Desktop tips

This page lists common tweaks you might make to set up a nice desktop.

#Starting up

#Don't restore the session on login

By default, applications that were open when you logged out can start again. To change this, open the Session module and choose Start with an empty session.

#Desktop

#Hide a System Tray icon

Right-click the arrow in the System Tray, and open its settings. For the item you want to hide, such as Networks, Clipboard or Battery, choose Never show (disable) or Show only in popup.

#A classic "Start" menu

Right-click the launcher and choose Show Alternatives…, then Application Menu.

#Don't sort windows in the Task Manager

Right-click an empty area of the Task Manager and open its settings. Set Sort to Manually and clear Keep launchers separate.

#Hide windows from other desktops in the Task Manager

In the Task Manager's settings, under Show only tasks, tick From the current desktop.

#Pin applications to the Task Manager

Start the application, right-click it in the Task Manager and choose Pin to Task Manager.

#Hide the audio indicator in the Task Manager

In the Task Manager's settings, clear Show an indicator when a task is playing audio.

#Turn off middle-click paste on the desktop

Right-click the desktop and choose Desktop and Wallpaper. On the Mouse Actions page, remove the Middle-Button action.

#Turn off a screen corner

In the Screen Edges module, set the corner to No Action.

#Switch desktops with Ctrl+Alt+Left and Right

In the Shortcuts module, under SonicWin, set Switch One Desktop to the Left to Ctrl+Alt+Left and Switch One Desktop to the Right to Ctrl+Alt+Right.

#Don't switch desktops when scrolling over the wallpaper

Right-click the desktop and choose Desktop and Wallpaper. On the Mouse Actions page, remove the vertical scroll action that switches desktops.

#Turn off the bouncing cursor when applications open

In the Pointers module, under Launch feedback, set Pointer feedback to None.

#Turn off focus stealing prevention

In the Window Behavior module, on the Focus tab, set Focus stealing prevention to None.

#Fix Alt+Click in games and other software

Holding a modifier key and dragging moves a window. If this conflicts with software designed for other systems, such as games, Inkscape or Blender, go to the Window Behavior module. On the Window Actions tab, under Inner Window, Titlebar, Frame, change Modifier key, or set the left button to do nothing to turn it off completely. The default is Meta.

#Show the Alt+Tab popup as fast as possible

Normally it waits 90 milliseconds before trying to show the popup, which makes quick switches faster since nothing has to be drawn. To remove the wait, set DelayTime=0 under the group [TabBox] in ~/.config/kwinrc and reload SonicWin. These commands do that for you:

kwriteconfig6 --file ~/.config/kwinrc --group TabBox --key DelayTime 0
qdbus6 org.kde.KWin /KWin reconfigure

You can also turn off the highlighting of the selected window, by clearing Show selected window in the Task Switcher module.

#Turn off the lock screen

In the Screen Locking module, turn off Lock screen automatically and Lock after waking from sleep.

#Turn off the logout and shutdown confirmation

In the Session module, turn off Ask for confirmation.

#Windows-style keys for moving windows

In the Shortcuts module, under SonicWin, set:

• Peek at Desktop: Meta+M
• Maximize Window: Meta+Up
• Minimize Window: Meta+Down
• Quick Tile Window to the Left: Meta+Left
• Quick Tile Window to the Right: Meta+Right

#Change the titlebar height

In the Fonts module, change the size of the Window title font.

#Hide titlebars when maximized

Set BorderlessMaximizedWindows=true under the group [Windows] in ~/.config/kwinrc and reload SonicWin. These commands do that for you:

kwriteconfig6 --file ~/.config/kwinrc --group Windows --key BorderlessMaximizedWindows true
qdbus6 org.kde.KWin /KWin reconfigure

#Start an application on a discrete GPU

This is also known as using prime-run or the DRI_PRIME=1 environment variable.

Open the application launcher and right-click the application.

In the SonicDE Menu Editor, open the Advanced tab and tick Run using dedicated graphics card.

#Meta key

#Open the launcher with the Meta key

This is the default. If it isn't working, make sure your launcher widget has a global shortcut such as Alt+F1 set. Right-click the launcher, choose Configure Application Launcher…, and on the Keyboard Shortcuts page set the shortcut to Alt+F1.

#Don't open the launcher with the Meta key

In the Shortcuts module, under SonicShell, find Activate Application Launcher and turn off Meta.

#Lock screen

#Change the lock screen wallpaper

In the Screen Locking module, set the wallpaper on the appearance settings.

#Ecco

#Double-click to open files

This is the default. It's set by Clicking files or folders in the General Behavior module.

#Always show hidden files

Use View > Adjust View Display Style…, tick Show hidden files, apply it to all folders and make it the default. See the View Display Style dialog.

#Browse archives with Ecco

In Ecco's settings, on the Interface page, tick Browse compressed files as folders.

#Clean up the context menu

In Ecco's settings, on the Context Menu page, clear the entries you don't want.

#Show the Terminal panel

Use View > Show Panels > Terminal, or press F4.

#Paste into the Terminal panel

Use Settings > Configure Keyboard Shortcuts…. For Paste, set the alternative shortcut, Shift+Insert by default, to none.

#Turn off file indexing

You may want to do this if the baloo_file process slows your system down, or if ~/.local/share/baloo/index uses too much space. Run balooctl6 indexSize to see how the database's space is used.

To turn it off, clear Enable File Search in the File Search module.

#Virtual machines

#Stop the Meta key opening the host's launcher

For VirtualBox, for example:

1. Run the virtual machine.
2. Press the host key, right Ctrl.
3. Press Alt+F3, then choose More Actions > Configure Special Application Settings….
4. Under window matching, set Window class to Exact Match and virtualbox machine.
5. Add the Ignore global shortcuts property, and set it to Force and Yes.

This also stops Screenies' screenshot shortcuts from working while the virtual machine's window is focused.

#Firefox

#Use SonicDE's file dialog

1. Make sure you have the xdg-desktop-portal and xdg-desktop-portal-sonicde packages installed.
2. Go to about:config in a new Firefox tab.
3. Search for xdg-desktop-portal.
4. Set widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker to 1.
5. Restart Firefox.