Hi there. Trying to transition from windows 10 over to KDE Plasma and getting everything sorted out the way I like. I cannot for the life of me find a start menu which either lacks a search entirely or actually allows it to be disabled. Can anyone help? And don’t ask “why?” only madness lies down that route.
You’ll likely find that ‘search’ is something that’s been ubiquitous since Windows XP…
I can’t imagine how this could possibly relate to ‘transitioning from Windows 10’ because I last used Vista, which also had search in the ‘Start’ menu.
Development has long focused on improving this, not removing it… even on the most minimalist environments, there is some form of type-ahead filtering.
The default KDE menu search function doesn’t, in any way, interfere with menu/mouse functionality, or even Menu-keyboard navigation functionality.
So I agree, only ‘madness’ would lead us down a path to request removing it…
(you can’t actually disable search in the windows 10 start menu iirc, only hide the search box. at which point you can still start typing in it to search)
I don’t know about a widget that makes this possible, but you can right click on your desktop, configure desktop behavior and then assign the application menu to a left click. Then you’ll get a application menu without search every time you click on your desktop.
I still ask why would you want that? Otherwise you can try a couple of things:
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You can try going into settings and maybe disabling all the search plugins? That won’t really hide the search bar, though.
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Look for an already existing searchbarless “Application Launcher” (that’s your “Start Menu”) in here
OR
get any one you like from that link and mod it to hide the searchbar, it’s not hard to do, I can tell you which files to edit and how, then how to install your modded version. You can also mod the original KDE Application Launcher called Kickoff to stay as vanilla as possible.
I could make a modded version of Kickoff with an option to hide the search bar myself for you but I’m off my PC for a while.
The plasma 5-ish tiled menu had the option to hide it. Not sure if the one for 6-ish has it.
https://store.kde.org/p/2357462
I believe there are a few that don’t have the bar but a searchbutton. Like: https://store.kde.org/p/2185962
And than you have the minimalistic launchers like pop up: https://store.kde.org/p/2344063
Here you go, vanilla Application Launcher with an option to hide the search bar:
Hey, that was so nice of you! thank you kindly! That worked a treat!
Well, if you’re really curious, I’ll tell you.
First off, I keep my UIs tight. Everything is either something I am using or it is turned off/hidden(and that’s a distinction that doesn’t matter, so lone as I can’t see it thats all I care about)
So let’s see, I saw my first start menu in 1995, and at no time between 1995 and 2007 did I think “I wish this had a search bar” so when it was introduced in windows vista, I immediately turned it off. Did the same in 7 and 10.
In the intervening 19 years? Not once did I ever use it. Seriously, not a single time. Never wanted to use it, never saw a reason to use it.
And finally, if there’s one last nail in the coffin? My keyboard literally does not have a windows key. As in: I have a blank slab of plastic in the space where the windows key should be. So all of those “windows + [blank]” commands everyone is so hot and bothered over? I can’t use those anyway, so what’s the point? If I already have my hand on the mouse its faster to simply use the mouse to do what I want. The mouse and the start menu have been working fine for me since 1995. I am not in the habit of fixing what isn’t broken.
I totally get what you mean. Windows 11 search bar was notoriously hot garbage so I’d understand why people end up not using search at all because of it. Did you successfully install my modded version?
I did! Thank you again.
If you want a really good yardstick for how bad windows 11 is: I was until recently a life-long “windows weenie” having used it since 3.11. I loved windows so much I keep a mint, sealed in box copy of windows 95 on floppy disk on display in a glass container in my office - that’s the level of windows fandom we’re talking about, here. I used windows 11 for 15 consecutive minutes, instantly switched to mac for work and linux for home. It was bad enough to make someone with my appreciation for windows leave it forever. If that doesn’t make you think about how badly M$ screwed up, nothing will.
No problem! Feel ya on that, I used to mock Linux users (jokingly, of course) now I can’t go back to Windows. Haven’t tried Mac, yet though.
I used to mock mac users. But I’m someone who appreciates consistency in UI design. My Slate G4 from 1999? desktop nearly indistinguishable from my shiny new MacBook Pro. And using it is almost the same. Really “using” mac for more than the occasional game took some getting used to(and modifying it to work without mac’s version of a windows key), but on the whole I was able to replicate my windows 10 workflow under mac; which was LITERALLY NOT POSSIBLE under windows 11.
Already now I’m replicating most of the functionality in KDE more easily. I do need to find a few more tweeks(where the heck is the “up” button in the file brwser?!"), but again I can much more easily turn it into a functional workspace than I ever could under 11.
But, if it were up to me, I’d still be using Windows XP. Microsoft has added exactly 1 feature in 23 years that I actually use, and that is the one feature KDE Plasma has: fractional display scaling.
That’s a big ‘if’ unless you’re a one-handed peck typist.
Everyone’s workflow is different.
Settings > Configure Toolbars > Move the Up button from the left column to the right one
Hey, that worked! I honestly hadn’t looked at it yet. Too bad nobody has ported Dolphin over to windows, I love it.
Well, you can find an unstable Windows version in the official KDE page for Dolphin
Here’s the link to the .exe