🪣 Bucket: the free Windows file shelf

[Aung_Ko_Ko]

Ever opened five File Explorer windows just to grab a few files? There’s a tiny floating shelf you drop files onto and deal with later. Free, portable, can’t break a thing.

What it does

Bucket floats on top of everything (always-on-top — stays visible over other apps). Toss in files, folders, screenshots, text, links — anything. They pile up. Then send the whole stack in one move: copy to a folder, zip it, or drag into an email/chat.

Why it’s safe to poke

Dropping something in makes a pointer (a shortcut, not the real file). Nothing copied, moved, renamed or deleted until you say so. Empty the bucket → files never moved. Try it scared.

On Mac, people happily pay for tools like Yoink or Dropover. On Windows, it’s a different story—some paid tools exist but with very limited functionality, while most free ones are outdated. So I built one myself: native, portable, and free to use.

One pile per job, colour-coded

Other shelves give you one heap. Bucket gives you a set, side by side. Colour = the label. Jobs never mix.

🔵 email to Sarah   🟢 back up to drive   🟠 this week's photos

One click = next colour. Mid-grab and a new batch hits? Open another, drop, carry on.

The moves

• Grab — drag in or paste Ctrl+V. Loose text/images/links become real files.
• Summon — shake mouse, or Ctrl+Shift+B from any app → bucket pops up.
• Send out — Copy/Move to any folder, or drag out (drop = copy, Shift = move).
• Transform out — pack as .zip, flatten subfolders, or rename in sequence.
• Quiet — lives in tray, no telemetry (no phone-home), installs with no admin rights.

📋 Cheat sheet

You do	Bucket does
Drag onto bucket	Adds them (originals stay put)
Shake mouse	Pops bucket under cursor
Ctrl+Shift+B	Brings bucket forward from anywhere
Drag pile out	Copies (hold Shift = move)
Export ▸ Copy as ZIP	Packs bucket into one .zip

Keys: Ctrl+V paste · Ctrl+N new · Ctrl+Z undo · Delete remove

🛠️ Build it yourself

Native C# / WinUI 3 (.NET 10), Inno Setup installer. No telemetry.

git clone https://github.com/aungkokomm/Bucket.git
cd Bucket
msbuild Bucket.csproj /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform=x64 /t:Build
pwsh -File tools\build_installer.ps1

Needs: Windows 10/11, VS 2022+ (.NET desktop), .NET 10 SDK, WinUI tooling.

Grab it

Download latest release → run → open from Start → drag a file in. Done. No admin, 60 MB, MIT, open-source, zero upsell.

First launch may flash “Windows protected your PC” (free app, no paid cert). More info → Run anyway. Safe.

What’s the messiest file-shuffle in your week? Drop it in a bucket and tell me.

_{MIT · © 2026 Aung Ko Ko · more apps}

[Marie]

Thank you! I love this, it looks customizable too.

[Marie]

I wonder why it seems laggy when I launch it; it closes on its own too…haven’t been able to actually use it so far because of that problem.

[Aung_Ko_Ko]

Thanks for flagging this, and sorry it crashed on you. You’re right that there was nothing to go on, the app wasn’t writing any crash log, which was my mistake.

I just pushed v1.0.1 that fixes that: it now writes a log to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Bucket\crash.log, recovers from UI errors instead of silently closing, and hardens a couple of native callbacks that could take down the whole process.

later if app crashes, dump log file here I will pick it up and fix it for you.

Thank you for giving it a try.

[Marie]

Thanks! It’s working now. It looks so cute especially with the smaller floating size. It’s smooth and easy to use too. If you think it’s no problem, I would love being able to choose custom colors or custom background image (custom colors preferable- I love the current colors too, you chose beautiful shades).

[Aung_Ko_Ko]

Will surely add custom colors in options in next update. Thank you for your beautiful review, I truly appreciate it.

[Aung_Ko_Ko]

Dear @Marie
I am glad to announce that your requested feature has been added to app.

Bucket 1.0.4 — custom bucket colours

• Custom colours — the bucket Color menu now has “Custom colour…” below the 5 presets. It opens a colour picker (spectrum + hex/RGB) and recolours the whole bucket — accent, background tint, and title-bar gradient are all derived from your chosen colour.
• Presets preserved — Blue / Green / Orange / Purple / Red are unchanged.
• Revert anytime — pick any preset to drop back from a custom colour.
• Custom colours are saved with the bucket and restored on next launch.

[Marie]

Thank you so much! I love the custom colour option and the nice hue it has. I love that you kept the presets as they look beautiful too. Thank you for the saved bucket custom colour.

I want to mention that I tried installing the latest updates for both My Notebook and Bucket over the old ones but it wasn’t working well for me and I had to manually go to the Programs folder and delete the old folder first after uninstalling the old version to install the new version. Could you add some built-in uninstaller/automatic update or something in future updates? I would really appreciate it, thanks.

[Aung_Ko_Ko]

Dear @Marie
Thanks so much for the feedback, I’m glad you’re enjoying the custom colour options and presets!

Just to clarify on updates/uninstall: both My Notebook and Bucket already include uninstallers. For My Notebook specifically, there’s a precaution built in to protect your notes, the uninstaller removes the program itself but leaves your Data/ folder intact. That way, if you reinstall to the same folder, all your notes are exactly where you left them.

Also, these apps aren’t meant to be installed like traditional software under C:\Program Files…. They’re fully portable, so you can place them anywhere (Drive D:, external SSD, etc.). If you ever want to remove them completely, just delete the root folder and everything is gone.

So in short: uninstalling or re‑downloading won’t delete your notes, and you don’t need to worry about manual cleanup in Program Files.

Updates are manual (on purpose)

My Notebook doesn’t update itself, and that’s a deliberate choice, not a missing feature.

Auto-updaters work by silently downloading and running a new executable in the background. That’s exactly the behaviour antivirus engines and VirusTotal treat as suspicious, so self-updating apps routinely get false-positive malware flags and scary SmartScreen warnings. To keep My Notebook clean, transparent, and trustworthy, there’s simply no auto-update machinery to flag.

[Marie]

Thanks! What do you think is preventing me from smooth/working installs over the old ones?

[Aung_Ko_Ko]

Dear @Marie
I am relly confused what meddled your install, every single app I made I have tested more that 100 times to update them, this is the very procees for iterative building apps. And haven’t encountered single update error till now. My Notebook is the exception that at uninstall, I configured on purpose to leave Data/ folder to protect valuable notes from getting deleted.

Could you be more specific what error you encountered in detailed screenshots, so that I can understand the issue you are having please?
Thank you!

[Marie]

Yes! I’ll post in screenshots once the next updates are out and I try to install them.

[devmadfury]

don’t use it full of bugs, it’s struck, sometimes not responding and many more issues. Don’t delete any other options that you are already using or you have to waste your time just like me. Because after install it will work.

[Aung_Ko_Ko]

Dear @devmadfury
Sorry to hear Bucket didn’t work well for you. I understand how frustrating that can be.

I’d really like to fix the problems you’re seeing, but I need a bit more information than “it’s full of bugs” to reproduce them.

Could you tell me:

• Which version of Windows you’re using (Windows 10 or 11, and the build if you know it).
• Which version of Bucket you’re running.
• What you were doing when it became stuck or stopped responding.
• Whether it happens every time or only in certain situations.
• If possible, a short screen recording or screenshot.

If there’s a bug, I’ll investigate it and fix it. Constructive reports like these are incredibly valuable because they help make Bucket better for everyone.