Replace virtual desktop pager with Overview button by default

I’d like to make a suggestion that the virtual desktop pager be replaced with a button that opens overview by default. I find that Overview is much better suited for working with virtual desktops than the pager. Another problem virtual desktop pager has is that it takes up a lot of space if you have more than one monitor and multiple virtual desktops. This change would also make the overview effect more discoverable, because the only way to use it right now is the keyboard shortcut.

This is what the pager looks like with 4 virtual desktops and two monitors:

I quite like the pager. It shouldn’t be replaced with anything.

I like to set my top left corner to trigger overview.

But you can easily make such a button yourself. First, make a shell script that runs this command:

#!/bin/sh
qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin invokeShortcut Overview

Make a .desktop file for it in ~/.local/share/applications (you can generate it with Dolphin). Create a new Quicklaunch widget and then add this icon to it.

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