Share your desktop environment!

sanner · 2025-06-21T01:04:17+00:00

share how you've customized your chosen virtual interface/s into a home... like ricing but we wont be rude to each other. This is my laptop environment. Unl...

magicrabbit

Ross_R https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment

Ross_R

magicrabbit
The reason I took "desktop environment" in quote marks is precisely not because I didn't know what a desktop environment is, but because I wanted to know what OP means by that and why he used that term in the name of the thread. Topped off by the fact that every screenshot in the thread is filled with various windows, there comes my confusion, highlighted by the second question of my post, which is way more important in light of the current discussion and which - I am pretty sure - is not answered anywhere on Wikipedia: can I share my desktop that is running nothing but explorer.exe, or am I supposed to open a bunch of my default programs to qualify for "desktop environment" of this particular thread?

magicrabbit

Ross_R I wanted to know what OP means by that

Desktop Environment is still the common name in UNIX circles as there is more than one Desktop.

Ross_R not answered anywhere on Wikipedia

It is answered. Windows are a part of a Desktop Environment, as a Desktop Environment includes the functionality to display, modify, and close windows.

sanner

Ross_R take the language how you feel. there's really no wrong answers as long as your post is honest! you can take a screenshot of your homescreen, add as many personal tabs or flares as you'd like, or dont.

Ross_R

magicrabbit Desktop Environment is still the common name in UNIX circles as there is more than one Desktop.

In english language, I suppose. I never heard it being used around this place.

magicrabbit It is answered. Windows are a part of a Desktop Environment, as a Desktop Environment includes the functionality to display, modify, and close windows.

I know that. I'm not sure if you do not get my point, or if I just fail to see or convey something essential, but, well, whatever. Let's move on.

Doc

Ross_R
You can include windows of any program you use daily. I know some people include windows of anything the have personalized and fits the theme of what they are going for. You could just do the home screen with no windows open, if it is able to properly show off your tastes or personality. For most people it doesn't so they include other things like music players, photos, terminals, and programming editors.

I've got a very simple and non-riced up desktop environment. I'm not a huge fan of minimalism. I do like simplicity, and I'm simply not good enough to make things more customizable.

Ross_R

Doc sanner
Thing is, I love my desktop, even if it is nothing but my screenshot under the shortcuts.
But if we are going about actual environment here, it is less than fancy. It is always cluttered with open folders, Cheat Engine, hex editor, audio editors, video editors, Photoshop, Krita or whatever else I'm doing today. To the point that it is way more comfortable for me to open my desktop in the folder if I want to launch something from the desktop, rather than collapse all my opened stuff and actually pick a shortcut from the desktop. Therefore I do not see my desktop much.
And - I don't know if it is obvious or not - but those things aren't customized much. The most persistent custom piece of my actual environment is my cursor which I grabbed off a video gaming magazine CD back in 2000 and have been using ever since.
So, to show off my personality, I did this:

But what I actually see most of the time looks like this:

Oh, look, a 4K Video Downloader... I should probably delete the motherfucker. It stopped working properly about a year ago since my government blocked YouTube. Became useless since it didn't support proxy. Plus, constant updates cutting down its functionality weren't anyhow neat either... Yep, away it goes.

And I never ever thought about anyhow customizing any tools or general looks of the folders, even though I'm pretty sure it can be done. I guess, I just feel that stuff that should work should just... work, or something. Much like my working jeans are plain blue, and my go-out jeans are fancy, embroidered, painted and whatever.
Dunno what this says about me or my personality, but there it goes.
Still not sure if I understood the whole idea correctly... for whatever reason. Been a while since my brain met such a weird... thought-block.

Doc

Going to give compliments on everyone's desktop.

Ross_R
That's neat. I am also the type that doesn't see his desktop much, so I keep everything plain too. I don't keep a lot of things open. I usually only have Brave and Hexchat. I keep things in full screen most often too, unless I am actively talking on irc.

sanner
I love the Lain Copland stuff. What's the background from? It's on the tip of my tongue. I remember it starting, or having, B's in it's name.

nushimura
I like the retrobar, and lack of icons on the background.

