# The &systemsettings; Handbook

&Richard.Johnson; &Richard.Johnson.mail;
2007
&Richard.Johnson;
&FDLNotice;
2021-04-11
Plasma 5.20

This documentation describes system configuration and administration center for your desktop.

KDE
System
Settings
configuration
administration
config
admin

## Introduction

The &systemsettings; provides the user with a centralized and convenient way to configure all of the settings for your desktop.

&systemsettings; is made up of multiple modules. Each module is a separate application, however the &systemsettings; organizes all of these applications into a single location.

Each &systemsettings; module can be executed individually

See section entitled Running individual &systemsettings; modules for more information.

&systemsettings; groups all of the configuration modules into several categories:

- Appearance

- Workspace

- Personalization

- Network

- Hardware

- System Administration

The modules that make up &systemsettings; fall under one of the above categories, making it easier to locate the correct configuration module.

## Using &systemsettings;

This section details the use of &systemsettings; itself. For information on each individual module, please see &systemsettings; Modules.

### Starting &systemsettings;

The &systemsettings; can be started in one of three ways:

1. By selecting Settings System Settings from the Application Menu.

2. By pressing &Alt;F2 or &Alt;Space. This will bring up the &krunner; dialog. Type `systemsettings`, and press &Enter;.

3. Type `systemsettings &` at any command prompt.

All three of these methods are equivalent, and produce the same result.

### The &systemsettings; Screen

When you start &systemsettings;, you are presented with a window, which is divided into two functional parts.

Across the top is a toolbar. The toolbar provides the user with the ability to go back into the main view from within a module using All Settings. You can also find a Help menu as well as a Configure button which provides you a dialog with alternate view settings.

To search for something within all of the modules, start to type keywords into the search field at the right of the toolbar in the All Settings view. When you start typing, a list of matching topics will popup. Select one and only the groups with settings for this keyword are enabled, the other are greyed out.

When the icon window has the focus, you can type the first letter of any module or module group name to select it. Typing this letter again the selection moves to the next match.

Underneath the toolbar is an icon view of the individual modules or module groups that make up &systemsettings; grouped by different categories. By default, if your mouse stays a few seconds over an icon, a tooltip appears, either explaining the purpose of the module or showing the modules in this group.

### &systemsettings; Categories and Modules

A brief overview of all categories and their modules:

Appearance

  - Global Theme

  - Plasma Style

  - Application Style (Application Style, Window Decorations)

  - Colors

  - Font (Fonts, Font Management)

  - Icons

  - Cursors

Workspace

  - Workspace Behavior (General Behavior, Desktop Effects, Screen Edges, Touch Screen, Screen Locking, Virtual Desktops, Activities)

  - Window Management (Window Behavior, Task Switcher, KWin Scripts, Window Rules)

  - Shortcuts (Shortcuts, Custom Shortcuts)

  - Startup and Shutdown (Login Screen (SDDM), Autostart, Background Services, Desktop Session, Splash Screen)

  - Search (File Search, Krunner, Web Search Keywords)

Personalization

  - Notifications

  - Users

  - Regional Settings (Language, Formats, Spell Check, Date & Time)

  - Accessibility

  - Applications (Default Applications, File Associations, Locations, Launch Feedback)

  - KDE Wallet

  - Online Accounts

  - User Feedback

Network

  - Settings (Proxy, Connection Preferences, SSL Preferences, Cache, Cookies, Browser Identification, Windows Shares)

Hardware

  - Input Devices (Keyboard, Mouse, Game Controller, Graphic Tablet, Touchpad)

  - Display and Monitor (Display Configuration, Compositor, Gamma, Night Color)

  - Audio

  - Multimedia (Audio CDs, CDDB Retrieval)

  - Power Management (Energy Saving, Activity Settings, Advanced Settings)

  - Bluetooth

  - Removable Storage (Device Actions, Digital Camera, Removable Devices)

System Administration

  - System Information

Use the search field at the top right in All Settings view to find all matching modules for a given keyword. Start typing a keyword opens a list of keywords and only the matching modules are enabled.

### Exiting the &systemsettings;

&systemsettings; can be exited in one of two ways:

1. Press &Ctrl;Q on the keyboard.

2. Click on the Close button located in the toolbar.

### Configuring &systemsettings;

The Configure icon in the toolbar allows you to change some &systemsettings; parameters. You can change from Icon View (default view) to Sidebar View. In Sidebar View mode, the welcome page shows the frequently used modules for quick access.

You can also turn off the detailed tooltips by unchecking Show detailed tooltips. You will then get only normal tooltips and not the content of a module group.

### Running Individual &systemsettings; Modules

Individual modules can be run without running &systemsettings; using the command `kcmshell5` from the command line. Type `kcmshell5 --list` to see a list of the available &systemsettings; modules.

Additionally you can start KRunner and start type keywords. When you start typing, a list of matching modules prefixed with &systemsettings; will popup.

## The &systemsettings; Modules

In order to make it as easy as possible, the &systemsettings; has organized options into six categories. Under each category, there are icons grouped together under subcategories. Each icon is called a module. When you double click on a module icon, you will be presented with the options of the module in the main window.

Each module will have some or all of the following buttons:

Help

  This button will provide help specific to the current module. Clicking the button will open &khelpcenter; in a new window providing detailed information on the module.

Defaults

  Clicking this button will restore this module to its default values. You must click Apply to save the options.

Reset

  This button will Reset the module to the previous settings.

Apply

  Clicking this button will save all changes. If you have changed anything, clicking Apply will cause the changes to take effect.

You must either Reset or Apply the changes before changing to another module.

If you try to change without saving or resetting your options, you will be asked if you want to save your changes, or discard them.

## Credits and License

&systemsettings;

Program copyright 2007 Benjamin C. Meyer.

Program copyright 2009 Ben Cooksley.

Contributors:

- Will Stephenson wstepheson@kde.org

- Michael D. Stemle, Jr. manchicken@notsosoft.net

- Matthias Kretz kretz@kde.org

- &Daniel.Molkentin; &Daniel.Molkentin.mail;

- &Matthias.Elter; &Matthias.Elter.mail;

- Frans Englich englich@kde.org

- Michael Jansen kde@michael-jansen.biz

Documentation Copyright © 2008 &Richard.Johnson; &Richard.Johnson.mail;

&underFDL; &underGPL;

&documentation.index;