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Wild Penguin

Member

Registered: 2015-03-19

Posts: 320

[SOLVED](workaround)Plasma: All new windows enabled in all Activities

Hi,

I use the workspace feature of KDE Plasma (since virtual desktops is just not enough for my usage; not so much because of the widgets but to group my application windows depending on usage).

Until recently, opening applications would open the said application in the currently chosen workspace (usually). However, after some recent update, all windows open with them showing up on all workspaces per default.

The same applies to opening new windows for an already running application, say, Firefox.

I can not find any settings to change this default behavior, however, I can of course change the setting afterwards per-window. This becomes a nuisance after a while, however.

Any ideas, what is the cause, or perhaps there is a setting I'm missing?

EDIT: Mistranslation; by Workspaces I mean Activities!

Last edited by Wild Penguin (2020-06-03 18:12:36)

d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,568

Re: [SOLVED](workaround)Plasma: All new windows enabled in all Activities

I believe it's this:
System Settings -> Window Management -> Task Switcher -> Virtual Desktops and make sure Current Desktop is chosen.

Wild Penguin

Member

Registered: 2015-03-19

Posts: 320

Re: [SOLVED](workaround)Plasma: All new windows enabled in all Activities

Hi d_fajardo,

Thanks for your reply.

I believe I made a mistake in translation, as I'm using KDE Plasma in Finnish. In KDE4, this feature used to be called Workspaces (but my memory could be wrong), but currently (in Plasma) it is called Activities! (I will edit my subject and 1st message to reflect this)

Also, that setting is for the virtual desktops, it has no effect on Activities behavior. There is a setting for Activities, too, below it, however it(actually, both) will only effect the filtering when changing windows - not where the windows are created. However, I've got both Virtual desktops and Activities enabled and "current" is selected.

EDIT: To clarify, I mean the setting you get in the context menu you get by right clicking the title bar of most windows (all unless you have disabled the title bar created by kwin) or panel "tasks" widget (presuming you have one in a panel, the default layout should have it); i.e. right click -> "show in activities": "all" is chosen by default. This is the behavior which has changed recently, as before whatever is the currently chosen activity would be chosen. Now "All" is chosen for all new windows, consistently. I can not find a preference for this.

Last edited by Wild Penguin (2020-06-03 17:50:57)

Wild Penguin

Member

Registered: 2015-03-19

Posts: 320

Re: [SOLVED](workaround)Plasma: All new windows enabled in all Activities

Ok, I solved my problem.

It is a sum of many things (but no actual change in Plasma). 1st, I've changed Firefox so that it won't show the title bar (from Firefox appearance preferences). The title bar is mostly useless in Firefox. For some reason, this setting is triggering different behavior in kwin. Seems like there is a bug filed about this, which has been open for almost a decade, so it is unlikely it will get fixed anytime soon.  EDIT: Oops! It is fixed, but it has not propagated yet into current Plasma!

In addition, sometimes (just occasionally) I've noticed that for some reason, windows are opened with a wrong setting (i.e. on those I've chosen "all" before open only in the current one and vice versa; I do occasionally use that feature). However it does work correctly >90% of the time and I can live with that, and change the setting when it happens.

As a workaround, I've restored the title bar in Firefox, and I can cross out other applications doing this as temporary glitches!

Marking as [SOLVED]...

Last edited by Wild Penguin (2020-06-03 18:16:00)