Rakka
The aero design and raining anime background go well together. It's cool you have a special area for widgets too because it makes the entire screen feel freshly cleaned.

Somnolence

sanner
Very classy. I like the unified theme you have with the terminal and media player. Setting up something like that is way beyond me, I think, but I do respect the hustle.
Ross_R
Now that's a desktop environment. A desktop ecosystem rich in biodiversity, with each specimen contributing in their niche.
I generally try to stay away from too many icons on the desktop because I tend to forget I even have half the shortcuts, but I will not judge any man that has quick access to Wrath of the Malachi. He is operating on a higher level than I am.

My desktop isn't too wild. As I finished emotionally maturing at 12, this machine's rotating backgrounds are always YuGiOh themed.

Ayayaya

I got rid of my last wallpaper because I didn't like how it looked anymore and still haven't picked a new replacement, been on black since. It's kind of a callback to playing cheap desktop games as a kid that would change the wallpaper to have a game background, where some caused pure black afterwards. (also, unlicensed win7 had this too)

Zero design customization because I am lazy and uninspired. I once had the WinXP taskbar like nushimura here but I realised I didn't like it that much as a permanent thing.
and yes, my monitors are mismatched in size and resolution (although it's not as drastic irl), I haven't even had a dual monitor setup for a long time, but when I got given a 2nd monitor and fancy WEGA mount I felt it'd be interesting to try again. I'm still not particularly used to it. left monitor usually just has my chats open and the right monitor everything else.

Ross_R
You're on 7, How's the compatibility with programs? I was already shocked when I figured out I was unable to update paintNET because my Win10 version from 2023 was "too old".
also, video downloader programs are nearly always just frontends for yt-dlp, it's best to just use that directly. It probably also has some way of proxying, but I wouldn't know how.

Baloney Pony
This seems familiar to me... Did you post somewhere else before?

sanner

Doc I love the Lain Copland stuff. What's the background from? It's on the tip of my tongue. I remember it starting, or having, B's in it's name.

its from boogiepop phantom!!

Somnolence Very classy. I like the unified theme you have with the terminal and media player.

thank you >w<

Ayayaya got rid of my last wallpaper because I didn't like how it looked anymore and still haven't picked a new replacement, been on black since.

havent checked if theres a wallpaper sharing thread, but if youre looking for inspiration we should totally create one, given people would get use of it and want to contribute and stuff. i sometimes use minitokyo for anime stuff but its not really updated these days.

Ross_R But what I actually see most of the time looks like this:

yow this is totally different to how i organize my environment, do you have any tips for keeping track of all these tabs? i get confused after 2 or 3.

Rakka

sanner
Baloney Pony
Loving all the Lain in this thread!

sonoko
My setup is super simple to get working visually. It's just openshell, 8gadgetpack for the widgets, and a few custom icons for firefox and librewolf. Firefox is the silver/blue icon and liberewolf is the silver/green one. Icecat just has a banger icon to begin with so no need to change it.
8gadgetpack is just gadgetpack now it seems, here's a link to a tenforums post about it, and a link to the site where you can download it yourself.
https://www.tenforums.com/software-apps/214734-gadgets.html
https://gadgetpack.net/

Doc
Thankyou, I went for a calming aero look and deliberated a lot on the background of the widget bar itself. Originally it was transparent to match the taskbar, but the silver leaves really compliment all the other tones on the screen. The widget on the top right above my calendar is a clipboard viewer, it's super useful and lets me visually see everything in my clipboard and select anything that's been copied as needed.

(This section is not a reply to Doc, just me rambling.) I neglected to mention too, my windows is more custom under the hood even though it only takes light modification to achieve my desktops visual look. I used an .iso editor from majorgeeks to manually rip out as much microsoft telemetry junk and bloatware as I could. Cortana, DEAD, microsoft onedrive, DEAD, microsoft store and xbox live support DEAD. Microsoft telemetry to the best of my ability, DEAD. These "features" are not just 'disabled,' the files in windows itself have been completely removed even before install and the functionality no longer exists on my system to the best of my knowledge. Windows update is disabled through and organization permission too so no random windows updates. My winver is the windows 10 Pro N version of 20H2 which is an EU only version of windows 10 pro that complied with EU data privacy laws at the time and was more debloated by default than other windows versions.

