Windows kde shell

Double-click on that to open the registry editor and change the key to replace explorer. Log out and back in again. You should be presented with a pretty but largely nonfunctional Plasma desktop. Some of the KDE applications are competing for your attention against better-known alternatives that you easily can install from a single executable file. KDE's Konqueror Web browser, although a fine application, finds itself in a very crowded market for Windows browsers with Internet Explorer already installed and the likes of Firefox, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome all available as alternatives.

The potential for some other applications to become popular on Windows is, however, much higher. Kopete faces only Pidgin and the proprietary Trillian messenger as serious competition in the market for multiprotocol messaging clients. Okular is a lightweight but well featured alternative to Adobe Reader. Marble is almost in a class of its own—the nearest competitor perhaps being Google Earth.

Kontact, the Personal Information Management suite, also has potential as a compelling cross-platform alternative to existing solutions Figure Mozilla Thunderbird is a clear competitor, but it lacks comprehensive calendar functionality.

Amarok's integration with the Last. It is unlikely that he would have become involved if it had not been possible at the time to run Amarok on Windows. Getting exposure to users on Windows also gives KDE the potential to attract users to trying KDE 4 on Linux and should make the transition for such users easier if they already know some of the applications. The KDE on Windows Project still is quite young, and there are plenty of rough edges in many of the applications and some notable gaps in the application line-up.

However, the installation process works well and is straightforward for anyone who has used a package manager on Linux. Although the installation process is different from that of most Windows applications, the installer is sufficiently well designed that it should not cause problems for most Windows users.

The recent and continuing work to split up applications so that users can install exactly what they want also lowers the barriers to trying out KDE applications in Windows. Some of the applications have great potential to fill gaps in the Windows application world, particularly as free software alternatives to proprietary applications.

As the project Web site freely admits, many of the applications may not yet be ready for day-to-day use, but they are well worth checking out and will only get better.

Stuart Jarvis is a scientist and longtime KDE user. He divides his time between digging up some of the world's finest mud and regretting ill-judged experiments with pre-release software.

KDE 4 on Windows Desktop. Figure 1. Figure 2. For example, macOS has its own different look which stands out from everyone else. Until now, Windows also had the same — the usual Start menu with the blue theme, etc. But with these new changes, Windows gives users the most customization options and closer to the Linux Desktop looks.

We bring the latest tech, software news and stuff that matters. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Windows 11 — Start menu in light mode. KDE Plasma 5. Modified Arc Menu. Rounded Corners in Windows Explorer and Nautilus. Dots in paging. Widgets menu. Windows Like it? Share with your friends!

Create a free website or blog at WordPress. No, I mean it, maybe…. Concatenating Random thoughts, ideas, misnomers, misunderstandings and paradoxes About. KDE 4 as your Windows Shell?!?! This changes the shell only for the current user which is a good thing.

Quick Access Plasmoid — Missing, this could be used to access the Start Menu until that functionality Quick Launch Plasmoid — Present and working, no way to add windows applications.

I feel like all of this is intentional. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Up Coming Bloodfrontier Release ». Permalink , Reply. But i hope it will be enabled soon.

On this page can read below about various ways to get KDE software. KDE software consists of a large number of individual applications, Plasma, a desktop workspace to run these applications, and KDE Frameworks, a set of libraries they are build upon. You can run KDE applications just fine on any desktop environment.