## Due to real life circumstances, I don't have much time to work on this project (for now). I will most definitely continue to work on it in my spare time, and the project will also eventually become active again.
These are all the projects which I have either mentioned or forked for the purposes of this theme pack. Please consider checking them out and checking out the authors who created these themes, plasmoids and other tweaks.
greatly welcome. YMMV in terms of results, depending on your distro and other specifications.
This theme pack has also not been tested on Wayland, and some features might not work due to X11 specific implementations. I do not intend to test or support this theme on Wayland.
Also, due to some specificity of this project, as well as the use of non-standard conventions regarding KDE theming, some parts of the theme pack are not meant to be used separately with other themes.
Keep in mind that I'm not a designer, and that this theme pack mostly features modified themes, plasmoids and other tweaks that I've discovered on the Internet. I'm just a passionate user
This theme pack was created exclusively for KDE Plasma, and thus is a mandatory requirement.
It also assumes that you're using KDE provided programs and other Qt programs (Dolphin, Konsole, etc) and that you're using KWin as the window manager. Running Compiz on KDE is technically possible, and might offer marginally better results, however I've found that Compiz is really buggy and crashes on
Lastly, in order to have blur effects, animations and transparency, it is important that your hardware supports compositing and that it is enabled in your settings.
Make sure that your panel's width is set to 40 and set to either the top or bottom of your environment. Vertical taskbars are not yet supported, but they will be in the future.
In the ```KDE Plasma Theme``` folder there is also a QtWidgets program called <b>AeroColorMixer</b>. It is a utility for changing the colors of the Plasma theme and the Emerald decorator theme. It is meant to look and feel similar to the color mixer featured in Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1. The colors included are pulled directly from Windows 7. Some important notes about AeroColorMixer:
- The configuration file is stored in ```~/.aerorc```, which contains information about the custom color, whether or not transparency is enabled, and which color is currently applied
- Enabling/disabling transparency through this program does not affect the compositing settings in KWin's settings.
- This program applies the colors to the standard theme, the "translucent" variant of the theme, and the "opaque" variant of the theme (which is applied when compositing is disabled)
Both the source code and binaries are provided, and the binary is compiled with Qt version 5.15.2, glibc 2.33 and on the x86_64 architecture.
NOTE: This program is meant to work only with this theme, and it assumes that you have both the Plasma theme and the Emerald theme installed on your system. This program has only been tested so far on two machines so YMMV.
By selecting QGtkStyle in ```System Settings -> Appearance -> Application Style```, and setting the GTK2 theme with something like ```gtk-chtheme```, your
Qt programs should look a lot more like Windows 7 now. You should also set a light color theme for all of this. My personal recommendations are ```KvCurvesLight``` and ```Oxygen Cold```.
In case the GTK2 theme isn't persistent throughout sessions, in order to keep it applied, add the following line:
dark theme. Also, some parts of using QGtkStyle is that certain minor parts of the GUI are broken (Such as white text on a light background). Animations and other effects from the original Aero style are also missing unfortunately.
For the sake of keeping this theme pack relatively compact, and for legal issues, I won't include the Microsoft Windows font pack, but you can get them if you have a Windows installation.
## Note: Since last year or so, developers of certain programs responsible for font rendering (Pango, Harfbuzz) have broken support for hinting in favour of exclusively supporting HiDPI resolutions. As a result, all font hinting options are broken except for the Slight option. Unfortunately, this regression has taken away the font rendering which was nearly identical to ClearType.
If you don't have emerald, simply put the ".emerald" folder in your home directory, and then apply Smaragd in
```System settings -> Appearance -> Window Decorations```. Any changes you make to the emerald theme will be nearly instant. The changes are applied as soon as the window is updated (resizing, maximizing/restoring the window).
In the ```Plasma Widgets``` folder you will find the plasmoid ```SevenStart```. This is a fork of [Avalon Menu](https://store.kde.org/p/1386465/). This plasmoid aims to recreate the look, feel and functionality of the Windows 7 start menu.
If needed, restart Plasma to see it installed. This launcher features three Start Menu buttons, which are animated just like in Windows 7. To properly configure this plasmoid, you have to set these three icons in the plasmoid's configuration as shown here:
<imgsrc="Screenshots/SevenStartConfig.png">
The icons are located in ```./Plasma Widgets/AeroTheme/```. The usage of three start menu buttons allows for greater customisation, along with using custom menu orbs much like ClassicShell/OpenShell.
Seven Tasks is a fork of KDE Plasma's Task manager. This fork combines both the regular task manager and the Icons-only task manager into one plasmoid for convenience, and they can be switched out on the fly in the plasmoid configuration. By default, this plasmoid acts as an Icons-only task manager. The plasmoid features the hot-tracking feature of Aero, and a reimplementation of the dominant colour picking algorithm based on the icon. Additionally, right clicking on the taskbar will prop up an option to open the task manager (KSysGuard).
Installing this widget is the same as Seven Start. Move the ```org.kde.plasma.seventasks``` folder located in ```./Plasma Widgets/Task Manager``` to the following directory:
There is another file which needs to be added in order for this plasmoid to work. This is the C++ portion of the plasmoid which is used to calculate the dominant color of the taskbar button's icon. The library is compiled for x86_64 platforms. The source is included for those who need to compile it for different architectures. Move the file located in ```./Plasma Widgets/Task Manager/lib``` to the following directory:
```/usr/lib/qt/plugins/plasma/applets/```
You will need root permissions to do this. When that's done, replace your current task manager with Seven Tasks.
This modified system tray will add hover and press animations to the default system tray plasmoid, as well as remove the annoying popup animation which happens upon clicking on an item.
Since the system tray is a complex plasmoid, its files have to be replaced, instead of it acting as a standalone plasmoid. To do this, copy the ```org.kde.plasma.private.systemtray``` found in the ```Plasma Widgets``` folder to the following directory:
This will override the default System Tray plasmoid. It is not recommended to edit this particular plasmoid, so proceed with caution. Make sure to back up the original plasmoid somewhere safe before trying this. Another thing to keep in mind is that this plasmoid will reset itself every time KDE Plasma is updated, so the plasmoid has to be reinstalled each time.
This plasmoid is a fork of Zren's [Show Desktop (Win7)](https://www.kde-look.org/p/1100895/) plasmoid, which features a glass Show Desktop button instead of a plain colour one. After installing this widget, configure it to these settings:
## NOTE: The old Flip switch effect has been deprecated by Plasma, and has been replaced with a rewritten version using QML. However, that version is slower, buggier, not customisable and features undesirable visual features compared to the older version. As a result, I suggest using KWinFT instead of the regular KWin, which provides this old effect (It is generally also much more stable and performant than regular KWin).
This section will talk about how to make the Task Switcher in KDE look more like Windows 7. It will also recreate the look and behaviour of the "Flip 3D" feature. In ```System Settings -> Window Management -> Task Switcher```, set the following:
This theme pack doesn't support GTK3/4 at all, due to both subjective taste but also because it is very inconvenient, does not integrate well with the rest of the system and it is very tedious to try and support such an unstable environment.
all icon themes that I've found are either 90% blank, empty icons, or they've been replaced with minimalist icons. (Most icon themes are developed for GTK-based desktop environments, few tend to support KDE)
