diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md
index 169a158..7ee9632 100644
--- a/readme.md
+++ b/readme.md
@@ -10,11 +10,11 @@ actual frontend bundle and build the app:
 ```bash
 wget https://dl.vikunja.io/frontend/vikunja-frontend-master.zip
 unzip vikunja-frontend-master.zip -d frontend
-sed -i 's/\/fonts/\.\/fonts/g' frontend/index.html
-sed -i 's/\/js/\.\/js/g' frontend/index.html      
-sed -i 's/\/css/\.\/css/g' frontend/index.html    
-sed -i 's/\/images/\.\/images/g' frontend/index.html
-sed -i 's/\/images/\.\/images/g' frontend/js/*
+sed -i 's/\/fonts/file\:\/\/fonts/g' frontend/index.html
+sed -i 's/\/js/file\:\/\/js/g' frontend/index.html      
+sed -i 's/\/css/file\:\/\/css/g' frontend/index.html    
+sed -i 's/\/images/file\:\/\/images/g' frontend/index.html
+sed -i "s/\/'images/'file\:\/\/images/g" frontend/js/*
 ```
 
 ## Building for release
diff --git a/src/index.js b/src/index.js
index 59175d2..df64f71 100644
--- a/src/index.js
+++ b/src/index.js
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-const { app, BrowserWindow } = require('electron')
+const { app, BrowserWindow, protocol, session } = require('electron')
+const path = require('path')
 
 function createWindow () {
   // Create the browser window.
@@ -17,8 +18,23 @@ function createWindow () {
 // This method will be called when Electron has finished
 // initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
 // Some APIs can only be used after this event occurs.
-app.whenReady().then(createWindow)
+app.whenReady().then(() => {
+  const root = path.normalize(`${__dirname}/..`)
 
+  // file:// interceptor to serve all assets without running a web server in the background
+  protocol.interceptFileProtocol('file', (request, callback) => {
+    let url = request.url.substr(7)    /* all urls start with 'file://' */
+    if(!url.startsWith(root)) {
+      if(url.startsWith('css/fonts') || url.startsWith('css/img')) {
+        url = url.substr(4)
+      }
+      url = path.normalize(`${root}/frontend/${url}`)
+    }
+    callback({ path: url})
+  })
+
+  createWindow()
+})
 // Quit when all windows are closed, except on macOS. There, it's common
 // for applications and their menu bar to stay active until the user quits
 // explicitly with Cmd + Q.