Window frames don't shade

Help
1

Someone help me with this please.

I’m 82 and don’t need more complications than I already have. Shading windows by clicking the title-bar works fine except that the window frame is left hanging. Will this ever be fixed? Any setting to change? TIA

2

same here, plasma 6.4.5.

As a workaround Maximize/unmaximize while shaded clears the frame, and subsequent unshade/shade works properly.

3

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 01:18:39 +0000
John Little noreply@discuss.kde.org :

same here, plasma 6.4.5.

As a workaround Maximize/unmaximize while shaded clears the frame, and subsequent unshade/shade works properly.

thanks, that did it

4

Martin Flöser 2017-03-03 16:45:34 UTC
Created attachment 104346 [details] attachment-24320-0.html Window shading is currently only implemented for X11 windows.

The final comment being from 2 months ago:

ngraham : If the feature is ever going to be re-introduced, it will have to be with a different implementation, made in consultation with KWin maintainers to ensure it doesn’t cause other problems.

I would suggest that this applies to KDE Developers working on Wayland.

Solutions and Strategies

  • I am also getting old, and experience disappointment in some new developments which I feel take away from my experience and reduce flexibility in the way I use my desktops.
  • We need to actively work to mitigate the oncoming changes which can possibly interrupt workflows. Remember, flexible plastic doesn’t break as easily as rigid plastic.
  • Reporting and Complaining is perfectly valid (I constantly complain about the loss of MOUSE GESTURES because that is historically both the greatest improvement in my use of web browsers, and with X11 also desktop environments - and as such, the biggest loss that comes with Wayland).
  • Meanwhile, we must explore alternative workflows, set keyboard shortcuts for comfort and explore alternative ways of doing things.

I occasionally used window shading some years ago, but did not find it more complicated to stop using it, as it does not

  • Minimize is better when you don’t need the window for a while, though worse for ‘I just need to peek for a second’.
  • Lower - competes more directly with shading if the titlebar isn’t going to be completely hidden by other windows, then you need to ‘present windows’ or use the taskbar to get it back.
  • Toggle Present Windows (all desktops) shortcut can reveal all minimised windows
  • Toggle Present Windows (current desktop) can be less cluttered if you have many windows
  • Toggle Present Windows (Windows Class) is even more focussed - good for switching Dolphin or Browser windows, for example.
  • Meta+Alt+←/→ is good for switching to window left/right.

I would strongly recommend you try Activities, as I have recently tried this with the activity pager set on my desktop in the top right area of the screen on both of my main activities.

The benefit of this (better than virtual desktops, though I do have 4 desktops on each of my activities) is that I have my ‘Media’ activity, where qbittorrent stays fullscreen on desktop 4, Dolphin lives on Desktop 2, and Plex on Desktop 1.

I set Plex player to appear ‘on all Activities’ so that actually watching can be done whilst browsing internet on my main activity, but I can switch activity (without losing my TV show - it continues playing) to switch the environment to handle media activities.

When switching activities from Desktop 4 (qbitorrent) to my main activity with MetaA it also remembers my ‘current desktop’ - so that my workflow is not interrupted.

5

I’m on X11, so it’s not a Wayland problem.

6

Hence my comment - X11 isn’t supported any longer and will likely deteriorate as time goes on.

7

According to Going all-in on a Wayland future - KDE Blogs KDE plasma drops X11 support with plasma 6.8, not yet.

8

All the more reason to pro-actively practice alternative workflows.

9

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 07:57:32 +0000
John Little noreply@discuss.kde.org :

I’m on X11, so it’s not a Wayland problem.

I had not tried Wayland for about a year,
and now it looks like I will not try it
again for another. It’s unusable on my T480
running Suse Tumbleweed. My desktop is 4k
and I might try that too tonight. I cannot
write wider than this, the window is overwritten
ten on the right by simiar width all-black
rectangles flashing on/off without end.

10

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 06:44:38 +0000
Ben noreply@discuss.kde.org :

All the more reason to pro-actively practice alternative workflows.

If that means doing without window shading, forget it. I just tried
Wayland on my x870e ProArt 4k monitor and with no shading logged right
out again.