# The &systemsettings; Handbook

&Richard.Johnson; &Richard.Johnson.mail;
2007
&Richard.Johnson;
&FDLNotice;
2013-12-05
4.12 (&kde; 4.12)

This documentation describes &kde;'s system configuration and administration center.

KDE
System
Settings
configuration
administration
config
admin

## Introduction

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

&systemsettings; is made up of multiple modules. Each module is a separate application, however the &kde; &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:

- Common Appearance and Behavior

- Workspace Appearance and Behavior

- Network and Connectivity

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

1. By selecting K Button Applications System Settings.

2. By pressing &Alt;F2. 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 &kde; &systemsettings; Screen

When you start &systemsettings;, you are presented with a window, which is divided into three 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 the Overview. 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 Overview. 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 detailed tooltip appears, explaining the purpose of the module or the modules in this group.

### &systemsettings; Categories and Modules

A brief overview of all categories and their modules:

Common Appearance and Behavior

  - Account Details (Password & User Account, Paths, KDE Wallet, Social Desktop, Web Shortcuts)

  - Application Appearance (Style, Colors, Icons, Fonts, Emoticons)

  - Application and System Notifications (Manage Notifications, System Bell, Launch Feedback)

  - File Associations

  - Locale (Country/Region & Language, Spell Checker)

  - Personal Information (Akonadi Resources Configuration)

  - Shortcuts and Gestures (Custom Shortcuts, Standard Keyboard Shortcuts, Global Keyboard Shortcuts)

Workspace Appearance and Behavior

  - Desktop Effects

  - Workspace Appearance (Window Decorations, Cursor Theme, Desktop Theme, Splash Screen)

  - Accessibility (Accessibility, Text-to-Speech)

  - Default Applications

  - Desktop Search

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

  - Workspace Behavior (Activities, Virtual Desktops, Screen Edges, Workspace)

Network and Connectivity

  - Network Settings (Proxy, Connection Preferences, Service Discovery)

  - Sharing (Windows Shares)

  - SSL Preferences

Hardware

  - Device Actions

  - Digital Camera

  - Display and Monitor (Size & Orientation, Screen Locker, Gamma)

  - Information Sources

  - Input Devices (Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Remote Controls)

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

  - Printers

  - Removable Devices

  - Multimedia (Audio CDs, Audio and Video Settings, CDDB Retrieval)

System Administration

  - Date & Time

  - Font Management

  - Login Screen

  - Startup and Shutdown (Autostart, Service Manager, Session Management)

  - Task Scheduler

Use the search field in Overview to find all matching modules for a given keyword.

### Exiting the &kde; &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 Classic Tree View.

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 `kcmshell4` from the command line. Type `kcmshell4 --list` to see a list of the available &kde; &systemsettings; modules.

## The &kde; &systemsettings; Modules

In order to make it as easy as possible, the &kde; &systemsettings; has organized options into five 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 to &kde;. 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;