It took a lot of belly aching to get this custom .iso working. There were multiple installs where I removed too much without realizing it that rendered the system nonfunctional. One might remove some telemetry 'feature' thinking it won't negatively effect anything only to find that for some ungodly reason it's tied into the control panel being functional, or causes explorer to crash constantly, or disables networking. It was a mess that I don't even remember the details of now years later. Once I got it working I saved the functional modified .iso to two flash drives and have been chilling since, 5 years hence. The only thing that irks me is that xbox live games that are not on steam do not work, but that's a small price to pay.

So Rakka, so with all that trouble why not just use linux? Ehh, one day, at least for some of my PC use. I'm still attached to games working with minimal effort and honestly I do actually like windows despite how flawed it is, minus all the privacy violating and bloated nonsense that keeps getting shoved into it. Old habits die hard, though I'm 99% sure that windows 10 will be the last version for me that is my primary OS for non-gaming purposes. I will probably keep using an older windows OS indefinitely for file management and running my own personal archives too unless I really work to improve my technical competency. There is something very comfortable about knowing that as long as my hard drives themselves don't fail, my OS will be stable for many years, decades even, and I intimately know how to fix it when something goes wrong. My last computer from 2010 with windows 7 on it still works today.

Ross_R

Somnolence I generally try to stay away from too many icons on the desktop because I tend to forget I even have half the shortcuts

It might be an old habit of mine. I could've cut down several of those shortcuts too, but it feels comfortable seeing them there every once in a while. Like a quick assessment of all the programs I have. So it is mostly the opposite: it helps me to remember all the programs I have.
Albeit, truth be told, when I lost the system about a year ago, I also found out I have a lot of old unused programs on my old system. I do not quite remember how exactly I discovered it... My old system was half-alive, so I was installing new one while looking at the old, but I do not remember if I looked at the old desktop or just at the files. The point is, one way or another old programs manage to kind of wiggle into the system, like some coins into the cracks of your sofa.
It also helps having the most useful shortcuts in the corners of the screen; every now and then they are actually accessible even when several folders and tools are open, so I can quickly kickstart a Photoshop for a rapid edit or something along those lines.

Somnolence As I finished emotionally maturing at 12, this machine's rotating backgrounds are always YuGiOh themed.

I do not have rotating backgrounds, but I have about... 6 systems in total, and I use hot-rods and other cars as wallpapers in every single one of them... save for Windows 10, that doesn't deserve a custom wallpaper.

Ayayaya You're on 7, How's the compatibility with programs?

Well, everything you see on the screenshot works... otherwise it wouldn't be there. I do not race for the latest versions of software - more often than not I prefer versions about as old as my system, meaning that they were made for my system to start with, so compatibility is, like, intended. I turn off automatic updates wherever I can, as a matter of fact. It's not even because of the old system - I disliked automatic updates for years, like many other things that force even more internet in our lives. You never know what they will update, what compatibility issues with plug-ins and other parts of your system the update will rise and what parts of UI will move so you will have to get used to the UI all over again... so I prefer to stay on the versions that work. I feel that updates bring more troubles than benefits.
Of course, every now and then I encounter incompatibilities. Several of them have been resolved by nice program named VxKex. yt-dlp is also one of those things that dropped the Win 7 compatibility, but I found a guy who actually re-compailes all the latest GitHub releases of yt-dlp for Win XP (and, subsequently, for Win 7) - let me know if you need a link. I was also able to launch Asterigos: Curse Of The Stars on Win 7, since someone provided all the necessary Unreal Engine settings files... so all in all, most of the programs work quite fine and/or fixable, and I do not feel myself hindered much.
For extreme cases, I do have Win 10 on a separate HDD. The system is an ass and caused me more troubles than I could imagine. Either way, I only really used it for several games so far, and I prefer to keep the disk with Win 10 disconnected and as far from my PC as possible, like some kind of dark articfact.
It was, as a matter of fact, Windows 10 that caused me to lose my main system last year. Among other things. I can't see myself moving on Win 10, like, ever; they will have to make a much better OS for me to move away from Win 7.

