HOw To Save your KDE Plasma configuration quickly and efficiently

One of the virtues of KDE Plasma as a whole, including environment and applications, is the immense customization capacity it offers without installing extras: with the tools that the desktop provides, one can tailor the user experience to almost the smallest detail. But this advantage also has a negative part, and that is that recreating deep customizations can be tedious depending on the case.

And there are many cases: from those who do not touch anything and leave everything as it comes by default, to those who touch absolutely everything until they get a unique stamp, passing through those that only modify some aspects for greater comfort and taste. In this last group, I think, is the majority of KDE users, among whom I find myself; or that’s how I understand it when I see people sharing screenshots of their desktop: no one personalizes their desktop more than KDE users … as on the other hand it is consistent with the idiosyncrasy of the environment.

And what happens when you reinstall the system or try other configurations? That you have to leave everything as it was, if you want to recreate that ideal customization. However, even veteran KDE users sometimes find it difficult to find that option that we accidentally touched one day, but found it to be another finishing touch for our desktop. How to automate this process? To a greater extent, with a plasmoide -call it apple O widget if you prefer- called Plasma Customization Saver.

Indeed, you can save your desktop and application settings in full by copying the corresponding hidden folders from your home directory; and you can further refine the selection and choosing what to copy and what not. But this is even more tedious than configuring everything again because you have to save the changes you make, and depending on how you do it, importing it to a new installation can cause problems. Plasma Customization Saver simplifies everything in one fell swoop.

The installation of Plasma Customization Saver is simple: you can do it with the traditional method (contextual menu on the panel and »Add graphic elements> Get new graphic elements…> Download new graphic elements…») or without doing so many laps via Discover, entering the «Plasma Accessories» section and searching. Like any other plasmoid, once installed you just have to add it to the panel to be able to use it.

Its use is easier if possible: you open Plasma Customization Saver, enter a name (just one word) and click to save. It will generate a compressed file with all its Plasma settings, which you can import by clicking the second Plasma Customization Saver button. More basic than a jug.

As long as you keep Plasma Customization Saver installed on the same system, all the settings you have saved will be displayed in a list, allowing you to apply them to quickly switch from one to another, export them for a future system reinstall, or delete them.

Cool or not?

What you are wondering is, What exactly does Plasma Customization Saver save? Here is the crux of the matter, although the answer is complicated … because it saves a lot, but not everything:

• Desktop visual themes, including application style, Plasma themes, color schemes, window decorations, icon themes … including everything you have downloaded, as long as you have downloaded something (download everything on import, and everything you use already included by default with the desktop is saved as configuration).
• The Plasma settings, including the downloaded plasmoids and their settings.
• The configuration of applications such as Dolphin, Konsole, Krunner, Klipper, Latte Dock and the distributions that you have saved …
• The configuration of components and functions such as KWin, KWin custom rules, applications at startup, keyboard shortcuts …

In short, Plasma Customization Saver is not perfect, because the configuration available in KDE Plasma goes beyond everything listed, but it is a very interesting tool to save yourself a good time fiddling and from what I have been able to test it, it works very well. I recommend it to those of you who like to customize your desktop, but are too lazy to do it every time you reinstall the system; or those who like to tweak everything from time to time, only to end up regretting it after a while.

The following video shows how the Plasma Customization Saver works: