Thaw

Thaw is an open-source macOS menu-bar manager. It organizes menu-bar items into visible and hidden sections, with searching, layouts and shortcuts for quickly reaching items when screen space is limited.

Features

• Hide and reveal supported menu-bar items in organized sections.
• Search for items and open them from the Thaw interface.
• Save supported layouts and use profiles or running-app triggers.
• Customize supported menu-bar appearance and item presentation.
• Integrate actions with launchers through thaw:// links.

Setup and compatibility

The official 3.0.0-beta.2 ZIP contains an arm64-only executable for Apple Silicon, and its Info.plist specifies macOS 27.0 as the minimum. This describes the inspected build, not a numeric CPU-speed or RAM requirement. The current 3.0.0-beta.2 package requires macOS 27; older 2.1 betas target macOS 26. This is prerelease software, so choose a release compatible with your system and preserve a recovery plan for layout changes. Thaw requests Accessibility permission to move items; Screen Recording is optional for supported item-image behavior. System-owned and restricted items may not move like ordinary app items.

Thaw is available under GPL-3.0 and supported by contributors. It manages local desktop state, and its layout preferences are separate from any remote services used by menu-bar apps themselves. Grant only the permissions you need, review integration links and retain access to system indicators and frequently used controls. The latest beta removes its old menu-bar click-history feature.

Sources: Official README, Official releases.

The listing icon is the complete gold product icon from the official Thaw 1.0.0 source tag; this historical artwork does not establish the appearance of the current 3.0 beta build.