Baloney Pony My personal DWM configuration. Sadly had issues with mpd and mpris. Second monitor is a CRT I use for retro games!

Am I the only one who doesn't see images in the post? Tried both PC and mobile phone - the result is zero.
@Lumeinshin ?

Baloney Pony

Admin note - Original image link: https://files.catbox.moe/xhz74e.png

My personal DWM configuration. Sadly had issues with mpd and mpris. Second monitor is a CRT I use for retro games!

Baloney Pony

Ayayaya
I've posted once or twice on some threads on 4chan and my 3DS looks similar if you've been to that thread. There's been a few people who recreated the UI of Fauux's website though.

Doc

Ross_R Am I the only one who doesn't see images in the post? Tried both PC and mobile phone - the result is zero.

I can see the images. It's a nice pink and black desktop with Lain themed backgrounds.

Ross_R

Doc
Yep, I see'em now too. Both mobile and PC. Lume fixed something. Probably just re-uploaded the images locally. It makes sense - a lot of external images hosts are blocking various IP nowadays, but it is kinda weird still, since I used several proxies on my PC and still got none, and my phone uses my local IP and also got no result. I definitely can access CatBox with local IPs...

Ross_R

sanner yow this is totally different to how i organize my environment, do you have any tips for keeping track of all these tabs? i get confused after 2 or 3.

Oh, it's easy. Step one: lose all social contacts. Make PC your one and only friend. Step two: keep it this way for several years. You will see how your ability to communicate with humans gets naturally replaced with in-deep understanding of the file system, command line, tabs, hotkeys and the rest of the stuff.
It's a joke obviously, but I feel like there's a bit of truth in it: whichever part of my brain prevents me from creating any kind of meaningful social connections definitely helps me navigate through files systems, code and everything else machine-related.
But jokes aside...
You do not really navigate via tabs. Your best friend is taskbar, where most of the tabs can be quickly assessed simply by looking at the icons. The folders are a bit more problematic, but as long as you keep them under an amount that allows them to be displayed in line rather than collapsed in a vertical list, I find it quite comfortable as well. One glance at a taskbar - and I have less or more complete understanding of all the software I am currently actively using.
Plus, Alt+Tab is also rather useful combination when all you have to do is to navigate the top four-five tabs... And, frankly, I can't think of anything else from the top of my head, really. Feels like the rest of it is just a matter of habit.

Space Banana

I use Xfce but lately I've been trying Wayfire+Xfce and Labwc+Xfce to see how Wayland turns out. Well it's not there yet, Wayland has a lot to improve yet and barebones Wayland is nowhere appropriate for daily driving that's why we have wl-roots compositors and KDE and Gnome made their own extensions to the base.

I'm on Alpine but I'll probably move to Artix for glibc (GraalVM's native-image capability requires glibc to run even though it can use musl to create static binaries)

sonoko

Damn, you all make me look like an amateur, I just have plain Windows 10 (god willing) with a wallpaper. Maybe I'll look into openshell and retrobar and play around with it. I love the aero inspired looks!

Ross_R

Rakka It took a lot of belly aching to get this custom .iso working. There were multiple installs where I removed too much without realizing it that rendered the system nonfunctional. One might remove some telemetry 'feature' thinking it won't negatively effect anything only to find that for some ungodly reason it's tied into the control panel being functional, or causes explorer to crash constantly, or disables networking. It was a mess that I don't even remember the details of now years later. Once I got it working I saved the functional modified .iso to two flash drives and have been chilling since, 5 years hence. The only thing that irks me is that xbox live games that are not on steam do not work, but that's a small price to pay.

Well, darn. Share?
Even though I pretty much do not use Win 10, such hard work gotta be shared and preserved, IMO.

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