affecting the function of arrow keys.
Most users intuitively use "right arrow" to navigate to a child, and "left arrow" to navigate to a parent. Therefore, the basic keyboard functions do not need to be affected at all by spatial positioning of components/areas.
If the user wants to switch the function of left/right arrows, such that left-arrow selects a child, and right-arrow selects a parent, then the option for it can be just one additional checkbox in the preferences.

Regarding complex layouts were the user completely re-arranges components/areas, don't worry about it yet. That can be fixed later on, as not many users will do drastic re-arrangements of presets.

Sub-categories are not shown in my examples because, as far as I know, are not shown in the default XFCE session. I am not using them, so I have not tested them. The way to handle sub-categories is the "Tree" view in the "Sidebar" object. You can select it from Properties, just like you can do in Whisker. What it does, or does not, I honestly don't know. I'll generate a fake custom menu in Garcon to understand if the implementation is effective. Do you expect to view the subcategories as "indented items" of the corresponding category in the sidebar? can you share a screenshot of how Whisker (or any other launcher you like) handles it?

Whisker: initially, sub categories are "closed" as in this diagram 1.:

┌──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
│ Categories           │ Items                │
├──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ Settings             │ ▷ Sub-category 1     │
│ *Accessories*        │ ▷ Sub-category 2     │
│ Development          │   Leaf item 1        │
│ ...                  │   Leaf item 2        │
└──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

In whisker, the user can then "expand" a sub-category like "Sub-cat 1" (diagram 2.):

┌──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
│ Categories           │ Items                │
├──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ Settings             │ ▽ *Sub-category 1*   │
│ *Accessories*        │   └─ Leaf item S1    │
│ Development          │   └─ Leaf item S2    │
│ ...                  │ ▷ Sub-category 2     │
│ ...                  │   Leaf item 1        │
│ ...                  │   Leaf item 2        │
└──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

That's OK.
The keys ("Items" area is active), my proposal:
up/down arrows: move through leaf items and sub-categories
left arrow:
- if on "Sub-category 1", then collapses "Sub-category 1"
- if on "Sub-category 1" sub-items, then collapses "Sub-category 1"
- if on any other item: moves "active area" back to "Categories", with "Accessories" being selected.
right arrow:
- if on leaf item or "Sub-category 1", no operation
- if on "Sub-category 2": expands it
ENTER: opens the selected leaf item or expands the sub-category.

But, my suggestion is actually (instead of diagram 2), "Sub-category 1" should open in the "Items" area, as in this diagram 3:

┌──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
│ Categories           │ Items                │
├──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ Settings             │ *Sub-category 1*     │
│ *Accessories*        │--------------------- │
│ Development          │ Leaf item S1         │
│ ...                  │ Leaf item S2         │
│ ...                  │                      │
└──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

The keys ("Items" area is active):
up/down arrows: move through leaf items
right arrow:
- on leaf item: no operation
- on (SUB)-sub category item: opens it in the "items" area
ENTER: opens the selected leaf item or (SUB)-sub category.
left arrow: collapses "Sub-category 1", but keeps the "items" area active; therefore it returns back to the situation as in the diagram 1.

However, that exact left-arrow function cannot be used in the arrangements like "Full Screen", so in "Full Screen" the trick with disabling the left-side wraparound must be used.

Presets are just meant to be initial default settings for new users: you can edit or create a brand new one and save with a name you like to share it in different xfce sessions or devices

Yes, I know.

the menu should work in any position of the panel it belongs to... the example I recorded is MacOS-like... I admit another recording with a more Windows-friendly ricing could be useful as well

The menu will work, but the problem is that the spatial arrangement of components/areas may then not match the intuitive arrow-key directions. But, don't worry about that detail yet.

A real imitation of windows menu is not that straightforward... my idea was to add the features of modern menus (like cinnamon, kde and even windows launcher) in XFCE, not to copy-paste their UI.

My recommendation for keyboard is based on Start Menu in Win XP and Win 7.
You don't have to copy the UI.

Last edited by daffyduck (2026-07-21 22:17:55)

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MeowMenu | an alternative launcher for XFCE

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