AeroThemePlasma features an early experimental install script which currently serves to ease parts of the installation. It's a work in progress and marked as experimental, so things may or may not work properly. **The install script is provided as-is, and there's a nonzero chance that it might unintentionally break your system, delete your files, and/or cause a housefire. You have been warned.**
Currently, the install script just copies all the files to their intended directories, deleting any previous version of those files that might have been on the system beforehand. It also compiles the Reflection effect and installs it properly. The user still has to set up their desktop layout and other settings, as described in this document.
Features that should be implemented into the script:
- Automatically setting up the layout and settings for the user.
- Support for Debian-based distributions.
- Font installation that migrates fonts from an existing Windows installation.
- The script should probably install the dependencies for you(?)
Starting off with the simplest modifications, this is a list of recommended settings which are configurable in the system settings, to make Plasma behave more like Windows 7:
The icon theme is ```windowsicon```, while ```aero-cursors``` is the cursor theme. Extract the tar archives and move the folders in the following directory:
It is also strongly recommended to install the [Oxygen](https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/oxygen-icons5) icon theme if it's not already installed on your system, as this project's icon theme optionally depends on it.
Installing Kvantum requires installing the package ```kvantum``` which is available in the community repository for Arch, and is available on most other Linux distributions as well.
Installing the Kvantum theme is simply done through Kvantum's settings. Afterwards, Kvantum can be set as the visual style in ```System Settings -> Appearance -> Application Style```.
Through a utility program like ```gtk-chtheme```, set the GTK2 theme to Win2-7. When configuring GTK2, make sure to set the font to the same font as configured in the system settings (for this theme, the default is Segoe UI, size 9).
To install the color scheme, go to ```System Settings -> Appearance -> Colors``` and click "Install from file". Locate the following file and select it:
For the sake of keeping this theme pack relatively compact, and to avoid potential licensing issues, this repository won't include Windows fonts, but acquiring them from an already present Windows installation is easy.
On Windows, fonts are stored in the following directory:
If you have an existing Windows installation, you can simply copy the fonts over to the following directory (note that this will install the fonts across the entire system):
Note: Font rendering on Linux is [largely broken now](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/pango/-/issues/656) [and has been](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/pango/-/issues/463) [for](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/pango/-/issues/404) [several](https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz/issues/2394) [years](https://www.phoronix.com/news/HarfBuzz-Hinting-Woe). As a result, **pretty much all** font hinting options are broken except for **slight** font hinting and HiDPI rendering (because at that point, subpixel rendering isn't even needed). This regression has taken away the aggressive font hinting which made rendering nearly identical to ClearType on Windows 7. Currently, full font hinting _should technically work again_, but certain glyphs aren't horizontally aligned correctly, which still makes text unreadable. Until this issue is resolved, the only viable choice is to use slight font hinting.
The window decoration requires an Emerald theme to be present as well. To install the theme, move the following directory (If it doesn't appear, enable viewing hidden files):
Smaragd reads the theme from the ```theme``` subfolder and ```settings.ini``` config file. If you want to use the Vista-sized caption buttons, rename the ```themevista``` subfolder and ```settingsvista.ini``` into the aforementioned names.
The last two dependencies are provided in this repository as prebuilt Arch packages. The package `kdebase-runtime` doesn't exist anymore for Arch, not even the AUR, so the only place to find it outside of this repository is through [this](https://archive.org/details/archlinux_pkg_kdebase-runtime) link. The package `kdelibs` can be installed through the AUR, however it isn't recommended as compiling the package takes very long, and as of right now, building the package seems to fail. Distributions like Debian might be better in terms of offering legacy packages.
After it has been compiled, you can log out or restart plasma and kwin, then go to ```System settings -> Workspace Behavior -> Desktop Effects``` and enable the effect.
Seven Start has a feature that allows the orb button to stick out of the panel, which requires a natively compiled component. Before installing Seven Start normally, move the following file:
This library is used to create [this effect](https://superuser.com/questions/730804/how-does-windows-7-calculate-the-color-to-use-for-taskbar-color-hot-tracking) from Windows 7.
This plasmoid doesn't require additional configuration after installation if other steps have been completed. If for some reason the font and size do not look appropriate, set them to the following:
To make the desktop look more like Windows 7 by default, right click on the desktop and click "Configure Desktop and Wallpaper...", change the following settings:
- Icons:
- Icon size: 2
- Label width: Narrow
- Features: All checked except for "Folder preview popups"
This is a QML component that defines the appearance of Plasma tooltips. Since this is a system-wide component, this file will be replaced with the upstream version whenever KDE is updated through the package manager of your system, meaning this installation step should be performed after every system upgrade.
To apply the splash and lock screen, go to ```System Settings -> Appearance -> Global Theme```, click 'Choose what to apply...' and uncheck everything but 'Lock Screen' and 'Splash Screen', and then hit Apply.
To install the msstyle for Wine applications, run ```winecfg```, and under the 'Desktop Integration' tab, click 'Install theme' and choose the following file:
The project [Aero UserChrome](https://gitgud.io/souris/aero-userchrome) by [Souris-2d07](https://gitgud.io/souris) is recommended for use with AeroThemePlasma.