Orbit
A lightweight Windows browser built on Microsoft Edge WebView2, the Chromium-based engine that powers Edge, with a custom title bar, split view, bookmark folders, Chrome extensions and a dark interface.
Unzip anywhere and run Orbit.exe. No installer, and no .NET install needed (the .NET runtime is included). Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The download is about 75 MB: the browser engine comes from the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime that Windows already includes (Orbit offers to open its download page if a computer doesn't have it).
Features
- Microsoft Edge WebView2 engine: GPU-accelerated rendering, the same web compatibility as Chrome, and H.264 / AAC video. The engine updates itself through Windows.
- Extensions: add Chrome extensions straight from the Chrome Web Store ("Add to Orbit" bar), a folder or a zip, or install uBlock Origin in one click. They appear as icons next to the address bar, with their pop-ups, and the Web Store ones and uBlock Origin keep themselves up to date.
- Custom title bar: tabs sit in the window frame to give pages as much room as possible.
- Tabs: drag to reorder, drag a tab out to open it in its own window (or drop it into another Orbit window), pin, mute, duplicate, reopen closed tabs, session restore.
- Split view: show two tabs side by side with a draggable divider.
- Bookmarks: a bookmarks bar, nested folders, site icons, a bookmark manager with drag-and-drop, and HTML import/export that other browsers can read.
- Address bar: search or type a URL, with suggestions from your bookmarks and history.
- Find in page, zoom, print, save as PDF, view source, DevTools, full screen.
- Private windows and tabs that leave no history or cookies behind.
- Downloads manager with progress, pause, cancel and open-folder.
- Automatic updates (optional): Orbit checks GitHub for a newer release when it starts, downloads and verifies it in the background, and installs it the next time you open the browser.
- Settings: search engine, home page, startup behaviour, download folder, forced dark mode for web pages.
See the Wiki for the full guide and keyboard shortcuts.
Limitations
- Extensions that rely on the
activeTab permission may not be able to act when you click their button, and extensions don't work in private windows (WebView2 keeps private tabs hidden from them). Extensions you add from a folder or zip are not updated automatically. Orbit has no built-in ad blocker; install uBlock Origin or another extension.
- Needs the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime (already part of Windows 11 and current Windows 10).
- No account sync and no built-in password manager.
- Windows only.
Build from source
Requires the .NET 8 SDK (or newer) and the WebView2 Runtime on Windows.
git clone https://github.com/MykePalma/OrbitBrowser.git
cd OrbitBrowser
dotnet run -c Release
To produce the downloadable build:
dotnet publish Lite.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true -o publish/Orbit
Automated self-test
Orbit.exe --selftest runs a scripted end-to-end check of tabs, navigation, bookmarks, split view, downloads and more against a local test server. It uses a temporary profile, never your own, and writes selftest.log to %TEMP%\Orbit-selftest.
Updates
Settings → Keep Orbit up to date automatically (on by default). At start-up Orbit asks the GitHub Releases API for the newest release. If it is newer, Orbit downloads Orbit-win-x64.zip, checks it against the SHA-256 checksum GitHub publishes for that file, and unpacks it into a staging folder. A banner offers Restart to update; if you ignore it, the update is installed automatically the next time you open Orbit. Nothing is installed unless the checksum matches, and Orbit only contacts api.github.com and the release download for updates (and the Chrome Web Store or GitHub when you ask it to install an extension). Turn the setting off to disable the start-up check; Check for updates in Settings still works on demand.
Your data
Bookmarks, history, settings, extensions and the browser cache live in %APPDATA%\Orbit (set the ORBIT_DATA_DIR environment variable to keep them somewhere else).
Status
Early release. Bug reports and ideas are welcome in Issues.
