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You can change the way your KDE desktop looks and behaves to suit your needs. There are several ways to influence the look and feel of the KDE desktop depending on the scope of changes to make. For users, the following options are available:
To change the appearance or behavior of individual desktop objects only, you can usually access a configuration dialog by right-clicking the object.
To change the overall appearance and behavior of your KDE desktop, use the
that in KDE 4 replaced the former KDE Control Center. Personal Settings offers access to numerous configuration modules and dialogs, some of which can also be accessed via the context menu of individual desktop objects.The Personal Settings are the central place for users to change the overall appearance and behavior of many components of the KDE desktop. Start the Personal Settings from the main menu by selecting
+ .
The root
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permissions.
Change the settings as desired. No changes take effect until you click
. To discard changes in the recent view that you have not yet applied, click . To reset all items in the recent view to the default values, click .To get back to the start-up view (showing all categories) again, click
. You can also enter a search string at the top of the window (for example, ) to find the category which holds options related to the search string. Each character you enter in the field further narrows the search.For easier overview of all categories, you can also switch to a tree view by clicking
and selecting another .The following list introduces the major categories, and highlights the most important settings you can change there. Detailed information on the settings of each category is provided by the
button on each page of the settings, or in the help center.The
tab holds the following categories:Holds settings for the appearance of your KDE 4 desktop (such as themes, window decorations, and styles of desktop elements). Allows you to configure 3D desktops effects, increase or decrease the number of virtual (multiple) desktops, or configure screen saver options. Cursor behavior, window behavior and the splash screen that appears on KDE start-up can also be modified here.
Holds settings for changing the default paths to the subdirectories of your home directory. Allows you to change the default applications (like e-mail client, text editor, messenger, and Web browser) that are called whenever a KDE application needs to start applications of these types. Define country and language-specific options here, such as default spell checking options, currency, number and date format, and keyboard layouts for different languages. This category also offers accessibility options for handicapped users, such as sound and keyboard options and mouse gestures.
Allows you to set options for network management, local network browsing and proxy servers.
Allows you to configure date and time settings for your KDE desktop, to change size and orientation of your display, and to specify power management options for saving energy. Also holds settings for joysticks, keyboard and mouse. You can view and modify the predefined KDE shortcuts. You can also install personal or systemwide fonts here and configure your sound system.
The
tab holds the following categories:Use this category to configure options like encoding or to which database to connect for track listings of audio CDs, to configure your digital camera, or to change the settings for KWallet (the KDE password management tool). If needed, change the default file associations in order to identify a file type and start an appropriate application. Define how KDE handles sessions on login or shutdown and define which applications should be started automatically.
Holds options for the login manager, power management and Samba.
![]() | Starting Individual Modules |
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You can also start individual modules of the Personal Settings from the shell or by adding a special applet to your panel.
To start modules from a shell, enter kcmshell4
Conversely, add the Section 3.2.3, “Panel”. applet to your panel according to the description in |
In the following sections, find examples of how to configure some aspects of your KDE desktop that you might want to customize.