How can I move around icons on the desktop of KDE4 under 12.3 ?

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1

Hi all,

I like to work with drag & drop very much, because I find that very practical.
Further I like to quickly start my favourite apps by just clicking their icons on the desktop.

Under openSUSE 12.1 (as well KDE4) this wasn’t involved with any problems:

  • go to Kickoff popup menu (click on chameleon in the lower left corner of the screen)

  • enter search for e.g. KWrite

  • right-click on the icon of KWrite that than appears a bit below

  • in the then appearing context menu click ‘add to desktop’

Almost finished.

A KWrite icon appears on the desktop, and under openSUSE 12.1 this one
can be moved around on the desktop and placed (almost) wherever I like it.

Now to get e.g. a KWrite icon as such on the desktop of KDE4 under openSUSE 12.3
still works the same way using the Kickoff menu and right-clicking.

But here (KDE4 of 12.3) the location of this icon on the desktop then is locked and I can’t move it around in any way.

This isn’t helpful.
How can I change this behaviour ?
I urgently seek a way to unlock / enable moving icons on the desktop running KDE4 of 12.3 !

Thank you for your help.

2

It sounds like you are using Default Desktop while what you want is* Folder View*.

Unlock desktop widget then right click on your desktop and select Default Desktop Settings.

Change Layout to Folder View

You should then be able to add icons to the desktop and move them around at will.

If by chance you are already using Folder View then right click on desktop and ensure icons > lock in place is not checked.

3

Great, it worked !!

You were right. But since I’m not too familiar with KDE4 I didn’t even know before what these terms mean.

I right-clicked on ‘Desktop’ in the upper right corner of the screen.
Nothing appeared to be locked.

Before, I was reluctant to try that, because I understood ‘Default Desktop Settings’ as an entry which would
trigger the reset of everything to default values !

That was the key !

Thank you very much, indeed !!

Have a nice weekend !
Mike

4

actually, it’s probably not even necessary to unlock desktop widgets to change the settings.
And it is in fact a good idea to keep desktop widgets locked for day to day use so you don’t accidentally delete /change some setting in your taskbar while working.