Windows/Fine-tuning

Common step: editing the kdeglobals file

Unless otherwise stated you make all the setting changes below by editing the kdeglobals file in the directory %APPDATA%\.kde\share\config\ with any text editor (such as kwrite). (Note that for versions older than 4.0.85 the file is in %USERPROFILE%\.kde\share\config\kdeglobals.) %APPDATA% (and %USERPROFILE%) is different for different Windows users/versions/locales; in a command prompt, entering the command cd %APPDATA% will switch to it, effectively telling you what it is.

Set Oxygen style for widgets (outdated)

The default KDE widget style on Windows was the native one and is now oxygen. The Oxygen style installs with the kde-workspace installation (as a plugin library %KDEROOT%\lib\kde4\plugins\styles\oxygen.dll), so it can be used as well. To set it for a single user:

1. edit kdeglobals
2. locate the General section (a line containing the text "[General]"). If there is no General section, create one.
3. Within the General section ([General]), edit the line containing widgetStyle=.... so that it reads widgetStyle=oxygen. If there is no such widgetStyle=... line, create it.

Newly started applications should be displayed with the Oxygen style now. You can also simply switch that in the KDE systemsettings installed in the kde-workspace package as well.

Set Tahoma (Windows default font) for widgets

To set it for a single user:

1. edit kdeglobals
2. locate the General section (a line containing the text "[General]"). If there is no General section, create one.
3. Within the General section ([General]), add these two lines:

font=Tahoma
menuFont=Tahoma

Newly started applications should use this font now. Note: this works for any font you have installed.

Change the mouse to Double Click

To change the mouse to use double click, add a new section with a line:

[KDE]
SingleClick=false

Newly started applications (Dolphin and Konqueror) should use double click now.

Change locale and country settings

From KDE Release 4.5.4 onwards KDE should automatically detect the correct country and language to use. If it detects the wrong country or language, or you want your KDE apps to use a different locale than your Windows system, then you will need to manually set the country by either installing the kdebase-workspace package and running SystemSettings, or by manually editing your kdeglobals file.

For earlier versions you will need to manually set the country and locale in your kdeglobals file.

To manually change your locale settings in your kdeglobals file, add a new section with the lines:

[Locale]
Country=xx
Language=zz

Replace xx with your lowercase ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 Country Code, e.g. pl for Poland. Replace zz with your lowercase ISO 639-1 alpha-2 Language Code, e.g. pl for Polish. You also need to install your selected KDE language localization package.

Change native/KDE file dialogs

To choose native or KDE file dialog, add a new section with the lines:

[KFileDialog Settings]
Native=false

Either set Native to true or false.