Pratibimb

Your browser finally has the same energy as your desktop.

Pratibimb (Hindi for reflection) is a Chromium extension that syncs your Windows or Linux desktop wallpaper to your New Tab page — live, automatically, every time. The whole UI adapts to whatever wallpaper you're rocking. Moody dark wallpaper? Moody vibes. Bright summer meadow? You get the idea.

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<sub>active


idle

looks different every time. that's the whole point.</sub>

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How it works

A tiny C++ program reads your wallpaper straight from Windows and passes it to the extension instantly — no background tasks, no polling, no funny business. The New Tab page then builds itself around it: lighting, glassmorphism, weather, search bar, all of it.

You also get a one-click installer that handles all the annoying registry and AppData stuff so you don't have to.

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Before you install — read this (it's short, I promise)

Windows 11 is very dramatic about local .exe files talking to browsers. Here's what might trip you up:

• Defender might quietly block it with zero explanation. If it's not working, add %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pratibimb (or %ProgramData%\Pratibimb if installed as Administrator) as a Defender exclusion.
• Brave / Chromium deletes the extension on restart: Browsers on Windows flag unpacked extensions that have a Service Worker + New Tab Override as malware. Our PowerShell installer automatically fixes this by adding the extension to your Windows ExtensionInstallAllowlist Registry Policy. If you ever see it get deleted, re-run the installer and accept the Administrator prompt to apply the whitelist!
• Store-installed browsers can't do this at all. If you got your browser from the Microsoft Store, grab the direct installer from the browser's website instead.

What actually works:

Operating System	Compatibility
Windows 11	✅ Perfect on Chrome, Brave, and Edge
Windows 10 / Tiny10	✅ Perfect on Chrome, Brave, and Edge
Linux (Cinnamon)	✅ Perfect via CLI setup

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Installation

Windows

Step 1 — Open PowerShell and run this command to install Pratibimb:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SunTzv/Pratibimb/main/install/install.ps1 | iex

(Note: The script installs to your local user by default. If you pre-run the PowerShell window as Administrator, it performs a system-wide installation for all users instead. Either way, it will briefly prompt for Admin privileges at the end to whitelist the extension in your browser's policies. This is safe and required.)

Step 2 — The script will download and extract the extension, then open the folder. Go to chrome://extensions (or edge://extensions), turn on Developer mode, and click Load unpacked. Select the opened extension folder.

Open a new tab. That's it. 🎉

Linux

Step 1 — Open your terminal and run this command to install Pratibimb:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SunTzv/Pratibimb/main/install/install.sh | bash

Step 2 — The script will compile the native host, extract the extension, and automatically register it. Go to your browser's extensions page (e.g. chrome://extensions), turn on Developer mode, and drag and drop the extension folder that opened for you into the browser.

Open a new tab. That's it. 🎉

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Updating

To quickly update just the extension UI (HTML, CSS, JS) without rebuilding the host or re-registering, run:

Windows:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SunTzv/Pratibimb/main/install/update.ps1 | iex

Linux:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SunTzv/Pratibimb/main/install/update.sh | bash

After running the update command, go to your browser's extensions page and hit the Update or reload button on Pratibimb.

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Uninstalling

Windows: Open PowerShell and run this command to remove the host and registry keys:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SunTzv/Pratibimb/main/install/uninstall.ps1 | iex

Then remove the extension from your browser. Gone without a trace.

Linux: Open your terminal and run this command:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SunTzv/Pratibimb/main/install/uninstall.sh | bash

Wipes the generated JSON configs from your browsers and purges the binary from ~/.local/share/Pratibimb. Remove the extension from your browser. Gone without a trace.

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Go deeper

DEV-LOG.md — the build journal, mistakes and all (nothing for you mostly for me to track versions)

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_{Favicon by Dupe (dupe_dupe on Discord) · Weather icons by Bas Milius · Fonts via TeaTimBuYT}