Config task manager right click menu entries

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1

Hello,

I’m running fedora 41 and have noticed that for a while now right clicking on firefox icon in the task manager (Icon-Only) does not offer the “Open in new private window” any more (it used to).

It made me wonder: where does plasma pull those entry from? And are they editable?

Obviously some entries are common to all apps (e.g. more to Desktop/Activities), but some are app specific and so I wondered how it works for the app specific entries.

Thank you!

2

I have in fact answered my own question. Sorry for polluting the forum. Though this may be useful to others:

You must modify the .desktop file for a given application and add / modify the Action line in the [Desktop Entry] section, e.g. Actions=Open-new-window;Open-new-private-window;

Than you must add new sections, e.g: [Desktop Action Open-new-window] and [Desktop Action Open-new-private-window] within which you must specify:

  • Name, e.g.: Open a new private window (this is what will appear when you right click on the app icon in the task manager)
  • Exec, e.g.: Exec=activityfirefox %u --private-window (the command you want to associate to that entry)
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3

The default desktop file does this already, so you shouldn’t need to modify it.

The problem you’re experiencing is because you’re using a firefox desktop file that isn’t the one in the package. If you just delete any of those, it’ll use the packaged one and you’ll be all set. If you’ve modified the packaged one (that’s the one in /usr/share/applications/) you can just reinstall the package and it will fix it.

Sorry I’m a bit late with that news :frowning: But this will make sure that you’re using the right desktop file in future, so it’s still good to do.

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You’re correct that I’m not using the default firefox desktop file, this is because I am using activity aware firefox, a fantastic wrapper that allows to use a different profile per activity.

5

In that case, the lesson to take away from this is that if you modify an application then you should un-modify it if something goes wrong, so that you can test it, and see if your modification is the problem. You never had a problem starting/right-clicking firefox, you had a problem starting/right-clicking activityFirefox.

Modifying their .desktop file is the path to the same kind of problems mentioned above (changes staying when they shouldn’t/being lost when you wanted to keep them/etc). I’d recommend you file a bug over there, and get it fixed upstream, so you can delete that locally modified desktop file and avoid problems like this in the future.

6

Ok I see what you mean, and I have made some suggestions already to the developer regarding some improvements in Activity Aware Firefox, and sure I will also suggest adding the Open New Private Window in the desktop file by default.

But, this thread was a more general question regarding where does Plasma pull the right click Action entries in the task manager…which I have figured, and which I believe can be useful as a more general case to create customs entries for any applications to fit particular work flows.

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