diff --git a/pkgs/applications/window-managers/tabbed/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/window-managers/tabbed/default.nix
index 68c72a20e67..279ba68eae8 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/window-managers/tabbed/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/window-managers/tabbed/default.nix
@@ -1,29 +1,33 @@
-{stdenv, fetchgit, xproto, libX11, enableXft, libXft}:
+{stdenv, fetchgit, xproto, libX11, libXft, customConfig ? null, patches ? [] }:
 
 with stdenv.lib;
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  name = "tabbed-20150509";
+  name = "tabbed-20160425";
 
   src = fetchgit {
     url = http://git.suckless.org/tabbed;
-    rev = "55dc32b27b73c121cab18009bf087e95ef3d9c18";
-    sha256 = "0c5ayf1lrb1xiz5h8dfd4mh05kas42zzi5m5ylrvl67sfz3z4wg1";
+    rev = "bc236142fa72d2f9d6b5c790d3f3a9a9168a7164";
+    sha256 = "1fiv57g3jnlhnb6zrzl3n6lnpn2s9s0sd7bcv7r1nb3grwy7icri";
   };
 
-  patches = optional enableXft ./xft.patch;
+  inherit patches;
 
-  buildInputs = [ xproto libX11 ] ++ optional enableXft libXft;
-
-  preInstall = ''
-    export makeFlags="PREFIX=$out"
+  postPatch = stdenv.lib.optionalString (customConfig != null) ''
+    cp ${builtins.toFile "config.h" customConfig} ./config.h
   '';
 
+  buildInputs = [ xproto libX11 libXft ];
+
+  makeFlags = [
+    "PREFIX=$(out)"
+  ];
+
   meta = {
     homepage = http://tools.suckless.org/tabbed;
     description = "Simple generic tabbed fronted to xembed aware applications";
     license = licenses.mit;
-    maintainers = with maintainers; [ viric ];
+    maintainers = with maintainers; [ viric vrthra ];
     platforms = platforms.linux;
   };
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index b2cbe0fd03f..90188ff100e 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -14383,7 +14383,9 @@ in
   synergy = callPackage ../applications/misc/synergy { };
 
   tabbed = callPackage ../applications/window-managers/tabbed {
-    enableXft = true;
+    # if you prefer a custom config, write the config.h in tabbed.config.h
+    # and enable
+    # customConfig = builtins.readFile ./tabbed.config.h;
   };
 
   taffybar = callPackage ../applications/window-managers/taffybar {